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






2. 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






3. In the graphical representation of vectors - the tail of the arrow is the blunt end (the end without a point).






4. When dealing with reflection or refraction - the incident ray is the ray of light before it strikes the reflecting or refracting surface.






5. 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.






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






7. The mass number - A - is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. It is very close to the weight of that nucleus in atomic mass units.






8. For a heat engine - the ratio of work done by the engine to heat intake. Efficiency is never 100%.






9. 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.






10. A device that breaks incoming light down into spectral rays - so that one can see the exact wavelength constituents of the light.






11. A measure of force per unit area. Pressure is measured in N/m2 or Pa.






12. Given the period - T - and semimajor axis - a - of a planet's orbit - the ratio is the same for every planet.

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13. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






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. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.






16. The spectrum containing all the different kinds of electromagnetic waves - ranging in wavelength and frequency.






17. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






18. A form of vector multiplication - where two vectors are multiplied to produce a scalar. The dot product of two vectors - A and B - is expressed by the equation A · B = AB cos .






19. 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.






20. Indicates how "bouncy" or "stiff" a spring is. More specifically - the spring constant - k - is the constant of proportionality between the restoring force exerted by the spring - and the spring's displacement from equilibrium. The greater the value






21. A coefficient that tells how much a material will expand or contract lengthwise when it is heated or cooled.






22. A unit of force: 1 N is equivalent to a 1 kg · m/s2.






23. The center of an atom - where the protons and neutrons reside. Electrons then orbit this nucleus.






24. 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.






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






26. 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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27. A vector of magnitude 1 along one of the coordinate axes. Generally - we take the basis vectors to be and - the vectors of length 1 along the x- and y-axes - respectively.






28. A property of a metal - the minimum frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is necessary to release photoelectrons from that metal.






29. For a reflected light ray - . In other words - a ray of light reflects of a surface in the same plane as the incident ray and the normal - and at an angle to the normal that is equal to the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






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






31. A particle - which consists of two protons and two neutrons. It is identical to the nucleus of a helium atom and is ejected by heavy particles undergoing alpha decay.






32. The principle by which the displacements from different waves traveling in the same medium add up. Superposition is the basis for interference.






33. 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.






34. If two systems - A and B - are in thermal equilibrium and if B and C are also in thermal equilibrium - then systems A and C are necessarily in thermal equilibrium.






35. A back-and-forth movement about an equilibrium position. Springs - pendulums - and other oscillators experience harmonic motion.






36. A conserved scalar quantity associated with the state or condition of an object or system of objects. We can roughly define energy as the capacity for an object or system to do work. There are many different types of energy - such as kinetic energy -






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






38. 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.






39. The movement of a rigid body's center of mass in space.






40. The cancellation of one wave by another wave that is exactly out of phase with the first. Despite the dramatic name of this phenomenon - nothing is "destroyed" by this interference—the two waves emerge intact once they have passed each other.






41. A negatively charged particle that orbits the nucleus of the atom.






42. A vector quantity - or vector - is an object possessing - and fully described by - a magnitude and a direction. Graphically a vector is depicted as an arrow with its magnitude given by the length of the arrow and its direction given by where the arro






43. The sum of a system's potential and kinetic energy. In many systems - including projectiles - pulleys - pendulums - and motion on frictionless surfaces - mechanical energy is conserved. One important type of problem in which mechanical energy is not






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






45. A pulley is a simple machine that consists of a rope that slides around a disk or block.






46. A reference frame in which Newton's First Law is true. Two inertial reference frames move at a constant velocity relative to one another. According to the first postulate of Einstein's theory of special relativity - the laws of physics are the same i






47. When an object is held in circular motion about a massive body - like a planet or a sun - due to the force of gravity - that object is said to be in orbit. Objects in orbit are in perpetual free fall - and so are therefore weightless.






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






49. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.






50. Another word for the frequency of a sound wave.