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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 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.






2. 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






3. The energy of a particle moving in space. It is defined in s of a particle's mass - m - and velocity - v - as (1/2)mv2.






4. 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.






5. The angle between a refracted ray and the line normal to the surface.






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






7. An object that retains its overall shape - meaning that the particles that make up the rigid body stay in the same position relative to one another.






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






9. The energy stored in a thermodynamic system.






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






11. In an interference or diffraction pattern - the places where there is the most light.






12. 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.






13. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






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






15. Waves produced by a source that is moving with respect to the observer will seem to have a higher frequency and smaller wavelength if the motion is towards the observer - and a lower frequency and longer wavelength if the motion is away from the obse






16. Heat transfer via the mass movement of molecules.






17. The study of the properties of visible light - i.e. - the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths between 360 and 780 nm (1 nm = m/s).






18. 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






19. 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.






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






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

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22. A coefficient that tells how much the volume of a solid will change when it is heated or cooled.






23. 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.






24. In reference to oscillation - amplitude is the maximum displacement of the oscillator from its equilibrium position. Amplitude tells how far an oscillator is swinging back and forth. In periodic motion - amplitude is the maximum displacement in each






25. The index of refraction n = c/v of a substance characterizes the speed of light in that substance - v. It also characterizes - by way of Snell's Law - the angle at which light refracts in that substance.






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






27. The center of a mirror or lens.






28. 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.






29. 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.






30. 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.






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






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






33. Two quantities are directly proportional if an increase in one results in a proportional increase in the other - and a decrease in one results in a proportional decrease in the other. In a formula defining a certain quantity - those quantities to whi






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






35. 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.






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






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






39. 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.






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






41. A class of elementary particle whose mass is between that of a proton and that of an electron. A common kind of meson is the pion.






42. States that the current induced in a circuit by a change in magnetic flux is in the direction that will oppose that change in flux. Using the right-hand rule - point your thumb in the opposite direction of the change in magnetic flux. The direction y

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43. For a heat engine - the ratio of work done by the engine to heat intake. Efficiency is never 100%.






44. 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.






45. 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.






46. A conserved scalar quantity associated with the state or condition of an object or system of objects. We can roughly define energy as the capacity for an object or system to do work. There are many different types of energy - such as kinetic energy -






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






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






49. 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).






50. Heat transfer via electromagnetic waves.