PHYS 1010 Final Exam Practice Questions & Terms

The distance between repeating points on a wave is known as the...

wavelength

frequency

speed

period

Wavelength

The time between repeating points on a wave is known as the...

period

frequency

wavelength

speed

period

The process through which noise cancelling headphones work is called...

destructive interference

resonant frequencies

"in-phase" interference

longitudinal interference

destructive interference

Humans interpret the amplitude of a sound wave as...

loudness

pitch

frequency

octaves

loudness

The change in the pitch of sound that occurs because the source is moving is a result of...

the Doppler Effect

the Photoelectric Effect

resonant frequencies

"in-phase" interference

the Doppler effect

Different colors of light correspond to their...

frequencies

intensities

velocities

polarities

frequencies

When light strikes the surface of an object, which of the following can happen?

absorption

reflection

refraction

interference

diffraction

absorption

reflection

refraction

The fact that light moves slower in some materials than others is the cause of...

refraction

absorption

interference

diffraction

refraction

The property of light that is used to create modern 3d viewing glasses is called...

polarization

diffraction

interference

refraction

polarization

When waves spread out due to diffraction, it can often cause...

interference

refraction

absorption

polarization

interference

Which of the following sub-atomic particles are NOT found in an atom?

Parton

Proton

Neutron

Electron

parton

The positively-charged center of an atom is called its...

Nucleus

Electron

Neutron

Core

nucleus

The energy of an electron orbiting a nucleus depends on...

which energy shell it occupies.

the amount of charge it has.

whether it is between energy shells.

the electron's color.

which energy shell it occupies

The method for measuring the different energy levels of an atom is called...

Spectroscopy

Rutherford Back-Scattering

Millikan Oil-Drop

Brownian Motion

spectroscopy

According to the example in the video, if I were holding a 1 meter (3 ft) diameter nucleus of a Hydrogen atom in my office at Tulane, where would I find that atom's closest electron?

Pensacola, FL

10 miles away

1 mile away.

100 feet away.

Pensacola, FL

Different types of atoms (called elements) are determined by their...

Protons

Electrons

Chemical bonds

Energy shells

protons

Hydrogen bonding with Oxygen is an example of which type of bonding?

Covalent

Ionic

Protonic

Isotopic

covalent

Cell phones can't cause cancer because they don't have enough...

Ionization energy

Kinetic energy

Electron energy

Amplitude

Ionization energy

What kind of detection chamber had to be invented to discover quarks?

Bubble Chamber

Diffusion Chamber

Transduction Chamber

Emission Chamber

Bubble Chamber

According to the video, what is the major problem with String Theory?

There is no testable hypothesis.

It doesn't include gravity.

It's too complicated.

It's purely theoretical at this time.

There is no testable hypothesis.

"Relativity" is concerned with how events are measured in...

Spacetime

Space

Time

None of these

spacetime

For an object moving at the speed of light...

time stops.

time runs slowly.

time runs faster.

nothing changes.

time stops

In our "twin paradox", when one twin spends 10 years travelling at 87% of the speed of light, how many years has she aged?

5 years.

10 years.

10 years but she only thinks its been 5 years.

10 years but her sister only thinks its been 5 years.

5 years

If an astronaut travelling at 85% of the speed of light were holding a meter stick parallel to her motion (like holding a spear), to here the length of the meter stick would be...

1 meter

0.5 meters

0.87 meters

1.5 meters

1 meter

One reason nothing can reach the speed of light is because

its mass approaches infinity.

something will bump into it.

its length approaches infinity.

it would destroy the universe.

its mass approaches infinity.

When a large atom breaks apart into smaller atoms and releases energy, this is called

nuclear fission

nuclear fusion

nuclear meltdown

nuclear emission

nuclear fission

On a curved surface, the shortest distance between two points is...

a curved path

a straight line

a wave

longitude

a curved path

The presence of Mass...

all of these answers

warps space

warps time

creates gravity

all of these answers

The first experimental proof of General Relativity used...

the Sun's gravity.

Earth's gravity

the Milky Way's gravity

a dead star's gravity

the Sun's gravity.

Which of the following is evidence for the Big Bang?

background radiation

a shrinking universe

the Grand Unified Theory

dark matter

background radiation

The Sun provides heat and light through...

nuclear fusion

nuclear fission

solar energy

combustion

nuclear fusion

A "PET scan" (Positron Emission Tomography) uses

anti-matter

protons

nuclear energy

neutrons

anti-matter

"General Relativity" was designed to

include accelerating reference frames.

supplant the Standard Model

provide a theory for general measurements.

None of these

include accelerating reference frames.

Black Holes are formed from...

dead stars.

supernova explosions.

high-energy light.

empty space

dead stars

How old is our Universe?

~14 billion years

~14 trillion years

~14 million years

~6 thousand years

14 billion years

Approximately how much of the Universe is made up of Dark Matter & Dark Energy combined?

95%

27%

5%

68%.

95%

Dr. Schuler's choice for the most important invention of the 20th century was...

the transistor

quantum mechanics

the airplane

the theory of relativity.

the transistor

Photons are particles of light which have...

all of these answers

wavelength

momentum

probability

all of these answers

The properties of an un-measured quantum particle can only be described by

a probability wave.

its position and momentum.

its electric charge.

None of these

a probability wave.

Quantum physics tells us that anything which has momentum also has

a wavelength

mass

Angstroms

longitude

a wavelength

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Equation tells us that we cannot know a particle's exact

position and momentum.

energy and position

time and momentum

charge and position

position and momentum.

In quantum physics, a particle located inside a box has no

exact position

energy

exact time

tunneling

exact position

Quantum particles can pass through barriers using a process called

"tunneling"

"penetration"

"torque-ing"

"collapsing"

"tunneling"

Quantum particles can spontaneously change their

energy

charge

volume

energy

A positron (anti-matter) behaves just like an electron (matter), except its

going backward in time

travelling in opposite directions

mass is negative

non-existant

going backward in time