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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 wave on a string that is tied to a pole at one end will reflect back toward its source - producing a wave that is the mirror-image of the original and which travels in the opposite direction.






2. 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.






3. The angle between a reflected ray and the normal.






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






5. The points of maximum displacement along a wave. In traveling waves - the crests move in the direction of propagation of the wave. The crests of standing waves - also called anti-nodes - remain in one place.






6. Given the trajectory of an object or system - the center of mass is the point that has the same acceleration as the object or system as a whole would have if its mass were concentrated at that point. In terms of force - the center of mass is the poin






7. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






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






9. A push or a pull that causes an object to accelerate.






10. 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.






11. The temperature at which a material will change phase from liquid to gas or gas to liquid.






12. 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.






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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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






19. 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.






20. 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.






21. The force transmitted along a rope or cable.






22. 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.






23. 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






24. 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.






25. 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






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






27. 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.






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






29. The lowest theoretical temperature a material can have - where the molecules that make up the material have no kinetic energy. Absolute zero is reached at 0 K or -273º C.






30. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave trough for sound waves. The spacing between successive rarefactions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of rarefaction that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -






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






32. Also called a converging lens - a lens that is thicker in the middle than at the edges. Convex lenses refract light through a focal point.






33. The stable position of a system where the net force acting on the object is zero.






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






35. 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.






36. 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.






37. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






38. The force necessary to maintain a body in uniform circular motion. This force is always directed radially toward the center of the circle.






39. 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






40. 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.

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41. The model of the atom according to which negatively charged electrons orbit a positively charged nucleus. This model was developed by Ernest Rutherford in light of the results from his gold foil experiment.






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






43. 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






44. 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






45. The effect of force on rotational motion.






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






47. The principle by which the displacements from different waves traveling in the same medium add up. Superposition is the basis for interference.






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






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






50. A principle derived by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 that tells us that we can never know both the position and the momentum of a particle at any given time.