MCAT Physics
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| a branch of mechanics which provides the basic tools for describing the motion of objects | kinematics
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| the rate of change of the velocity | acceleration
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| the rate of change of the position | velocity
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| a continuous change in the position of a body relative to a reference point | motion
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| magnitude of the velocity | speed
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| numerical description of how far apart objects are at any given moment in time | distance
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| the vector that specifies the position of a point or a particle in reference to an origin or to a previous position | displacement
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| a simple physical quantity that does not depend on direction, and is therefore not changed by coordinate system rotations | scalar
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| a physical quantity characterized by both magnitude and direction | vector
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| motion in which an object moves with constant speed along a circular path | uniform circular motion
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| motion with no acceleration other than that provided by gravity | free fall
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| a particular perspective from which the universe is observed, providing a set of axes from which an observer can measure the position and motion of all points in a system | frame of reference
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| the path a moving object follows through space | trajectory
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| represents the location of an object in space in relation to an arbitrary inertial frame of reference | position vector
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| the world's most widely used system of units | international system of units
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| the nominal acceleration due to gravity at the Earth's surface at sea level | standard gravity
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| the science of mechanics that deals with the motion, behavior, and effects of projectiles | ballistics
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| rate of change of the acceleration | jerk
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| the fourth derivative of the displacement vector with respect to time, with the first, second, and third derivatives being velocity, acceleration, and jerk, respectively | snap
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| anything that can cause a massive body to accelerate. may be experienced as a lift, a push, or a pull | force
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| a fundamental concept in physics, roughly corresponding to the intuitive idea of how much matter there is in an object | mass
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| the branch of classical mechanics that is concerned with the effects of forces on the motion of objects | dynamics
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| a measurement of the gravitational force acting on an object | weight
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| the external force required to make a body follow a circular path at constant speed. the force is directed inward, toward the center of the circle | centripetal force
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| the force that opposes the relative motion or tendency toward such motion of two surfaces in contact | friction
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| a dimensionless quantity used to calculate the force of friction (static or kinetic) | coefficient of friction
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| the component, perpendicular to the surface of contact, of the contact force exerted by the surface | normal force
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| a force between two objects that are touching each other | contact force
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| the SI derived unit of force | Newton
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| the property of an object to remain at constant velocity unless acted upon by an outside force | inertia
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| a vector produced when two or more forces act upon a single object. also called a resultant | net force
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| states that forces occur in pairs, one called the action and the other the reaction | Newton's third law
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| a mechanism by which particles interact with each other and which cannot be explained in terms of another interaction | fundamental interaction
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| when two solid surfaces slide against each other | sliding friction
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| Newton's first and second laws of motion are valid, ie. neither is rotating nor accelerated | inertial frame of reference
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| a reaction force applied by a stretched string, rope, or a similar object, upon the objects which stretch it | tension
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| the frictional resistance that occurs when an object rolls. it is usually much smaller than sliding friction | rolling resistance
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| a unit of force specified in the centimeter-gram-second (cgs) system of units | dyne
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| an apparent force that acts on all masses in a non-inertial frame of reference arising from the acceleration of the non-inertial frame itself | fictitious force
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| defined as a work one system does (or can do) on another system | energy
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| the extra energy which it possesses due to its motion, defined as the work needed to accelerate the body from rest to its current speed | kinetic energy
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| energy stored within a physical system | potential energy
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| the amount of energy transferred by a force | mechanical work
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| states that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant, although it may change forms | conservation of energy
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| the rate at which work is performed or energy is transmitted. It is the amount of energy required or expended for a given unit of time | power
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| the SI unit of energy | joule
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| the SI derived unit of power, equal to one joule per second | watt
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| any device that only requires the application of a single force to work | simple machine
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| a flat surface whose endpoints are at different heights | inclined plane
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| a rigid object that is used with an appropriate fulcrum or pivot point to multiply the mechanical force that can be applied to another object | lever
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| a wheel with a groove along its edge for holding a rope or cable or belt | pulley
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| the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force put into it | mechanical advantage
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| a unit of energy often used also in theoretical physics as a unit of mass. It is the amount of kinetic energy gained by a single unbound electron when it passes through an electrostatic potential difference of one volt, in vacuo | electronvolt
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| a force that does zero net work on a particle that travels along any closed path in an isolated system | conservative force
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| the energy which causes or is released by the physical distortion of a solid or a fluid | elastic energy
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| the amount of energy required to pull all of the material apart, to infinity, of an object consisting of loose material, held together by gravity alone | gravitational binding energy
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| a unit of measurement for energy equal to the amount of heat required to raise a gram of water one degree celsius. In most fields, it has been replaced by the joule | calorie
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| an English unit of work or energy. It is the amount of energy expended when a force of one pound acts through a distance of 1 foot along the direction of the force | foot-pound
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| a unit of energy used globally in the power, steam generation and heating and air conditioning industries | British thermal unit
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| the effectiveness of a machine and is defined as the ratio of mechanical advantage to velocity | mechanical efficiency
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| the unit of energy and mechanical work in the centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system of units | erg
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| the product in classical mechanics of the mass and velocity of an object | momentum
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| a specific point at which, for many purposes, the system's mass behaves as if it were concentrated | center of mass
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| the action of bodies striking or coming together | collision
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| a collision in which the total kinetic energy of the colliding bodies after collision is equal to their total kinetic energy before collision | elastic collision
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| a collision in which some of the kinetic energy of the colliding bodies is converted into internal energy in at least one body such that kinetic energy is not conserved | inelastic collision
