GED and HiSET science — force, motion and waves

Physics on the GED and HiSET science tests is about motion and waves you already know from daily life: braking in traffic, moving loads at work, the sound of music, an X-ray at the clinic, a sunburn after a day outdoors. The questions ask you to recognize the principle behind the situation and, often, to use a simple formula that the question supplies or that you know well. This material builds both the ideas and the arithmetic.

The quiz covers forces and motion first. You explain with inertia (Newton's first law) why a passenger keeps moving forward when a car brakes, compute the force needed to accelerate a loaded pallet with F = ma, find a delivery truck's acceleration from its change in velocity, and decide what happens to a fishing boat when the engine's push and the water's drag are unbalanced. You compare the momentum of a heavy truck and a fast small car (p = mv), separate mass from weight for an astronaut on the Moon, and explain what a lever really gives a construction worker: less force over a longer distance, with the same work. Then the quiz turns to waves: calculating the speed of a sound wave from frequency and wavelength, linking amplitude to loudness and frequency to pitch, explaining why light crosses empty space while sound cannot, ordering the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays, and matching X-rays, ultraviolet light and microwaves with their real uses and hazards.

The flashcards review Newton's laws, the formulas for acceleration, momentum and wave speed, mass and weight, mechanical advantage, the order of the electromagnetic spectrum and the difference between mechanical and electromagnetic waves.

The written work asks you to explain motion and wave situations in a few sentences and to set out calculations with units: stopping a heavy truck, choosing a ramp, estimating the wavelength of a radio station, or explaining why a sunscreen matters. In the oral exam an examiner describes situations one at a time, asks which principle applies and how the numbers work, and gives brief feedback at the end.

Questions use metric units, with US customary units where they are natural. This is independent practice material based on the publicly described content of the two tests; it is not produced or endorsed by GED Testing Service or by ETS.

• Explain everyday motion with inertia and balanced or unbalanced forces
• Calculate force, acceleration and momentum with correct units
• Distinguish mass from weight
• Explain how simple machines trade force for distance without reducing work
• Calculate wave speed and relate amplitude and frequency to loudness and pitch
• Order the electromagnetic spectrum and describe uses and hazards of its parts

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the published descriptions of the GED Science test (ged.com) and the HiSET Science subtest (hiset.org: physical science — force, motion, energy and waves).