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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 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






2. 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.






3. An electromagnetic wave of very high frequency.






4. 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






5. A logorithmic unit for measuring the volume of sound - which is the square of the amplitude of sound waves.






6. 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.






7. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






8. A wedge or a slide. The dynamics of objects sliding down inclined planes is a popular topic on SAT II Physics.






9. The mass difference between a nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent protons and neutrons.






10. 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.






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






12. 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.






13. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






14. 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






15. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






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






17. The energy of a particle rotating around an axis.






18. A unit vector is a vector with length 1.






19. 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






20. 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






21. 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.






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






23. The force that causes simple harmonic motion. The restoring force is always directed toward an object's equilibrium position.






24. Kinematics is the study and description of the motion of objects.






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






26. 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.






27. 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.






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






29. A vector quantity - commonly denoted by the vector s - which reflects an object's change in spatial position. The displacement vector points from the object's starting position to the object's current position in space. If an object is moved from poi






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






31. A form of radioactive decay where a heavy element ejects a beta particle and a neutrino - becoming a lighter element in the process.






32. 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).






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






34. 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.






35. The unit of magnetic flux - equal to one T · m2.






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






37. 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.






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






39. 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.






40. 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.






41. 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.






42. 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






43. 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.






44. A body or set of bodies that we choose to analyze as a group.






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






47. In the Bohr model of the atom - the state in which an electron has the least energy and orbits closest to the nucleus.






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






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






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