| A | B |
|---|
| speed | rate of change in position; in other words, a comparison of how far something moved to how long it spent moving |
| acceleration | rate of change of speed (can be speeding up or slowing down) |
| displacement | difference between starting and ending positions after motion; does not matter if you walked a lot, just where did you end up compared to where you originally started |
| Newton's 1st Law of Motion | an object's natural resistance to any change in its motion (acceleration) |
| inertia | another name for Newton's 1st Law of Motion; the more mass an object has, the more inertia it has |
| Newton's 2nd Law of Motion | relates the acceleration that an object will experience to its mass (inertia) and the force applied to it |
| Newton's 3rd Law of Motion | to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction |
| force | a push or pull that one body exerts on another |
| power | rate at which work is done; in other words, a comparison of the amount of work done to the time spent doing it |
| energy | ability of an object or phenomenon (like lightning) to cause change in its environment |
| potential energy | stored energy that comes from an object's position; the higher it is from the ground, the more potential it has |
| kinetic energy | energy that comes from motion |
| work | transfer of mechanical energy through motion; only counts in science if the object moves in the SAME direction as the force that caused it; carrying does NOT count! |
| thermal energy | internal energy of a substance caused by the vibration of its molecules; the higher the temperature the more thermal energy |
| heat | transfer of thermal energy from one substance to another; direction is from high to low |
| specific heat | the property of a substance that lets you know how much its temperature will increase as it absorbs thermal energy; water has a high specific heat so it absorbs a lot of thermal energy before it heats up but metal is the opposite |
| conduction | the transfer of thermal energy by direct contact |
| convection | the transfer of thermal energy in a circular pattern; occurs when a hot fluid rises upward due to decreased density and then expands |
| radiation | the transfer of thermal energy through the process of emitting radiant energy (usually infrared that you can't see) |
| power | rate at which electrical energy is transformed to usable energy to do work |
| mass | amount of matter in an object |
| static electricity | A buildup of either postive or negative charge on an object, usually caused by friction |
| electric field | Area around a charged object that affects the behavior of nearby objects |
| conductor | Material that rearranges well; lets both heat and electricity travel through it quickly |
| insulator | Material that does NOT rearrange well, so neither heat nor electricity can travel through it very well |
| discharge | Brief flow of electrons from a charged object to the rearranged object; lightning |
| electroscope | An instrument that is used to detect electrical charge |
| circuit | a closed path through which electric charges may travel (wires, voltage source, device) |
| voltage | energy source for a circuit, such as a battery or a generator |
| switch | a "drawbridge" like device that is used in a circuit to allow you to turn on and off the curent without having to touch the wires |
| resistor | used in a circuit BEFORE the current gets to your device so that it can use up any extra energy that is not needed but might ruin your device |
| deceleration | a negative acceleration (slowing down), so on a graph the speed is dropping over time |
| vector | an arrow used to represent a force; it points in the direction of the force and the greater the force, the longer the arrow is drawn |
| friction | a negative force; only acts to slow and object |
| centripetal force | causes motion in a curve; only affects an object's direction of travel and not its speed |
| air resistance | the upward force on an object falling through the air |
| equilibrium | state where all forces acting on an object are balanced out; object is sitting still |
| nonequilibrium | state where one of the forces acting on an object is bigger than the others; object moves in the direction that this greater force is moving |
| weight | a measure of the response of an object to the pull of a planet's gravitational force |
| projectile | anything that is shot or thrown |
| calorimeter | the instrument used by scientists to measure heat |
| Law of Conservation of Energy | states that energy is never created nor destroyed - it just "transforms" from type to type and object to object |
| in-series circuit | a circuit designed with only one possible pathway for current to flow; one bulb burns out, they all go out; cheap christmas lights |
| in-parallel circuit | a circuit design with more than one pathway (branch) for current to flow; one bulb burns out, then rest still work; houses |
| current | flowing charges in an electrical circuit |
| short circuit | an accidental extra path for electricity to flow that can lead to a fire |
| induction | the rearrangement (flipping) that happens within a neutral object when it is placed near a charged object |
| conductivity | how easily an object is able to rearrange (flip) its electrons when it is near a charged object |
| fuse | a safety device in a circuit that protects only one device and is not reusable |
| circuit breaker | a safety device in a circuit that protects several devices and is reusable |
| GFCI | a reusable safety device in a circuit that was invented solely to protect people from electrocution |
| magnetic domain | states that magnetized material is actually made up of many smaller magnets (atoms); formed after induction "sticks" |
| magnetic field | the area around a magnet where other nearby objects are influenced (affected) by its magnetism |
| superconductor | a magnetized material (like paint) allows current to flow through it indefinitely wihtout losing energy; Maglev trains like at Disney World |
| amplitude | how big a cycle is in terms of distance or angle away from the medium's at rest position |
| wave | rhythmic disturbances that carry energy through matter or space |
| wavelength | length of one completthe distance between any 2 identical points on adjacent waves, such as crest to crest |
| medium | a material through which a wave travels and transfers energy; can be ANY state of matter |
| infrasonic | sound below the range that humans can detect |
| ultrasonic | sound above the range that humans can detect |
| transverse wave | energy of the wave moves perpendicular to the motion of the medium; looks like an S |
| longitudinal wave | energy of the wave moves in the same direction as the medium; like a slinky |
| compression | the more dense (squished) part of a longitudinal wave |
| rarefaction | the less dense, spread apart, part of a longitudinal wave |
| crest | the highest point on a transverse wave |
| trough | the lowest point on a transverse wave |
| reverberation | the reflection of sound waves |
| constructive interference | happens when 2 waves meet crest to crest and combine energies to briefly create a higher ampliitude |
| destructive interference | happens when 2 waves meet crest to trough and subtract energies to briefly create a lower ampliitude |
| photon | particle-like "bundles" of radiation that have mass; found in all forms of light |
| bioluminescence | light that is sometimes created within a living organism |
| photoluminescence | light that is absorbed and then re-emitted |
| rod | the photoreceptor in your eye that allows you to detect how bright/dim the light ist |
| cone | the photoreceptor in your eye that allows you to detect shape and color |
