Praxis 5005 flashcards
Praxis 5005 · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Inner core
- The solid, dense center of Earth made mostly of iron and nickel; immense pressure keeps it solid despite temperatures hotter than the Sun's surface.
- Divergent boundary
- A plate boundary where two plates move apart; magma rises to fill the gap, forming new oceanic crust and features such as mid-ocean ridges.
- Sedimentary rock
- Rock formed when sediments are deposited, compacted, and cemented together over time; it often preserves fossils and shows layers.
- Evaporation
- The process in which liquid water absorbs heat and changes into water vapor; it is a major source of moisture entering the atmosphere.
- Rotation versus revolution
- Rotation is Earth spinning on its axis, causing day and night; revolution is Earth orbiting the Sun, causing a year.
- Cause of seasons
- Earth's 23.5-degree axial tilt changes the angle and duration of sunlight reaching each hemisphere, producing seasonal temperature differences.
- Solar eclipse
- An event when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, blocking sunlight; it can occur only during a new moon phase.
- Law of superposition
- In undisturbed sedimentary rock layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom and the youngest is at the top.
- Cell theory
- The biological principle that all living things are made of cells, cells are the basic unit of life, and new cells arise from existing cells.
- Mitochondria
- Membrane-bound organelles that carry out aerobic respiration, converting glucose and oxygen into ATP, carbon dioxide, and water.
- Chloroplast
- A plant-cell organelle containing chlorophyll that captures light energy and uses it to make glucose during photosynthesis.
- Photosynthesis equation
- The summary equation 6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy yields C6H12O6 + 6O2, showing carbon dioxide and water forming glucose and oxygen.
- Meiosis
- A type of cell division that produces four haploid gametes; crossing over and independent assortment create genetic variation.
- Dominant allele
- An allele that is expressed in the phenotype whenever at least one copy is present, masking the effect of a recessive allele.
- Natural selection
- The process by which heritable traits that improve survival or reproduction become more common in a population over generations.
- Ten percent rule
- About 10 percent of the energy at one trophic level is transferred to the next; most is lost as heat through metabolism.
- Newton's first law
- An object at rest stays at rest, and a moving object keeps moving in a straight line at constant speed, unless a net force acts.
- Newton's second law
- The acceleration of an object equals the net force acting on it divided by its mass, summarized as F = ma.
- Kinetic energy
- The energy an object has because of its motion; it equals one-half mass times speed squared, KE = 1/2 mv^2.
- Potential energy
- Stored energy due to an object's position or arrangement; gravitational potential energy near Earth equals mass times gravity times height.
- Wave speed equation
- Wave speed equals frequency times wavelength (v = f lambda); in a given medium, speed is constant, so higher frequency means shorter wavelength.
- Refraction
- The bending of a wave, such as light, when it passes from one medium into another with a different wave speed.
- Conservation of mass
- In a chemical reaction, atoms are rearranged but not created or destroyed, so total mass of reactants equals total mass of products.
- pH scale
- A scale from 0 to 14 describing acidity or basicity; below 7 is acidic, 7 is neutral, above 7 is basic, and each unit is tenfold.
- Independent variable
- The factor an experimenter deliberately changes to test its effect; the dependent variable is the response that is measured.
- Control group
- A comparison group in an experiment that does not receive the treatment, helping show whether the independent variable caused the observed effect.
- Engineering design process
- A systematic cycle of defining a problem, identifying constraints, designing and building a prototype, testing, evaluating results, and improving the design.
- Accuracy versus precision
- Accuracy is how close a measurement is to the true value; precision is how closely repeated measurements agree with one another.
- Mean
- A measure of central tendency calculated by adding all values and dividing by the number of values; also called the average.
- Scientific model
- A simplified representation of a system or process used to explain observations and make predictions; models have limitations and can be revised.
- Peer review
- A process in which independent experts evaluate a study's methods, data, and conclusions before publication to check scientific quality.
- Trade-off
- An engineering decision in which gaining one benefit requires accepting a disadvantage or risk; designs are compared by weighing costs and benefits.