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| the simple product of the force and time, when both the force and mass are constant | impulse
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| states that a particular measurable property of an isolated physical system does not change as the system evolves | conservation law
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| equal to the rate of change of the backward momentum resulting when a gun is fired | recoil
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| a fractional value representing the ratio of velocities before and after an impact | coefficient of restitution
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| a way to describe the efficiency of rocket and jet engines. It represents the impulse per unit of propellant | specific impulse
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| a device that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy. It is constructed from a series of pendulums (usually 5) abutting one another | Newton's cradle
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| can informally be thought of as rotational force or angular force which causes a change in rotational motion. It is defined by linear force multiplied by a radius | torque
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| a movement of an object in a circular motion, around a center for a point, around a line called an axis for a three dimensional object | rotation
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| the measure of the extent to which the object will continue to rotate about that point unless acted upon by an external torque | angular momentum
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| specifies the angular speed at which an object is rotating along with the direction in which it is rotating | angular velocity
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| the rotational analog of mass. That is, it is the inertia of a rigid rotating body with respect to its rotation | moment of inertia
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| the angle through which a point or line has been rotated in a specified sense about a specified axis | angular displacement
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| the kinetic energy due to the rotation of an object; sometimes called angular kinetic energy | rotational energy
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| a scalar measure of rotation rate. It is the magnitude of the angular velocity | angular frequency
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| the rate of change of angular velocity | angular acceleration
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| when the sum of the forces and torques on each particle of the system is zero | mechanical equilibrium
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| a unit of frequency: the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis | revolutions per minute
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| the branch of physics concerned with the analysis of loads, ie. forces and torques, on physical systems in static equilibrium | statics
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| an idealization of a solid body of finite size in which deformation is neglected | rigid body
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| a device based on the principle of conservation of angular momentum. The essence of the device is a spinning wheel on an axle | gyroscope
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| the angle subtended by an arc length equal to the radius of the circle | radian
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| the SI unit of angular velocity | radian per second
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| a system of forces with a resultant moment but no resultant force. Its effect is to create rotation without translation | couple
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| a change in the direction of the axis of a rotating object | precession
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| a quantity that transforms like a vector under a proper rotation, but gains an additional sign flip under an improper rotation; axial vector | pseudovector
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| a rotating disk used as a storage device for kinetic energy | flywheel
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| a mechanical model that is used to explain rotating systems. Three angles are required to orient such an object in space | rigid rotor
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| the motion of a simple oscillator | simple harmonic motion
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| an object that is attached to a pivot point so it can swing freely | pendulum
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| a nonnegative scalar measure of a wave's magnitude of oscillation, the magnitude of the maximum disturbance in the medium during one wave cycle | amplitude
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| the measurement of the number of occurrences of a repeated event per unit of time | frequency
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| a flexible elastic object used to store mechanical energy usually made out of hardened steel | spring
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| the weight on the end of a pendulum | bob
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| the variation of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states | oscillation
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| a system which, when displaced from its equilibrium position, experiences a restoring force proportional to the displacement | harmonic oscillator
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| the SI unit of frequency; its base unit is the cycle per second | Hertz
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| any effect that tends to reduce the amplitude of oscillations of an oscillatory system | damping
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| a function that repeats its values after some definite period has been added to its independent variable | periodic function
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| the quality of occurring at regular intervals or periods in time or space | periodicity
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| the fraction of a cycle corresponding to an offset in the displacement from a specified reference point at time t = 0 | phase
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| refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road | vibration
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| the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude at a certain frequency | resonance
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| a useful simplification of the laws of trigonometry which is only approximately true for finite angles, but correct in the limit as the angle approaches zero | small-angle approximation
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| having an equal time difference or occurring simultaneously | isochronous
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| a system of two simple pendulums on a common mounting which move in anti-phase | double pendulum
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| a natural phenomenon by which all objects with mass attract each other | gravitation
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| the cyclic rising and falling of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the oceans | tides
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| a vector field pointing directly towards the particle giving the magnitude of the force per unit mass for the array of points in space | gravitational field
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| the path that an object makes around another object while under the influence of a centripetal force such as gravity | orbit
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| the speed where the kinetic energy of an object is equal in magnitude to its potential energy in a gravitational field | escape velocity
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| performed in 1797 - 1798, was the first experiment to measure the force of gravity between laboratory masses | Cavendish experiment
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| the time it takes a planet (or another object) to make one full orbit | orbital period
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| a satellite whose orbital track on the Earth repeats regularly over points on the Earth over time | geosynchronous satellite
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| an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period matching the Earth's sidereal rotation period | geosynchronous orbit
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| a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator, with orbital eccentricity of zero. From the ground, such an object appears motionless in the sky | geostationary orbit
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| an elliptic orbit with the eccentricity equal to zero | circular orbit
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| the locus of points on a plane where the sum of the distances from any point on the curve to two fixed points is constant | ellipse
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| a unit of length nearly equal to the semi-major axis of Earth's orbit around the Sun | astronomical unit
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| the point at which an object in orbit around the Earth makes its closest approach to the Earth | perigee
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| a term used in astronomy to describe alterations to an object's orbit caused by gravitational interactions with other bodies | perturbation
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| the point of greatest or least distance of the elliptical orbit of an astronomical object from its center of attraction | apsis
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| the theory that the sun is at the center of the Universe and/or the Solar System | helocentrism
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| generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth's surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km | low Earth orbit
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| the sum of its potential energy and kinetic energy per unit mass | specific orbital energy
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| the product of the gravitational constant and the mass | standard gravitational parameter
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