Physical Science Final Exam Review Guide
- Color in the west side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to illustrate the polarity recorded in the rocks.
- When do the Sun’s rays strike Earth at their northernmost and southernmost positions?
- When does summer occur in terms of tilt of the Earth?
- According to the law of conservation of mass, what must be true before and after a chemical reaction?
- What kind of radiation is made of helium nuclei?
- What kind of radiation can be stopped by a piece of paper?
- What kindof radiation is made of electrons?
- What kind of radiation is most penetrating?
- What happens in a fission reaction? a fusion reaction?
- What does the stability of an isotope depend on?
- When will an earthquake cause resonance in a building?
- When you built your walls in the Structural Reinforcement Activity which floor collapsed first?
- What is the relationship between the height of a building (or a rod in the BOSS Model Activity) and its natural frequency?
- What kinds of reactions are shown below:
2H2 + O2 2H2O
Na + LiCl Li + NaCl
NaCl + AgNO3 NaNO3 + AgCl
- Where are the products and reactants in a chemical equation?
- What is an endothermic reaction? exothermic reaction?
- List three things that are caused by the unequal heating of Earth’s surface.
- What kind of plate sinks in a subduction zone? Why?
- In what kind of plate boundary do the plates slide past each other?
- What kind of gas causes global warming?
- What kind of energy transfer does not require matter?
- What state of matter has atoms held tightly in place?
- Describe what happens (in terms of movement of energy) when you touch a piece ice with your finger.
- Which numbers represent infiltration and transpiration?
- Why do clouds form?
- What must be true in order for infiltration to occur?
- Identify the phase/s of matter present in each line segment:
AB: ______
BC: ______
CD: ______
DE: ______
EF: ______
- Describe how a mountain range can affect climate.
- Draw a diagram illustrating the movement of surface winds around a high pressure system in the Northern Hemisphere.
- List three things that keep Earth’s temperatures within a suitable range for life as we know it.
- How old is island B in comparison to islands A and C?
- How old is island D in comparison to islands A and C?
- Cool air over the poles will ______.
- What process transfers energy primarily as electromagnetic waves?
- What do we call drops of water or ice that are too large to stay suspended in the air?
- What causes high pressure systems?
- What kind of pressure systems do we find near the poles?
- Describe what is happening to the air as it flows down the leeward side of the mountain range.
- Why is the ozone layer important to life on Earth?
- Earth’s earliest atmosphere was lacking in what element necessary for life as we know it?
- Where is the ozone layer? be specific.
- What causes summer days to be longer than winter days here in Piedmont?
- Why does it take less time to get a sunburn on a summer day than it does on a winter day? (assuming it is sunny out!)
- Why is it usually warmer at the equator than it is at the poles?
- What dirrection do the prevailing westerly winds move ocean water?
- As air rises pressure decreases and what happens to its volume?
- Give an example of two isotopes of the same element using the following format, .
- Why are atoms electrically neutral?
- What were the first elements created after the Big Bang?
- List six factors of weater.
- Why do clouds form?
- How do moutain ranges affect climate?
- Uranium-235 decays through a long but relatively fast series into Lead-206 which is stable. In the following diagrams, the black dots represent U-235 atoms and the white dots represent Pb-206 atoms. According the principle of radioisotope dating, which of the following rocks is the youngest? oldest?
- Which element is in Group 14 and Period 2 of the Periodic Table.
- Where are the metals on the Periodic Table? the nonmetals?
- Which group on the Periodic Table is rarely found in compounds? Why?
- How is the periodic table organized?
- How many electrons does an atom of oxygen have?
- Describe the difference between solids and liquids in terms of molecular motion and spacing.
- Do gases release or absorb energy as they condense and form liquids?
- What do we call the process of liquid water becoming water vapor?
- A whale bone that originally contained 100 grams of radioactive carbon-14 now contains 25 grams of carbon-14. How many carbon-14 half-lives have passed since this whale was alive?
- When you squeeze together the coils of a spring (like a slinky) and then release them, what kind of wave are you creating?
- What part of the world receives the most solar radiation?
- What is another term for earthquake waves?
- What kind of forces cause strike-slip faults?
- Describe P-waves.
- What is the difference between magma and lava?
- How can you identify a shield volcano in terms of shape and type of eruption?
- What happens at a transform plate boundary?
- What makes climate different from weather?
- What particle moves around the nucleus?
- What is the mass number of an atom with 26 protons, 30 neutrons and 26 electrons?
- What makes an ion different from an atom?
- Where do intrusive igneous rocks form?
- What kind of bond forms when atoms share electons?
- How many atoms are present in Al(NO3)3?
- What must be true of a balanced chemical equation?
- How many electrons are needed to make an atom stable?
- How can you tell if a rock is foliated?
- What kinds of things cause metamorphism in rocks?
- What makes minerals different from rocks?
- What is the name of the compound with the formula NaCl?
- What do B and C represent?
- What kind of plate boundary is illustrated by this picture?
- 50. Label the different phases of matter and phase changes occurring on the graph below.
- Why does a water filled paper cup held in a flame not catch fire?
- What causes global warming (list three things)?
- What type of substance warms up very quickly?
- A substance that heats up quickly has a ______specific heat.
