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Facts and Formulas 3
Facts and Formulas 3
This document is a concise but comprehensive guide to the facts and formulas typically
used in the material covered by the SAT Subject physics test. The test is designed to
determine how well you have mastered the physics concepts taught in a typical one-year
college-prep high school course.
This guide is mainly intended as a reference, as opposed to a full tutorial (which would
probably be book-length), and so the explanatory material is pretty brief. You can use
the guide as a simple formula reference, or as a quick review of the material that youve
already studied elsewhere. Either way, good luck on your Subject Test!
Math Stuff
Although this guide is for the SAT Subject test in Physics, youll need to know quite a bit
of math. If youre thinking that youll just use your calculator to do the math, dont forget
that calculators are not allowed on the SAT Subject Physics test. Here is a summary of
the really important math facts and formulas.
Exponents
xa xb = xa+b
(xa )b = xab
0
x =1
xa /xb = xab
(xy)a = xa y a
xy = x y
1/xb = xb
+1,
n
(1) =
1,
if n is even;
if n is odd.
Scientific Notation
Scientific notation is a short-hand form to write numbers which would have a lot of zeros
when written as decimals. For example, instead of writing 1230000, you can just write
1.23 1000000, or 1.23 106 . The familiar powers of ten include:
103 = 0.001, 102 = 0.01, 101 = 0.1, 100 = 1, 101 = 10, 102 = 100, 103 = 1000.
To go from scientific notation to a plain decimal number, move the decimal to the right
or left according to the sign of the exponent, putting a zero down when you have no other
digits there. For example, for 3.7 1012 , move the decimal right 12 places and add 11
zeros. Move the decimal to the left for a negative exponent.
11 zeros
}|
{
z
37 00000000000 . = 3.7 1012
11
. 0000000000
{z
} 23 = 2.3 10
|
10 zeros
To go from a plain decimal number to scientific notation, just move the decimal to the
right or left (counting how many places you move) until there is only one digit to the left
of the decimal point, then add 10n where n is the number of places you moved the
decimal point (positive if you went left and negative if you went right).
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pg. 1
109
106
103
102
103
106
m
c
k
M
nanometer
microsecond
milligram
centimeter
kilogram
megawatt
Basic Trigonometry
p
hy
opposite
e
us
n
e
ot
adjacent
(pythagorean theorem)
Referring to the second triangle, there are three important functions which are defined for
angles in a right triangle:
sin =
opposite
hypotenuse
SOH
cos =
adjacent
hypotenuse
CAH
tan =
opposite
adjacent
TOA
(the last line above shows a mnemonic to remember these functions: SOH-CAH-TOA)
An important relationship to remember which works for any angle is:
sin2 + cos2 = 1.
Vectors
Many important quantities in physics are represented by vectors, which specify both a
number (the length of the vector) along with a direction (where the vector points). In
contrast, scalars are simple numbers without a direction.
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pg. 2
vy
vx
A+
B
A
Ax
Bx
Here, vectors A and B are added by moving B so that its tail is at the tip of A, and then
drawing the vector from the origin to the new tip of B. It should be clear from the figure
that the x components of A and (the shifted) B add up to the x component of the new
vector, and similarly for the y components.
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pg. 3
Equation to Use
x = vave t =
1
(vi + vf )t
2
v = at
vf
1
x = vi t + a(t)2
2
vi
1
x = vf t a(t)2
2
A note about graphs: the slope of a position vs. time graph is the velocity. Also, the slope
of the velocity vs. time graph is the acceleration.
Dynamics
Dynamics is the application of Newtons Laws to determine how a mass m moves when a
force (or forces) is applied.
Newtons First Law is: an object which moves at a constant velocity will continue moving
at the same velocity unless it is acted upon by an non-zero force. The force could be a
single force, or several forces which are unbalanced (dont add to zero). Note that an
object at rest has a constant velocity of zero, so it will remain at rest unless acted upon
by such a force.
Newtons Second Law is: the force on a mass equals the mass multiplied by the acceleration.
As a formula:
F = ma
where F is the force vector, m is the mass, and a is the acceleration vector. It is important
to remember that the force in F = ma is the sum of all the forces (often called the net
force) acting on the mass, not just one particular force. The net force acting on a book
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pg. 4
Momentum
Momentum is defined to be the product of mass and velocity:
p = mv
where p is the momentum, m is the mass, and v is the velocity. Note that the momentum
p and velocity v are both vectors, and they are in the same direction, since the mass m is
just a positive number.
The net force F acting on a mass m for an amount of time t produces a change in
momentum given by
p = F t.
The product F t is often called the impulse. Here, the change in momentum is just
p = mv = m(vf vi ), where vi is the initial velocity and vf is the final velocity.
Conservation of momentum: if there are no external forces on a system (or, the forces add
to zero), then the momentum of a system is conserved , i.e., the momentum is constant.
For example, consider when a rifle fires a bullet (in which case the system consists of the
rifle plus the bullet). Before firing, p = 0. Since the external forces on the system add to
zero (the weight of the rifle is balanced by the person holding it), then p = 0 after firing,
also. Therefore, mb vb + mr vr = 0 and the recoil velocity of the rifle is vr = (mb /mr ) vb .
