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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 principle derived by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 that tells us that we can never know both the position and the momentum of a particle at any given time.






2. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






3. For a gas held at a constant temperature - pressure and volume are inversely proportional.

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4. The points midway between nodes on a standing wave - where the oscillations are largest.






5. The index of refraction n = c/v of a substance characterizes the speed of light in that substance - v. It also characterizes - by way of Snell's Law - the angle at which light refracts in that substance.






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






7. The force of gravity - F - between two particles of mass and - separated by a distance r - has a magnitude of - where G is the gravitational constant. The force is directed along the line joining the two particles.

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8. The energy of a particle moving in space. It is defined in s of a particle's mass - m - and velocity - v - as (1/2)mv2.






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






10. The bending of light as it passes from one medium to another. Light refracts toward the normal when going from a less dense medium into a denser medium and away from the normal when going from a denser medium into a less dense medium.






11. A transverse traveling wave created by the oscillations of an electric field and a magnetic field. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light - m/s. Examples include microwaves - X rays - and visible light.






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






13. The reaction force of the ground - a table - etc. - when an object is placed upon it. The normal force is a direct consequence of Newton's Third Law: when an object is placed on the ground - the ground pushes back with the same force that it is pushe






14. Done when energy is transferred by a force. The work done by a force F in displacing an object by s is W = F · s.






15. The separation of different color light via refraction.






16. The force involved in beta decay that changes a proton to a neutron and releases an electron and a neutrino.






17. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.






18. With spherical mirrors - the radius of the sphere of which the mirror is a part.






19. 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.






20. The force transmitted along a rope or cable.






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






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






23. The amount of energy that metal must absorb before it can release a photoelectron from the metal.






24. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.






25. The substance that is displaced as a wave propagates through it. Air is the medium for sound waves - the string is the medium of transverse waves on a string - and water is the medium for ocean waves. Note that even if the waves in a given medium tra






26. Energy cannot be made or destroyed; energy can only be changed from one place to another or from one form to another.






27. A machine that operates by taking heat from a hot place - doing some work with that heat - and then exhausting the rest of the heat into a cool place. The internal combustion engine of a car is an example of a heat engine.






28. Waves that oscillate in the same direction as the propagation of the wave. Sound is carried by longitudinal waves - since the air molecules move back and forth in the same direction the sound travels.






29. A positively charged particle that - along with the neutron - occupies the nucleus of the atom.






30. The model of the atom according to which negatively charged electrons orbit a positively charged nucleus. This model was developed by Ernest Rutherford in light of the results from his gold foil experiment.






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






32. 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.






33. A property common to both vectors and scalars. In the graphical representation of a vector - the vector's magnitude is equal to the length of the arrow.






34. A form of radioactivity where an excited atom releases a photon of gamma radiation - thereby returning to a lower energy state. The atomic structure itself does not change in the course of gamma radiation.






35. The property of a vector that distinguishes it from a scalar: while scalars have only a magnitude - vectors have both a magnitude and a direction. When graphing vectors in the xy-coordinate space - direction is usually given by the angle measured cou






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






37. A process that aligns a wave of light to oscillate in one dimension rather than two.






38. The constant of proportionality in Newton's Law of Gravitation. It reflects the proportion of the gravitational force and - the product of two particles' masses divided by the square of the bodies' separation. N · m2/kg2.






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






40. The process by which a gas turns directly into a solid because it cannot exist as a liquid at certain pressures.






41. A number - Z - associated with the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Every element can be defined in s of its atomic number - since every atom of a given element has the same number of protons.






42. 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.






43. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






44. An equation - PV = nRT - that relates the pressure - volume - temperature - and quantity of an ideal gas. An ideal gas is one that obeys the approximations laid out in the kinetic theory of gases.






45. Life- The amount of time it takes for one-half of a radioactive sample to decay.






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






47. The current induced in a circuit by a change in magnetic flux.






48. The tendency of an object to remain at a constant velocity - or its resistance to being accelerated. Newton's First Law is alternatively called the Law of Inertia because it describes this tendency.






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






50. An object is called radioactive if it undergoes radioactive decay.