Cracking the SAT Physics Subject Test

Bubble in Your Answers in Groups Going back and forth from the test book to your answer sheet after every single question can ea ...

Next, go back to the beginning and make your second pass. Find the questions you circled and try them again. If your second atte ...

(B) ( −1)mc^2 (C) mc^2 (D) ( −1)mc^2 (E) mc^2 Question 22 Skip questions if you cannot eliminate any answers. Cross out question ...

to return to during your second pass. This allows you to come back to time-consuming questions if you have time at the end of th ...

I wish you all the best as you study for the SAT Physics Subject Test. Good luck! —Steve Leduc For more information visit Prince ...

Chapter 1 Math Review The few questions on the SAT Physics Subject Test that require you to know mathematics are straightforward ...

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION It’s usually much easier to write very large or very small numbers in scientific notation. For example, the ...

BASIC TRIG REVIEW If you’re given a right triangle, there are certain special functions, called trig functions, of the angles in ...

around 500 B.C. Some rules of his number-worshipping group included prohibitions against eating beans and wearing wool. Now for ...

Tangent = Opposite over Adjacent side (T = ) The definitions can be used for any acute angle θ (theta) in a right triangle. The ...

tan A = tan B = We can also figure out the values of the sine, cosine, and tangent of the acute angles in a couple of special (a ...

sin 45° = cos 45° = ≈ 0.71 tan 45° = 1 If we know the values of these functions for other acute angles, we can use them to figur ...

Sin 30° is 0.5, so because sinθ = a/5, we can figure out that a = 5 sinθ = 5 sin30° = 5(0.5) = 2.5 We can use the Pythagorean th ...

This example illustrates this important, general fact: If the hypotenuse of a right triangle is c, then the length of the side o ...

VECTORS Definition A vector is a quantity that contains information about both magnitude and direction and also obeys the commut ...

Displacement (which is net distance [magnitude] traveled plus direction) is the prototypical example of a vector: Displacement D ...

A + B = B + A Two vectors are equal if they have the same magnitude and the same direction. Vector Addition (Geometric) The figu ...

Here’s How to Crack It Place the tail of B at the tip of A and connect them: Scalar Multiplication of Vectors A vector can be mu ...

Here’s How to Crack It Vector Subtraction (Geometric) To subtract one vector from another, for example, to get A − B, simply for ...

Here’s How to Crack It Flip B around—thereby forming −B—and add that vector to A. Components of Vectors So as you can see, a vec ...