Physics EOT Review Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the Physics End-of-Term lecture notes.

Uniform Circular Motion

Movement of an object at a constant speed around a circle with a fixed radius.

Centripetal Acceleration

Always points to the center of the circle; its magnitude is equal to the square of the speed divided by the radius of motion.

Centripetal Force

The net force towards the center of the circle when an object is moving in a circle, which causes the centripetal acceleration.

Period (T)

The time needed for the object to make one complete revolution in a circular path.

Kepler's First Law

The paths of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one focus.

Kepler's Second Law

An imaginary line from the Sun to a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time intervals.

Kepler's Third Law

The square of the ratio of the periods of any two planets revolving about the Sun is equal to the cube of the ratio of their average distances from the Sun.

Mass

A measure of how much matter there is in an object.

Weight

The gravitational force acting on an object.

Weightlessness

In space, when you are far away from any gravitational field, your weight is zero.