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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. Also called a diverging lens - a lens that is thinner in the middle than at the edges. Concave lenses refract light away from a focal point.






2. 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.






3. 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.






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






5. The point of a mirror or lens where all light that runs parallel to the principal axis will be focused. Concave mirrors and convex lenses are designed to focus light into the focal point. Convex mirrors and concave lenses focus light away from the fo






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






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






8. 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.






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






10. 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.






11. 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






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






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






14. An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does actually come from where the image appears to be. If you place a screen in front of a real image - the image will be projected onto the screen.






15. When electromagnetic radiation shines upon a metal - the surface of the metal releases energized electrons. The way in which these electrons are released contradicts classical theories of electromagnetic radiation and supports the quantum view accord






16. 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.






17. The process by which a solid turns directly into gas - because it cannot exist as a liquid at a certain pressure.






18. 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.






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






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






21. The phenomenon of light bouncing off a surface - such as a mirror.






22. 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.






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






24. 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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25. A process that aligns a wave of light to oscillate in one dimension rather than two.






26. 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.






27. 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.






28. The separation of different color light via refraction.






29. An object cannot be cooled to absolute zero.






30. A device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy by rotating a coil in a magnetic field; sometimes called a "dynamo."






31. The name of an electron released from the surface of a metal due to the photoelectric effect.






32. An area of high air pressure that acts as the wave crest for sound waves. The spacing between successive compressions is the wavelength of sound - and the number of successive areas of compression that arrive at the ear per second is the frequency -






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






34. 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 -






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






36. The disorder of a system.






37. A collision in which momentum is conserved but kinetic energy is not.






38. Energy associated with an object's position in space - or configuration in relation to other objects. This is a latent form of energy - where the amount of potential energy reflects the amount of energy that potentially could be released as kinetic e






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






40. The points midway between nodes on a standing wave - where the oscillations are largest.






41. The amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. 1 cal = 4.19 J.






42. 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.






43. A wedge or a slide. The dynamics of objects sliding down inclined planes is a popular topic on SAT II Physics.






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






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






46. 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.






47. 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.






48. The number of digits that have been accurately measured. When combining several measurements in a formula - the resulting calculation can only have as many significant digits as the measurement that has the smallest number of significant digits.






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






50. 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.