BHSEC (Class XII) key terms

The quantity of a good or service that buyers are willing and able to purchase at each possible price during a given period, other things held constant.

The quantity of a good or service that sellers are willing and able to offer for sale at each possible price during a given period, with all other influences unchanged.

The market price at which the quantity demanded by buyers exactly equals the quantity supplied by sellers, so there is neither a shortage nor a surplus.

A measure of how strongly the quantity demanded responds to a change in price, calculated as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price.

The value of the next best alternative given up when a choice is made, representing what must be sacrificed to obtain something else with limited resources.

The condition in which available resources are limited while human wants are unlimited, forcing individuals and societies to make choices about how resources are used.

The total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country's borders during a specified period, usually one year, used to measure national output.

A sustained rise in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over time, which reduces the purchasing power of money.

A bookkeeping method in which every transaction is recorded in at least two accounts, with equal debit and credit amounts, so that total debits always equal total credits.

The two opposing sides of an account: debit records increases in assets and expenses, while credit records increases in liabilities, capital, and income, following fixed accounting rules.

The first record of a business transaction in the books of account, showing the date, the accounts affected, the amounts debited and credited, and a short explanation.

A book containing all the accounts of a business, where journal entries are posted so that each account shows its balance and transactions can be summarised by type.

A statement listing the balances of all ledger accounts at a particular date to check that total debits equal total credits and that arithmetic posting errors are absent.

The systematic allocation of the cost of a fixed asset over its useful life, reflecting the loss of value from use, wear, and obsolescence.

A financial statement prepared at a specific date showing a firm's assets, liabilities, and owner's equity, thereby revealing its financial position at that moment.

A business owned and controlled by one person, who receives all profits and bears unlimited personal liability for the debts and obligations of the business.

A business form in which two or more persons agree to carry on a business together and share its profits and losses according to the terms of their agreement.

A legal protection under which owners of a company are responsible for its debts only up to the amount they have invested, so personal assets remain safe.

The set of controllable elements a firm combines to influence demand, commonly grouped as product, price, place, and promotion, used to reach chosen target markets.

The specific group of customers, defined by shared needs or characteristics, at which a firm aims its products and marketing efforts.

A finite, ordered set of unambiguous steps that solves a problem or performs a computation, which can be represented as pseudocode or a flowchart before coding.

A diagram that uses standard symbols such as ovals, rectangles, and diamonds connected by arrows to show the sequence of steps in an algorithm or process.

A structured, informal language using plain words and programming-like constructs to describe an algorithm, readable by humans without depending on any specific programming language.

A field or combination of fields in a database table that uniquely identifies each record and cannot contain duplicate or null values.

A field in one table that refers to the primary key of another table, creating a link between the tables and helping to maintain referential integrity.

An organised collection of related data stored so that it can be easily accessed, managed, and updated, usually controlled by database management software.

The principle that the net force acting on a body equals its mass multiplied by its acceleration, so acceleration is proportional to force and inversely proportional to mass.

The product of an object's mass and its velocity, a vector quantity that is conserved in a closed system when no external force acts.

The statement that the current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference across it, provided its temperature remains constant.

The opposition offered by a material to the flow of electric current, measured in ohms and equal to the potential difference divided by the current.

The amount of substance containing as many elementary particles as there are atoms in twelve grams of carbon-12, approximately 6.02 x 10^23 particles.

A measure of solution concentration expressed as the number of moles of solute dissolved in one litre of solution, with units of moles per litre.

A chemical change in which a substance loses electrons, gains oxygen, or loses hydrogen, often accompanied by an increase in oxidation number.

A chemical change in which a substance gains electrons, loses oxygen, or gains hydrogen, often accompanied by a decrease in oxidation number.

The process by which green plants use light energy, carbon dioxide, and water to produce glucose and oxygen inside chloroplasts containing the pigment chlorophyll.

The controlled release of energy from organic molecules such as glucose within cells, producing ATP and, in aerobic conditions, carbon dioxide and water.

A type of cell division producing two genetically identical daughter cells with the same chromosome number as the parent, important for growth and repair.

A reduction division producing four daughter cells, each with half the chromosome number of the parent cell, forming gametes and creating genetic variation.