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SAT Subject Test: hysics

Subjects : sat, science, physics
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A measure of force per unit area. Pressure is measured in N/m2 or Pa.






2. The effect of force on rotational motion.






3. The experience of being in free fall. If you are in a satellite - elevator - or other free-falling object - then you have a weight of zero Newtons relative to that object.






4. In a right triangle - the sine of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.






5. The distance between successive wave crests - or troughs. Wavelength is measured in meters and is related to frequency and wave speed by = v/f.






6. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.






7. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave trough for sound waves. The spacing between successive rarefactions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of rarefaction that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -






8. A device made of two coils - which converts current of one voltage into current of another voltage. In a step-up transformer - the primary coil has fewer turns than the secondary - thus increasing the voltage. In a step-down transformer - the seconda






9. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.






10. The study of the properties of visible light - i.e. - the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths between 360 and 780 nm (1 nm = m/s).






11. A vector quantity - equal to the rate of change of the angular velocity vector with time. It is typically given in units of rad/s2.






12. The energy of a particle rotating around an axis.






13. A collision in which the colliding particles stick together.






14. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the displacement vector with time. It is to be contrasted with speed - which is a scalar quantity for which no direction is specified.






15. The amount heat necessary to cause a substance to undergo a phase transition.






16. Essentially a restatement of energy conservation - it states that the change in the internal energy of a system is equal to the heat added plus the work done on the system.






17. The state of a nonrotating object upon whom the net torque acting is zero.






18. The building blocks of all matter - quarks are the constituent parts of protons - neutrons - and mesons.






19. The amount of error that's possible in a given measurement.






20. The distance between the focal point and the vertex of a mirror or lens. For concave mirrors and convex lenses - this number is positive. For convex mirrors and concave lenses - this number is negative.






21. Linear momentum - p - commonly called "momentum" for short - is a vector quantity defined as the product of an object's mass - m - and its velocity - v.






22. A constant - - not to be confused with wavelength - that defines the speed at which a radioactive element undergoes decay. The greater is - the faster the element decays.






23. Light such that all of the associated waves have the same wavelength and are in phase.






24. Two quantities are directly proportional if an increase in one results in a proportional increase in the other - and a decrease in one results in a proportional decrease in the other. In a formula defining a certain quantity - those quantities to whi






25. Represented by R = 8.31 J/mol · K - the universal gas constant fits into the ideal gas law so as to relate temperature to the average kinetic energy of gas molecules.






26. The property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.






27. The building blocks of all matter - atoms are made up of a nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons - and a number of electrons that orbit the nucleus. An electrically neutral atom has as many protons as it has electrons.






28. A mirror that is curved such that its center is closer to the viewer than the edges - such as a doorknob. Convex mirrors reflect light away from a focal point.






29. A system that no external net force acts upon. Objects within the system may exert forces upon one another - but they cannot receive any impulse from outside forces. Momentum is conserved in isolated systems.






30. The property by which a changing current in one coil of wire induces an emf in another.






31. The amount of heat of a material required to raise the temperature of either one kilogram or one gram of that material by one degree Celsius. Different units may be used depending on whether specific heat is measured in s of grams or kilograms - and






32. A nuclear reaction in which a high-energy neutron bombards a heavy - unstable atomic nucleus - causing it to split into two smaller nuclei - and releasing some neutrons and a vast amount of energy at the same time






33. If the net torque acting on a rigid body is zero - then the angular momentum of the body is constant or conserved.






34. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.






35. A nuclear reaction that takes place only at very high temperatures. Two light atoms - often hydrogen - fuse together to form a larger single atom - releasing a vast amount of energy in the process.






36. The ratio of the size of the image produced by a mirror or lens to the size of the original object. This number is negative if the image is upside-down.






37. An almost massless particle of neutral charge that is released along with a beta particle in beta decay.






38. The number - N - of neutrons in an atomic nucleus.






39. A constant - J · s - which is useful in quantum physics. A second constant associated with Planck's constant is .

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40. A unit of measurement for energy on atomic levels. 1 eV = J.






41. If a line is drawn from the sun to the planet - then the area swept out by this line in a given time interval is constant.

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42. The square of the amplitude of a sound wave is called the sound's loudness - or volume.






43. The application of kinematics to understand why objects move the way they do. More precisely - dynamics is the study of how forces cause motion.






44. A transfer of thermal energy from one system to another.






45. The coefficient of static friction - for two materials is the constant of proportionality between the normal force and the maximum force of static friction. It is always a number between zero and one.






46. There are a few versions of this law. One is that heat flows spontaneously from hot to cold - but not in the reverse direction. Another is that there is no such thing as a 100% efficient heat engine. A third states that the entropy - or disorder - of






47. A device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy by rotating a coil in a magnetic field; sometimes called a "dynamo."






48. An object that moves about a stable equilibrium point and experiences a restoring force that is directly proportional to the oscillator's displacement.






49. A wavelength - given by = h/mv - which is associated with matter. Louis de Broglie proposed the idea that matter could be treated as waves in 1923 and applied this theory successfully to small particles like electrons.






50. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the most light.