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






2. 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






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






4. The emf created by the motion of a charge through a magnetic field.






5. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






6. The phenomenon by which light traveling from a high n to a low n material will reflect from the optical interface if the incident angle is greater than the critical angle.






7. 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.






8. The cosine of an angle in a right triangle is equal to the length of the side adjacent to the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.






9. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does not actually come from where the image appears to be.






10. The building blocks of all matter - atoms are made up of a nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons - and a number of electrons that orbit the nucleus. An electrically neutral atom has as many protons as it has electrons.






11. The property by which a changing current in one coil of wire induces an emf in another.






12. States that the net work done on an object is equal to the object's change in kinetic energy.






13. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






14. The amplification of one wave by another - identical wave of the same sign. Two constructively interfering waves are said to be "in phase."






15. The five equations used to solve problems in kinematics in one dimension with uniform acceleration.






16. An object at rest remains at rest - unless acted upon by a net force. An object in motion remains in motion - unless acted upon by a net force.


17. 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.






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






19. The series of standing waves supported by a string with both ends tied down. The first member of the series - called the fundamental - has two nodes at the ends and one anti-node in the middle. The higher harmonics are generated by placing an integra






20. 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.






21. 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






22. A system with many parts in periodic - or repetitive - motion. The oscillations in one part cause vibrations in nearby parts.






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






24. The standing wave with the lowest frequency that is supported by a string with both ends tied down is called the fundamental - or resonance - of the string. The wavelength of the fundamental is twice the length of the string - .






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






26. 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.






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






28. The time - T - required for a rigid body to complete one revolution.






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






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






31. The amount of error that's possible in a given measurement.






32. 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.






33. 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






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






35. The dot product of the area and the magnetic field passing through it. Graphically - it is a measure of the number and length of magnetic field lines passing through that area. It is measured in Webers (Wb).






36. 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.






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






38. 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






39. For a gas held at constant pressure - temperature and volume are directly proportional.


40. 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.






41. In radioactive substances - the number of nuclei that decay per second. Activity - A - will be larger in large samples of radioactive material - since there will be more nuclei.






42. A model for the atom developed in 1913 by Niels Bohr. According to this model - the electrons orbiting a nucleus can only orbit at certain particular radii. Excited electrons may jump to a more distant radii and then return to their ground state - em






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






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






45. The amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. 1 cal = 4.19 J.






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






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






48. The energy of the molecules that make up an object. It is related to heat - which is the amount of energy transferred from one object to another object that is a different temperature.






49. In oscillation - a cycle occurs when an object undergoing oscillatory motion completes a "round-trip." For instance - a pendulum bob released at angle has completed one cycle when it swings to and then back to again. In period motion - a cycle is the






50. The points of maximum negative displacement along a wave. They are the opposite of wave crests.