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pg. 5
1
mv 2
2
where m is the mass and v is the velocity. For example, when someone throws a 0.5 kg
softball, the softball goes from rest (v = 0) to some velocity (say, 8 m/s). The kinetic
energy of the softball has increased from zero to 1/2 0.5 kg 8 m/s2 = 16 joules, so the
thrower has done +16 joules of work on the softball. When the ball is caught, the catcher
must do (negative) work on the ball (namely, -16 J) to change its energy from 16 joules
back to zero. Equivalently, the ball will do 16 joules of work on the catcher as it comes to
a halt.
The second main kind of energy is called potential energy. This energy is associated with
the position of the object (for example, the height of a mass measured from the ground
below) or its configuration (for example, a compressed spring). In the case of a mass m at
a height h, the potential energy is
PE = mgh.
Just as before, work must be done on or by the object to change its energy. In this case,
perhaps the mass was carried by someone on the ground up to the height h, at a constant
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pg. 6
Circular Motion
m
v
v
ac
m
Fc
ac
ac
Fc
Fc
Fc
ac
v
m
m
v
When an object moves in a circle with a constant speed, the object is said to be in uniform
circular motion. In the figure above, an object of mass m is moving uniformly in a circle of
radius r, counter-clockwise, and the position of the mass is shown at eight different points
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pg. 7
mv 2
Fc =
.
r
The period T is the time it takes for the object to make one revolution. Given T , the
velocity can be found using
2r
.
v=
T
Here, 2r is the distance the object goes in one revolution and T is how long it took to go
that distance. Sometimes, instead of T , the frequency f is given, where f is the number
of revolutions per second. These two numbers are related by
f = 1/T.
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Fk
pg. 8
Springs
A spring is a metal coil which, when stretched, pulls back on the object attached to the
end of the spring. When compressed, the spring pushes against the object at the end of
the spring. When not stretched or compressed, the spring is at its natural length and it
doesnt exert a force on the object at all.
The restoring force Fs of a spring is proportional to the amount (distance) that the spring
is stretched or compressed. If this distance is x, then the restoring force is
Fs = kx.
The formula above is often called Hookes Law. When a spring is stretched or compressed, it has a (stored) potential energy of
PEs =
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1 2
kx .
2
pg. 9
m1 m2
r2
where G is just a number which is always the same for every calculation, i.e., G is a
constant. In metric units, the number turns out to be 6.67 1011 N m2 /kg2 , but it isnt
important to know this particular number.
The above mass pairs could be everything from two billiard balls (same mass) to you (very
small mass) and the earth (very large mass). Notice that the force of gravity is inversely
proportional to the distance of separation, and proportional to the product of the two
masses. For example, if the distance between m1 and m2 were to double, then the force
would be only 25% as large. If the mass of the earth were doubled, the force on you (for
example) would become twice as big, i.e., you would weigh twice as much as you do now!
q1 q2
r2
where r is the distance between the two charges q1 and q2 and k is a constant (about
9 109 N m2 /C2 ). Notice how similar this force law is to force law for gravitation (see the
Gravity section). Charge is measured in coulombs (denoted as: C). To get an idea of
what a coulomb of charge is, a typical 100 watt light bulb has about 1 C of charge passing
through it each second.
Instead of one charge attracting or repelling another, we can think of either charge as
generating an electric field . Then, any other charge, when placed in this field, will feel a
force (again, either attractive or repulsive). The electric field is defined to be the force on
the second charge (often called a test charge) divided by the test charge amount. If the
first charge is q and the test charge qt feels a force Ft , then the electric field produced by
q is:
Ft
.
E=
qt
Using Coulombs Law, with q1 = q and q2 = qt , then we see that the electric field due to
q is:
q
E = k 2.
r
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pg. 10
V
d
where d is the distance of separation between the plates. The electric field points from
the plate connected to the batterys positive terminal to the other plate, and shows which
way a positive test charge would move if placed in that field (i.e., away from the positive
plate!).
Circuits
In a circuit, a certain amount of charge per unit time, called the current (denoted by I),
flows past any given point in the circuit. The voltage V , say due to a battery in the circuit,
is equal to the work done by the battery per unit charge. These two quantities, voltage
and current, are proportional to one another, as related by Ohms Law:
V = IR.
The constant of proportionality R is called the resistance in the circuit. For a given voltage
V , a low resistance corresponds to a high current and a high resistance corresponds to a
low current, since I = V /R. An analogy can be made to a waterfall: the current in a
circuit is just like the amount (current) of water falling down, and the voltage in a circuit
is similar to the height of the waterfall. The voltage can be high with low current (imagine
a tall waterfall with just a trickle of water), or the voltage can be low with high current (a
short waterfall with a large current of water), depending on the resistance (kind of similar
to rocks in the stream).
The power, or energy per unit time, dissipated in a resistor R is:
P = IV =
V2
= I 2 R,
R
where Ohms Law was used to substitute for I or V in P = IV. You can use whichever
formula requires the quantities that you are given.
