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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 coefficient that tells how much a material will expand or contract lengthwise when it is heated or cooled.






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






3. The force between two surfaces moving relative to one another. The frictional force is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and in the opposite direction of the sliding object's motion.






4. 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.






5. A quantity that possesses a magnitude but not a direction. Mass and length are common examples.






6. 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.






7. A unit of force: 1 N is equivalent to a 1 kg · m/s2.






8. 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.






9. The force between two surfaces that are not moving relative to one another. The force of static friction is parallel to the plane of contact between the two objects and resists the force pushing or pulling on the object.






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. A scale for measuring temperature - defined such that water freezes at 0ºC and boils at 100ºC. 0ºC = 273 K.






12. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.






13. The number of cycles executed by a system in one second. Frequency is the inverse of period - f = 1/T. Frequency is measured in hertz - Hz.






14. The application of kinematics to understand why objects move the way they do. More precisely - dynamics is the study of how forces cause motion.






15. 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.






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






17. 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.






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






19. The state of a nonrotating object upon whom the net torque acting is zero.






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






21. 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.






22. The two shorter sides of a right triangle that meet at the right angle.






23. A nuclear reaction that takes place only at very high temperatures. Two light atoms - often hydrogen - fuse together to form a larger single atom - releasing a vast amount of energy in the process.






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






25. The separation of different color light via refraction.






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






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






28. A sheet - film - or screen with a pattern of equally spaced slits. Typically the width of the slits and space between them is chosen to generate a particular diffraction pattern.






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






30. 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






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






32. The force of gravity - F - between two particles of mass and - separated by a distance r - has a magnitude of - where G is the gravitational constant. The force is directed along the line joining the two particles.

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






34. 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






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






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






37. 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






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






39. The bending of light at the corners of objects or as it passes through narrow slits or apertures.






40. 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.






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. Indicates how "bouncy" or "stiff" a spring is. More specifically - the spring constant - k - is the constant of proportionality between the restoring force exerted by the spring - and the spring's displacement from equilibrium. The greater the value






43. 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






44. When an object is held in circular motion about a massive body - like a planet or a sun - due to the force of gravity - that object is said to be in orbit. Objects in orbit are in perpetual free fall - and so are therefore weightless.






45. If a line is drawn from the sun to the planet - then the area swept out by this line in a given time interval is constant.

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






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






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

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49. For two given media - the smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs.






50. The current induced in a circuit by a change in magnetic flux.