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






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






3. A particle - identical to an electron. Beta particles are ejected from an atom in the process of beta decay.






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






5. 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.






6. A pendulum consists of a bob connected to a rod or rope. At small angles - a pendulum's motion approximates simple harmonic motion as it swings back and forth without friction.






7. The experience of being in free fall. If you are in a satellite - elevator - or other free-falling object - then you have a weight of zero Newtons relative to that object.






8. A reference frame in which Newton's First Law is true. Two inertial reference frames move at a constant velocity relative to one another. According to the first postulate of Einstein's theory of special relativity - the laws of physics are the same i






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






10. 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.






11. The speed at which a wave crest or trough propagates. Note that this is not the speed at which the actual medium (like the stretched string or the air particles) moves.






12. The acceleration of a body experiencing uniform circular motion. This acceleration is always directed toward the center of the circle.






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






14. A small particle-like bundle of electromagnetic radiation.






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






16. 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






17. A form of vector multiplication - where two vectors are multiplied to produce a third vector. The cross product of two vectors - A and B - separated by an angle - - is - where is a unit vector perpendicular to both A and B. To deine which direction






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






19. The particles and energy released by the fission or fusion of one atom may trigger the fission or fusion of further atoms. In a chain reaction - fission or fusion is rapidly transferred to a large number of atoms - releasing tremendous amounts of ene






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






21. The property by which a charge moving in a magnetic field creates an electric field.






22. The line perpendicular to a surface. There is only one normal for any given surface.






23. An object that moves about a stable equilibrium point and experiences a restoring force that is directly proportional to the oscillator's displacement.






24. A means of defining the direction of the cross product vector. To define the direction of the vector - position your right hand so that your fingers point in the direction of A - and then curl them around so that they point in the direction of B. Th






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






26. 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.






27. 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.






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






29. 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.






30. 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.






31. A wave that interferes with its own reflection so as to produce oscillations which stand still - rather than traveling down the length of the medium. Standing waves on a string with both ends tied down make up the harmonic series.






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






33. A constant - - not to be confused with wavelength - that defines the speed at which a radioactive element undergoes decay. The greater is - the faster the element decays.






34. The ratio of the size of the image produced by a mirror or lens to the size of the original object. This number is negative if the image is upside-down.






35. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






36. 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.

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37. 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.






38. 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.






39. The amount heat necessary to cause a substance to undergo a phase transition.






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






41. Linear momentum - p - commonly called "momentum" for short - is a vector quantity defined as the product of an object's mass - m - and its velocity - v.






42. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






43. An equation - PV = nRT - that relates the pressure - volume - temperature - and quantity of an ideal gas. An ideal gas is one that obeys the approximations laid out in the kinetic theory of gases.






44. A form of radioactivity where an excited atom releases a photon of gamma radiation - thereby returning to a lower energy state. The atomic structure itself does not change in the course of gamma radiation.






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.






46. A system that no external net force acts upon. Objects within the system may exert forces upon one another - but they cannot receive any impulse from outside forces. Momentum is conserved in isolated systems.






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






48. 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).






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






50. 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.