- Why do islands experience moderate temperatues?
- What happens when you put an ice pack on your knee (in terms of energy)?
- Compare the climate at A to that of B.
- If location C is on the equator, describe the pressure and precipation that area experiences.
- How would an reduction in surface ice cover affect the amount of solar radiation reflected by the surface of the Earth?
- Describe a surface that would absorb a lot of electromagnetic energy from the Sun (in terms of texture, luster and color).
- What causes the Coriolis Effect?
- Compare Earth’s continental crust and its oceanic crust.
- Label the seasons on the diagram.
- What kind of rocks are formed by cooling magma or lava from a molten state?
- What kind of rocks are altered by heat and pressure beneath the Earth’s surface?
- Describe the term climate.
- List the following from smallest to largest: universe, solar system and galaxy
- Compare protons and neutrons in terms of location, mass and charge.
- Define the term ion.
- What would sprinkling snow with dark sand do to its melting rate? Would white sand have the same impact?
- Why doesn’t the ocean mix by convection?
- How would reducing the surface ice cover change the surface temperature of the Earth?
- Define the term half-life.
- What kind of radiation is emited by the Earth?
- Why don’t oceans mix by convection?
- What makes a compound different from a miture?
- What are protons and neutrons made of?
- What kind of rock forms as a result of cooling from a molten state?
- What kind of rock is formed as it is altered by heat and pressure beneath the Earth’s surface?
- Explain the difference between weight and mass. What does your weight measure?
- One object is twice as massive as another object, describe the inertia of these two objects.
- Will your mass increase or decrease if you were to go to the moon?
- If a hockey puck is set in motion across a frozen pond. If ice friction and air resistance are neglected, what force is required to keep the puck sliding at a constant velocity?
- Compare vector and scalar quantities.
- If an object’s mass decreases while a constant force is applied to the object, the acceleration will
- ______.
- An object is pulled northward with a force of 25 N and southward with a force of 10 N. What is the magnitude of the net force on the object?
- The force of friction on a sliding object is 10 N. What is the magnitude of the applied force needed to maintain a constant velocity?
- A tow truck exterts a force of 4000 N on a car, accelerating it at 2m/s/s. What is the mass of the car?
- Hang from a pair of gym rings and the upward support forces of the rings will always
- ______.
- A boy pulls on a 15 kg with a constant force of 30 N. What is the wagon’s acceleration in meters per second per second?
- A bag of groceries has a mass of 10 Kg and a weight of
- about ______.
- A 600 N skydiver opens her parachute and experiences an air resistance force of 800 N. What is the net force on the skydiver?
- Why do we observe a shift of spectral lines toward the red end of the visible spectrum when we look at light from distant galaxies?
- What type of EM radiation does Earth radiate?
- Describe the cause of winds.
- What causes the movement of tectonic plates?
- Which type of air mass is associated with warm dry conditions? warm wet conditions? cool dry conditions?
- Describe how the rate of cooling impacts crystal size in igneous rocks.
- Where is Earth’s magnetic field generated?
- Folding and erosion occurred after the formation of ______but before the formation of ______.
- In which diagram would the observer experiences the greatest intensity of insolation? the least intense insolation?
- Where does most seismic activity, volcanism and mountain building occur?
- Describe a divergent boundary.
- What type of rock contains visible fossils?
- Describe the relationship between temperature and the length of the radiation emitted.
- What layer do tectonic plates sit on top of?
- What two variables are shown on a climatogram?
- Draw a rough graph of the depth of the earth quakes versus distance from the trench on the blank graph below.
- Desribe the sequence of events for this outcropping. Use terms like deposition, uplift, folding, erosion, intrusion, extrusion. Start with the most recent event at the top of your list.
- What would cause the folding of layester C, D, E, F and G?
- Which two layers represent rocks of the same age?
- Describe alocation that would have a climate similar to each of the graphs shown below.
- Use the diagrams in your rock packets to answer these questions:
- What name is applied to coarse grained, felsic igneous rock?
- What name is given to a sedimentary fragmental rock composed of pebbles or cobbles cemented together?
- What clastic sedimentary rock has the smallest grains of sediment?
- What sedimentary rock is primarily made of calcite?
- What sedimentary rock/s can change into marble?
- Which foliated metamorphic rock has the smallest crystasl?
- Why does convection occur?
- Which variable is always plotted on the x-axis? the y-axis?
- What is quantitative data? qualitative data?
- If Earth’s axis were tilted more than 23.5, what would happen to the seasonal average temperatures here in California?
- What is the magnitude of the frictional force acting on the object?
- Describe the motion of each of the carts shown below:
- What would be the best metric unit to measure the length of a dollar bill?
- One kilometer equals 1000 meters. What does the prefix kilo- mean?
- A person walks 1 mile every day for exercise, leaving her front porch at 9:00 am. and returning to her front porch at 9:25 am. What is the total displacement of her daily walk?
- Explain law of conservation of energy.
- Which of the following would change temperature most rapidly? Why?
- wood
- water
- metal
- wool
- What color sand could you sprinkle on snow to make it melt quickly?
- Describe the main difference between solids and liquids.
- What kind of electromagnetic radiation has wavelengths slightly longer than visible light?