Test your basic knowledge |

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 units of frequency - defined as inverse-seconds (1 Hz = 1 s-1). "Hertz" can be used interchangeably with "cycles per second."






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






3. Another word for the frequency of a sound wave.






4. 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






5. 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.






6. The spectrum containing all the different kinds of electromagnetic waves - ranging in wavelength and frequency.






7. A transfer of thermal energy from one system to another.






8. 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






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






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. The square of the amplitude of a sound wave is called the sound's loudness - or volume.






13. Energy cannot be made or destroyed; energy can only be changed from one place to another or from one form to another.






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






15. A property of a metal - the minimum frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is necessary to release photoelectrons from that metal.






16. A collision in which both kinetic energy and momentum are conserved.






17. 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






18. 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 -






19. 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.






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






21. 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.






22. 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

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


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






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

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


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






26. The temperature at which a material will change phase from solid to liquid or liquid to solid.






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






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






29. 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






30. 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.






31. 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 -






32. In a right triangle - the sine of a given angle is the length of the side opposite the angle divided by the length of the hypotenuse.






33. 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






34. 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.






35. 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.






36. Heat transfer by molecular collisions.






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






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






39. A law - || = - which states that the induced emf is the change in magnetic flux in a certain time.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


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. The mass number - A - is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. It is very close to the weight of that nucleus in atomic mass units.






42. 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.






43. The center of an atom - where the protons and neutrons reside. Electrons then orbit this nucleus.






44. 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.






45. A force caused by the roughness of two materials in contact - deformations in the materials - and a molecular attraction between the materials. Frictional forces are always parallel to the plane of contact between two surfaces and opposite the direct






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






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






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






49. A vector quantity defined as the rate of change of the displacement vector with time. It is to be contrasted with speed - which is a scalar quantity for which no direction is specified.






50. The series of standing waves supported by a string with both ends tied down. The first member of the series - called the fundamental - has two nodes at the ends and one anti-node in the middle. The higher harmonics are generated by placing an integra