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Test your basic knowledge |
SAT Subject Test: hysics
Start Test
Study First
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. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.
Mass defect
Coherent light
Wave
Neutron
2. A small particle-like bundle of electromagnetic radiation.
Photon
Angular position
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
Kinematic equations
3. 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.
Crest
Planck's constant
Latent heat of transformation
Gravitational constant
4. The number of hydrogen atoms in one gram of hydrogen - equal to . When counting the number of molecules in a gas - it is often convenient to count them in moles.
Dynamics
Kinetic energy
Conduction
Mole
5. The temperature at which a material will change phase from solid to liquid or liquid to solid.
Inversely proportional
Angular position
Potential energy
Melting point
6. The center of a mirror or lens.
Focal point
Centripetal force
Vertex
Translational kinetic energy
7. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.
Static friction
Focal point
Sublimation
Latent heat of transformation
8. 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.
Work-energy theorem
Focal length
Pascals
Directly proportional
9. The points of maximum negative displacement along a wave. They are the opposite of wave crests.
Gravitational constant
Trough
Right-hand rule
Law of reflection
10. 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.
Joule
Index of refraction
Entropy
Nuclear fission
11. A coefficient that tells how much a material will expand or contract lengthwise when it is heated or cooled.
Transverse waves
Coefficient of linear expansion
Joule
Newton
12. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.
Legs
Rotational motion
Induced current
Concave lens
13. 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
Potential energy
Hertz (Hz)
Scalar
Angular momentum
14. 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.
15. 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
Dot product
Neutron
Normal force
Reflect
16. A constant in the numerator of a formula.
Energy
Constant of proportionality
Fundamental
Lenz's Law
17. The force that causes simple harmonic motion. The restoring force is always directed toward an object's equilibrium position.
Reflect
Pascals
Restoring force
Mutual Induction
18. 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
Moment of inertia
Neutron
Center of curvature
Joule
19. With spherical mirrors - the radius of the sphere of which the mirror is a part.
Speed
Radius of curvature
Transformer
Compression
20. An object that retains its overall shape - meaning that the particles that make up the rigid body stay in the same position relative to one another.
Real image
Kinematic equations
Rigid body
Speed
21. A back-and-forth movement about an equilibrium position. Springs - pendulums - and other oscillators experience harmonic motion.
Oscillation
Kepler's Third Law
Normal force
Radian
22. The joule (J) is the unit of work and energy. A joule is 1 N · m or 1 kg · m2/s2.
Joule
Decibel
Sine
Radioactivity
23. A wave on a string that is tied to a pole at one end will reflect back toward its source - producing a wave that is the mirror-image of the original and which travels in the opposite direction.
Inertial reference frame
Energy
Reflect
Inertia
24. The units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."
Tangent
Isolated system
Virtual image
Hertz (Hz)
25. The ray of light that is reflected from a mirror or other reflecting surface.
Conduction
Reflected ray
Thermal energy
Centripetal acceleration
26. The energy associated with the configuration of bodies attracted to each other by the gravitational force. It is a measure of the amount of work necessary to get the two bodies from a chosen point of reference to their present position. This point of
Cosine
Gravitational Potential Energy
Boyle's Law
Center of curvature
27. The force involved in beta decay that changes a proton to a neutron and releases an electron and a neutrino.
Gamma decay
Total internal reflection
Magnetic flux
Weak nuclear force
28. 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.
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Rotational kinetic energy
Angle of reflection
Sine
29. The amount of heat necessary to transform a liquid at a given temperature into a gas of the same temperature - or the amount of heat needed to be taken away from a gas of a given temperature to transform it into a liquid of the same temperature.
Melting point
Phase
Latent heat of vaporization
Mass
30. 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
Transformer
Phase
Maxima
Melting point
31. The motion of a body in a circular path with constant speed.
Uniform circular motion
Weight
Mass
Coefficient of kinetic friction
32. A vector quantity defined as the product of the force acting on a body multiplied by the time interval over which the force is exerted.
Electromagnetic wave
Reflect
Impulse
Radius of curvature
33. 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
Unit vector
Direction
Period
Constant of proportionality
34. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element ejects a beta particle and a neutrino - becoming a lighter element in the process.
Mole
Work function
Inclined plane
Beta decay
35. 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.
Electronvolt
Rotational motion
Sound
Magnitude
36. The unit for measuring pressure. One Pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared - 1 Pa = 1 N/m2.
Vector
Spring
Pascals
Kelvin
37. A measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules in a system. Temperature is related to heat by the specific heat of a given substance.
Temperature
Trough
Atom
Potential energy
38. The number - N - of neutrons in an atomic nucleus.
Michelson-Morley experiment
Neutron number
Distance
Electronvolt
39. A constant - J · s - which is useful in quantum physics. A second constant associated with Planck's constant is .
40. For a gas held at a constant temperature - pressure and volume are inversely proportional.
41. Waves in which the medium moves in the direction perpendicular to the propagation of the wave. Waves on a stretched string - water waves - and electromagnetic waves are all examples of transverse waves.
Scalar
Transverse waves
Melting point
Static friction
42. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave crest for sound waves. The spacing between successive compressions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of compression that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -
Compression
Reflection
Tail
Instantaneous velocity
43. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.
Mass
Rigid body
Meson
Impulse
44. Two materials are in thermal equilibrium if they are at the same temperature.
Thermal equilibrium
Work
Impulse
Vertex
45. 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.
Rotational kinetic energy
Static friction
Mass number
Heat
46. The angle between a reflected ray and the normal.
Angle of reflection
Phase change
Electromagnetic wave
Specific heat
47. The process by which unstable nuclei spontaneously release particles and/or energy so as to come to a more stable arrangement. The most common forms of radioactive decay are alpha decay - beta decay - and gamma decay.
Radioactive decay
Joule
Scalar
Latent heat of sublimation
48. 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.
Tension force
Rotational motion
Node
Law of reflection
49. Two oscillators that have the same frequency and amplitude - but reach their maximum displacements at different times - are said to have different phases. Similarly - two waves are in phase if their crests and troughs line up exactly - and they are o
Alpha particle
Phase
Pascals
Reflection
50. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.
Optics
Coefficient of kinetic friction
Gamma ray
Velocity