If two or more resistors are placed in series, the total resistance is the sum:
Rs = R1 + R2 + . . . ,
where Rs is called the series resistance. Note that the series resistance is always bigger
than the biggest of the individual resistances.
If two or more resistors are placed in parallel, the total resistance is the inverse of the sum
of the inverses:
1
1
1
=
+
+ ...,
Rp
R1
R2
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pg. 11
The magnitude of the magnetic field around a long wire is inversely proportional to the
distance from the wire. In the diagram, this is denoted by drawing the field lines closer
together near the wire.
Not only do current-carrying wires produce a magnetic field, they also feel a force when
placed within another magnetic field (being produced by something else, perhaps another
current-carrying wire). The magnitude of the force depends on how much current is in
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pg. 12
F~
F~
~ (externally produced)
B
~ (externally produced)
B
In the above diagram, a uniform magnetic field is being externally produced and points
up. The current in the wire on the left is into the page (so that = 90 ), and the force
on the wire (due to the magnetic field that is being applied to it) is directed to the right.
The current in the wire on the right is out of the page, and so the force on the wire is
directed to the left. See if you can use the second form of the right-hand rule to verify the
directions of the forces shown in the diagram.
~
B
F~
~
B
~v
~v
~
B
F~
~
B
The situation is very similar for a single point charge moving in a magnetic field. In the
diagram above, the magnetic field is everywhere pointing into the page; a positive charge
(q > 0) on the left is moving with speed v to the right (so that = 90 ), and another
positive charge on the right is moving to the left with the same speed. In general, the
magnitude of the force on the charge is
F = qvB sin
where q is the charge, B is the magnetic field, v is the magnitude of the velocity of the
charge, and is the angle between the direction of travel of the charge and the magnetic
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pg. 13
peak
v
A
x
A
trough
pg. 14
pg. 15
reflected
air (n1 = 1)
glass (n2 = 1.5)
undeflected
refracted
When light bounces (reflects) off a shiny surface, the angle of incidence equals the angle
of reflection. By convention, the angle is measured with respect to the normal (a line
drawn perpendicular) to the reflective surface. In the diagram above, the normal is the
dashed vertical line in the middle, and the law of reflection tells us that 1 = 1 . When
light travels from one medium (say, air) to another (say, glass), it bends (refracts). This
is due to the fact that light travels at different speeds in different media. In any medium
other than vacuum, light travels more slowly than 3 108 m/s. Specifically,
v = c/n
where v is the speed of light in the medium, c is the speed of light in vacuum, and n
is a number called the index of refraction for the medium. For example, the index of
refraction for typical glass is n = 1.5, which means that the speed of light in glass is about
(3 108 m/s)/1.5 = 2 108 m/s. The incident angle and refracted angle (again, measured
from the normal) are related by Snells Law:
n1 sin 1 = n2 sin 2 ,
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pg. 16
light
convex lens
(converging)
light
concave lens
(diverging)
light
convex mirror
light
concave mirror
For a converging lens or concave mirror, f is the distance from the lens or mirror to the
place where these rays will converge after focussing. An image is formed where the light
rays converge after going through the lens or getting reflected from the mirror. A diverging
lens and convex mirror make the parallel light rays diverge, so that no real image is formed.
If do is the distance from the object to the lens, and di is the distance from the lens to the
image, then
1
1
1
+
=
do
di
f
relates these distances to the focal length of the mirror or lens. When using this formula
(called the thin-lens formula), the signs of the quantities involved are very important.
For converging lenses or concave mirrors, f > 0, whereas for a diverging lenses and convex
mirrors, f < 0. If the resulting image distance di is negative, the image is not real (the
light wasnt focussed). We can see these virtual images nonetheless because our eyes
are fooled into thinking that the diverging rays are being produced by an image located
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pg. 17
di
do
where di and do are the image and object distances as usual (signs included). The sign
of m tells us the orientation of the image compared to the object: If m < 0, the image is
inverted compared to the object; if m > 0, the image is the same orientation as the object.
Since do > 0, the magnification formula suggests that virtual images (di < 0) are upright
compared to the object, whereas real images (di > 0) are inverted.
The absolute value of the magnification describes how big the image is compared to the
object, i.e.,
image size
.
|m| =
object size
Here, the image can be bigger (|m| > 1) or smaller (|m| < 1) than the object size.
Type of
Object
Image
Real
Upright
Image
Lens/Mirror
Distance
Distance
Image?
Image?
Size
concave
do > 2f
f < di < 2f
yes
no
smaller
mirror
do = 2f
di = 2f
yes
no
same
or
f < do < 2f
di > 2f
yes
no
bigger
converging
do = f
no image
lens
do < f
di > do
no
yes
bigger
any
di < do
no
yes
smaller
diverging
or convex
lens/mirror
The table above shows the different image outcomes that occur depending the objects
distance from the lens. You do not need to memorize this table; however, see if you
can verify each row of the table using the lens formula. For example, let f = 50 cm. If
do = 50 cm, the lens formula tells us that 1/di = 0, so that the image distance is at infinity
(i.e., no image is formed). Check the second row of the table by setting do = 100 cm.
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pg. 18