MHT-CET key terms

The motion of an object thrown into the air that moves only under gravity after launch, following a curved parabolic path when air resistance is ignored and horizontal and vertical motions are treated separately.

A measure of how strongly a body resists a change in its rotational motion, equal to the sum of mass times the square of distance from the axis for every particle in the body.

The minimum speed an object must be given at a planet's surface to escape its gravitational field permanently without further propulsion, ignoring air resistance and planetary rotation; about 11.2 km/s for Earth.

The apparent change in the observed frequency of a wave when the source, the observer, or both move relative to the medium carrying the wave.

The ability of a conductor arrangement to store electric charge per unit potential difference, measured in farads; for parallel plates it grows with plate area and shrinks with separation.

Two rules for circuits: the junction rule says charge entering a node equals charge leaving, and the loop rule says total potential changes around any closed loop sum to zero.

The emission of electrons from a metal surface when light of sufficiently high frequency falls on it; the kinetic energy of emitted electrons depends on frequency, not on intensity.

The energy required to separate all nucleons in a nucleus completely, equal to the mass defect multiplied by the square of the speed of light; it measures nuclear stability.

The rotational analogue of linear momentum, equal to the cross product of position and linear momentum, and conserved when no external torque acts on a system.

The mixing of atomic orbitals of similar energy on the same atom to form an equal number of new orbitals with identical shape and energy, explaining observed molecular geometries.

When a system at equilibrium is disturbed by a change in concentration, pressure or temperature, the position of equilibrium shifts in the direction that opposes that change.

A solution that resists a marked change in pH when small amounts of acid or base are added, usually containing a weak acid with its conjugate base or a weak base with its conjugate acid.

Pairs of stereoisomers that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other, with identical physical properties except the direction in which they rotate plane-polarised light.

When a hydrogen halide adds to an unsymmetrical alkene, the hydrogen attaches to the carbon carrying more hydrogen atoms, giving the more stable carbocation intermediate.

Properties of a solution that depend on the number of dissolved particles rather than their identity, such as vapour pressure lowering, boiling point elevation, freezing point depression and osmotic pressure.

The potential of a half-cell measured against the standard hydrogen electrode at 298 K with unit activity of ions and one bar pressure, indicating the tendency to gain electrons.

The special stability of planar, cyclic, fully conjugated systems containing 4n+2 pi electrons in a continuous ring of overlapping p orbitals, as seen in benzene.

An equation expressing the experimentally determined rate of a reaction as a function of the concentrations of reactants, each raised to a power called its order with respect to that reactant.

A function is continuous at a point when its limit there exists, the function is defined there, and that limit equals the function's value; informally, the graph has no break at that point.

The instantaneous rate of change of a function with respect to a variable, defined as the limit of the difference quotient as the change in the variable approaches zero.

A technique that rewrites the integral of a product as uv minus the integral of v du, obtained by rearranging the product rule for differentiation.

A single number computed from the entries of a square matrix that indicates whether the matrix is invertible and gives the scale factor of the associated linear transformation.

The chance that an event occurs given that another event has already occurred, written P(A|B), equal to the chance of both events happening divided by the chance of the given event.

If a function is continuous on a closed interval, differentiable on the open interval, and takes equal values at both endpoints, then its derivative is zero at least once inside.

The number obtained by changing the sign of the imaginary part, so a + bi becomes a - bi; multiplying a complex number by its conjugate gives a non-negative real number.

The probability distribution of the number of successes in a fixed number of independent trials, each having the same two possible outcomes and the same success probability.

The set of all points in a plane or in space that satisfy a given geometric condition, such as all points at an equal distance from a fixed point.

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

The movement of solvent molecules through a semipermeable membrane from a region of lower solute concentration to one of higher solute concentration, driven by a water potential gradient.

The process in which RNA polymerase builds an RNA molecule using one strand of DNA as a template, transferring genetic information from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in eukaryotes.

The set of rules linking each triplet of nucleotides in messenger RNA to a particular amino acid or to a stop signal during protein synthesis.

An enzyme that recognises a specific short DNA sequence and cuts the double strand there, producing fragments with sticky or blunt ends used in recombinant DNA work.

The microscopic functional unit of the kidney that filters blood and adjusts the composition of the filtrate to form urine, consisting of a renal corpuscle and a tubule.

Programmed cell death, a controlled sequence in which a cell shrinks, fragments and is cleared without inflammation, important in development and in removing damaged cells.

The differential survival and reproduction of individuals that vary in inherited traits, so that heritable features improving fitness become more common in later generations.

A Y-shaped protein produced by plasma cells that binds specifically to an antigen and helps neutralise it or mark it for destruction by the immune system.

The tendency of genes located close together on the same chromosome to be inherited together, reducing the proportion of recombinant offspring below the values expected from independent assortment.