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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 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.






2. 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






3. The points on a standing wave where total destructive interference causes the medium to remain fixed at its equilibrium position.






4. A measurement of a body's inertia - or resistance to being accelerated.






5. The temperature at which a material will change phase from solid to liquid or liquid to solid.






6. Relates the angle of incidence to the angle of refraction: .

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7. A frequency - f - defined as the number of revolutions a rigid body makes in a given time interval. It is a scalar quantity commonly denoted in units of Hertz (Hz) or s-1.






8. A wave with wave crests that propagate down the length of the medium - in contrast to stationary standing waves. The velocity at which a crest propagates is called the wave speed.






9. 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






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






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

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






13. When two waves of slightly different frequencies interfere with one another - they produce a "beating" interference pattern that alternates between constructive (in-phase) and destructive (out-of-phase). In the case of sound waves - this sort of inte






14. Two materials are in thermal equilibrium if they are at the same temperature.






15. 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






16. The ray of light that is refracted through a surface into a different medium.






17. A unit for measuring angles; also called a "rad." 2p rad = 360º.






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






19. Body diagram- Illustrates the forces acting on an object - drawn as vectors originating from the center of the object.






20. The motion of a body in a circular path with constant speed.






21. 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.






22. 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.






23. With spherical mirrors - the center of the sphere of which the mirror is a part. All of the normals pass through it.






24. 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






25. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






26. The phenomenon of light bouncing off a surface - such as a mirror.






27. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






28. A law - || = - which states that the induced emf is the change in magnetic flux in a certain time.

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






30. 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.






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






32. 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.






33. The units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."






34. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






35. 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.






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






37. 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






38. A vector quantity - - that reflects the change of angular displacement with time - and is typically given in units of rad/s. To find the direction of the angular velocity vector - take your right hand and curl your fingers along the particle or body






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






40. Energy associated with the state of motion. The translational kinetic energy of an object is given by the equation .






41. The disorder of a system.






42. 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.






43. 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.






44. A force caused by the roughness of two materials in contact - deformations in the materials - and a molecular attraction between the materials. Frictional forces are always parallel to the plane of contact between two surfaces and opposite the direct






45. 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.






46. 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.






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






48. The joule (J) is the unit of work and energy. A joule is 1 N · m or 1 kg · m2/s2.






49. The time it takes a system to pass through one cycle of its repetitive motion. The period - T - is the inverse of the motion's frequency - f = 1/T.






50. A scalar quantity. If an object is moved from point A to point B in space along path AB - the distance that the object has traveled is the length of the path AB. Distance is to be contrasted with displacement - which is simply a measure of the distan