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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. F = ma. The net force - F - acting on an object causes the object to accelerate - a. The magnitude of the acceleration is directly proportional to the net force on the object and inversely proportional to the mass - m - of the object.

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2. 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






3. 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






4. 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.






5. The amount of heat necessary to transform a solid at a given temperature into a liquid of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be removed from a liquid of a given temperature to transform it into a solid of the same temperature.






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






7. The principle stating that for any isolated system - linear momentum is constant with time.






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






9. The longest side of a right triangle - opposite to the right angle.






10. The center of a mirror or lens.






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






12. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






13. 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.






14. 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.






15. 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






16. The path of each planet around the sun is an ellipse with the sun at one focus.

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17. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the least light.






18. 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.






19. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






20. 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.






21. A coefficient that tells how much the volume of a solid will change when it is heated or cooled.






22. 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.






23. A rigid body's resistance to being rotated. The moment of inertia for a single particle is MR2 - where M is the mass of the rigid body and R is the distance to the rotation axis. For rigid bodies - calculating the moment of inertia is more complicate






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






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






26. For an oscillating spring - the restoring force exerted by the spring is directly proportional to the displacement. That is - the more the spring is displaced - the stronger the force that will pull toward the equilibrium position. This law is expres

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






28. The effect of force on rotational motion.






29. The line that every particle in the rotating rigid body circles about.






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






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






32. 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.






33. A small particle-like bundle of electromagnetic radiation.






34. Waves carried by variations in air pressure. The speed of sound waves in air at room temperature and pressure is roughly 343 m/s.






35. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.






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






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






38. A pendulum consists of a bob connected to a rod or rope. At small angles - a pendulum's motion approximates simple harmonic motion as it swings back and forth without friction.






39. A scalar quantity that tells us how fast an object is moving. It measures the rate of change in distance over time. Speed is to be contrasted with velocity in that there is no direction associated with speed.






40. 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.






41. Any vector can be expressed as the sum of two mutually perpendicular component vectors. Usually - but not always - these components are multiples of the basis vectors - and ; that is - vectors along the x-axis and y-axis. We define these two vectors






42. When a light ray strikes a surface - the angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the normal.






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






44. 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.






45. The number of digits that have been accurately measured. When combining several measurements in a formula - the resulting calculation can only have as many significant digits as the measurement that has the smallest number of significant digits.






46. The ray of light that is reflected from a mirror or other reflecting surface.






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






48. A vector quantity - L - that is the rotational analogue of linear momentum. For a single particle - the angular momentum is the cross product of the particle's displacement from the axis of rotation and the particle's linear momentum - . For a rigid






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






50. A transfer of thermal energy. We don't speak about systems "having" heat - but about their "transferring" heat - much in the way that dynamical systems don't "have" work - but rather "do" work.