Mcat

Front 1

Vectors

Back 1

Physical quantities that have both magnitude and direction

Front 2

Scalars

Back 2

Quantities without direction.

Scalar quantities may be a magnitude of vectors.

Front 3

How is vector subtraction accomplished?

Back 3

By changing the direction of the subtracted vector and then following the procedures for vector addition.

Front 4

How is vector addition accomplished?

Back 4

Using tip to tail method or by breaking a vector into its components and using Pythagorean Theorem.

Front 5

Dot product

Back 5

The product of the vectors’ magnitudes and the cosine of the angle between them.

Front 6

Cross Product

Back 6

The product of the vectors’ magnitudes and the sine of the angle between them.

Front 7

Displacement

Back 7

The vector representation of a change in position.

Front 8

Distance

Back 8

Scalar quantity that reflects the path traveled

Front 9

Velocity

Back 9

The vector representation of the change in displacement with respect to time

Front 10

Average velocity

Back 10

Total displacement divided by total time.

Front 11

Average speed

Back 11

The total distance traveled divided by the total time

Front 12

Instantaneous velocity

Back 12

Limit of the change in displacement over time as the change in time approaches zero.

Front 13

Instantaneous speed

Back 13

The magnitude of the instantaneous velocity vector.

Front 14

Force

Back 14

Any push or pool that has the potential to result in acceleration.

Front 15

Gravity

Back 15

The attractive force between two objects as a result of their masses.

Front 16

Friction

Back 16

A force that opposes motion as a function of electrostatic interactions at the surface between two objects.

Front 17

Static friction

Back 17

Exists between two objects that are not in motion relative to each other.

Front 18

Kinetic friction

Back 18

Exist between two objects that are in motion relative to each other.

Front 19

Coefficient of friction

Back 19

Depends on two materials in contact. The coefficient of static friction is always higher than the coefficient of kinetic friction.

Front 20

Mass

Back 20

A measure of inertia of an object.

Front 21

Weight

Back 21

The force experienced by a given mass due to the gravitational attraction to earth.

Front 22

Acceleration

Back 22

The vector representation of the change in velocity over time.

Front 23

The Law of Inertia

Back 23

Newton’s 1st Law- an object will remain at rest or move with a constant velocity if there is no net force on it.

Front 24

Newton’s Second Law

Back 24

Any acceleration is the result of the sum of the forces acting upon the object and its mass.

Front 25

Newton’s Third Law

Back 25

Any two objects interacting with one another experience equal and opposite forces as a result of the interaction.

Front 26

Linear motion

Back 26

Includes free fall and motion in which the velocity and acceleration vectors are parallel or anti parallel.

Front 27

Projectile motion

Back 27

Contains both an x- and y- component. Assuming negligible air resistance, the only force acting on the object is gravity.

Front 28

Inclined planes

Back 28

An example of two-dimensional movement. Easiest to consider the dimensions as being parallel and perpendicular to the surface of the plane.

Front 29

Circular motion

Back 29

Has radial and tangential dimensions. In uniform circular motion,the only force is the centripetal force.

Front 30

Free body diagrams

Back 30

Representations of the forces acting on an object.

Useful for equilibrium and dynamics problems.

Front 31

Rotational equilibrium

Back 31

Occurs in the absence of any net torques acting on an object.

An object in rotational equilibrium has a constant angular velocity.

Front 32

Right-hand-rule

Back 32

Find direction once we have the magnitude x and y

Front 33

SI unit for force

Back 33

Newton kg•m over ssquared