Physics Registry Practice Test

These questions are part of the practice quiz. Start practicing

• What is the method by which a phased array transducer steers the transmitted sound beam?
• Which of the following transducers fires the elements in groups?
• The acoustic impedance of a transducer's matching layer is chosen primarily to:
• What is defined as an elastic collision?
• Most current ultrasound systems have _____ shades of gray available.
• What best defines a photon?
• What unit is used to measure energy?
• The speed of sound in soft tissue is _____.
• What effect does increasing the frequency of a transducer have on spatial resolution?
• In which zone does beam divergence occur?
• Arrange the following media in terms of propagation speed from lowest to highest:
• An ultrasound transducer converts:
• How does a lens focus light?
• The echoes are stored before final display by the:
• If a sound beam encounters an interface at a 90-degree angle with tissue sound speeds of 1540 m/s and 1450 m/s, what is the angle of transmission?
• According to Charles's Law, how does temperature affect gas volume?
• What effect does increasing frequency of a transducer have on propagation speed?
• What appears to happen to a reflector when sound travels through a large quantity of water?
• Which of the following represents a physical principle related to ultrasound transmission?
• What is the formula used to express Hooke's Law?
• Which grayscale system is commonly used for signal dynamic range reduction?
• What happens to kinetic energy if the velocity of an object doubles?
• In tissue harmonic imaging, the frequency used is:
• Which operator control increases the acoustic exposure to the patient?
• What does the range equation explain?
• If the amplitude of a wave is tripled, how does the power change?
• What is the relationship between amplitude and frequency?
• Which best describes an electromagnetic wave?
• As frequency increases, what generally happens to the resolution of the imaging?
• Which statement is true about parallel circuits?
• In ultrasound, what does an increase in pulse repetition frequency affect?
• Which of the following is the unit of intensity?
• What is the approximate value of the acceleration due to gravity near the Earth's surface?
• What is the relationship between spatial pulse length (SPL) and pulse duration?
• What is the relationship between power and amplitude in waves?
• What determines the near-zone length in ultrasound imaging?
• What does an increase in amplitude indicate in wave behavior?
• Which statement correctly distinguishes between transverse and longitudinal waves?
• What device is used to measure acoustic output intensity levels?
• What does Hooke's Law describe?
• In B-mode imaging, where is amplitude located on the image?
• What is the total attenuation of a 3.5 MHz pulse after passing through 2 cm of soft tissue?
• If the _____ is increased, how does it affect flow?
• What is the role of a capacitor in an electrical circuit?
• What is the typical unit of frequency?
• What is represented along the x-axis on a spectral Doppler waveform?
• When measuring the speed of sound, which law is often applied?
• Which of the following is best defined as the ability to discriminate between two closely spaced reflectors?
• Which factor relates bandwidth to operating frequency?
• What else changes with a change in amplitude?
• What does increasing the number of focal zones generally do to the frame rate in ultrasound imaging?
• What describes the Doppler Effect?
• What does the law of conservation of energy state?
• What is the fundamental difference between a conductor and an insulator?
• The echo intensity on a grayscale of 32 shades is represented by the binary number:
• If the amount of damping in an ultrasound system decreases, the bandwidth will:
• What does 'amplitude' represent in wave physics?
• Which law is used to describe the refraction of light rays?
• How does viscous blood affect flow according to Poiseuille's law?
• What happens to the power if the intensity is doubled?
• How does friction affect motion?
• How does an increase in temperature typically affect gas pressure?
• When sound waves pass through a medium with a propagation speed less than 1540 m/s, how are reflectors displayed?
• Which of the following laws is not related to fluid dynamics?
• How does increasing the frequency of ultrasound affect its attenuation in soft tissue?
• How is the slice-thickness plane focused in the most common type of transducers?
• Which of the following best describes kinetic energy?
• Arrange the following media in correct order from the lowest attenuation to highest:
• Which factor determines the radial (axial) resolution of a system?
• The region where the sound beam is the smallest is called:
• What does a sine wave represent in physics?
• How many different shades of gray can the human eye discern at one time?
• Which of the following resolutions is least affected by changing the focus settings in ultrasound?
• What does the Doppler effect explain?
• What is a common characteristic of electric potential energy?
• Given an intensity transmission coefficient of 0.74, what will be the intensity reflection coefficient?
• What does Poiseuille's law specifically address?
• What is true about axial resolution?
• What happens to kinetic energy when work is done on an object?
• What type of resolution allows the ability to resolve two reflectors that lie parallel to the beam?
• What unit is used to measure impedance?
• The wavelength in a material having a propagation speed of 1.5 mm/μs with a transducer frequency of 5.0 MHz is:
• What is the most common type of flow found in the body?
• What is the number of pulses that occur in 1 second known as?
• What does the refractive index measure?
• What condition must be met for an object to be in static equilibrium?
• What is a video display that only shows black and white called?
• In a pendulum, what happens to the potential and kinetic energy as it swings?
• According to Newton's laws, what is the result of an unbalanced force acting on a stationary object?
• Which frequency range represents audible sound?
• What does Pascal's Principle state?
• Enhancement is caused by:
• Which unit is used to measure spatial pulse length?
• What happens to the beam area as distance from the transducer increases in the Fresnel zone?
• What concept does inertia represent?
• Which of the following is described best as a transducer that has multiple elements in a curved shape?
• Which characteristic of laminar flow is correct?
• What does preprocessing determine in relation to echoes?
• The attenuation coefficient is commonly expressed in what unit?
• Which of the following methods preserves pixel density when enlarging the image?
• If two reflectors are 1.3 mm apart in a plane parallel to the beam, what will happen with an SPL of 2.6 mm?
• How can axial resolution be improved?
• What is the definition of frequency in the context of physics?
• In ultrasound imaging, what type of resolution refers to the ability to differentiate two structures that are close together?
• What is a common characteristic of exothermic reactions?
• In ultrasound imaging, what element does the term "write magnification" refer to?
• What type of reflection occurs when the reflector is significantly larger than the wavelength?
• What distinguishes scalar quantities from vector quantities?
• What is Newton's Second Law of Motion?
• What is the final intensity if a wave's initial intensity is 2 mW/cm² with an increase of 10 dB?
• What happens to flow if vessel length is decreased, assuming all other factors remain constant?
• Which of the following describes the near field in ultrasound?
• What principle states that sound waves arise from the interference of many wavelets at the transducer face?
• If a 5-MHz wave travels through 5 cm of soft tissue, what happens to the propagation speed if a 3.5-MHz transducer is selected instead?
• Which term describes the ability to distinguish between two separate structures in an image?
• Compression as a signal process is primarily concerned with what?
• Which of the following best describes an endothermic reaction?
• What happens to the angle of transmission if the speed of sound in the second medium is less than in the first when the sound beam hits at an angle?
• Which principle describes the inverse relationship between velocity and pressure?
• Assuming oblique angle of incidence, what will the angle of transmission be if the propagation speed of medium 1 is greater than that of medium 2?
• What is the key difference between endothermic and exothermic reactions?
• In which type of reaction is energy actively absorbed?
• What does the principle of conservation of momentum entail?
• What is the relationship between the density of a medium and the speed of sound in that medium?
• What medium has the slowest propagation speed?
• What is the average attenuation of ultrasound in dB/cm for each megahertz of frequency?
• The piezoelectric effect can best be described as what?
• What is the unit of pressure amplitude?
• What defines a magnetic field?
• What is the typical value for the attenuation coefficient for 6-MHz ultrasound in soft tissue?
• What is torque a measure of?
• How is momentum of an object calculated?
• What law explains the angle of transmission at an interface based on the angle of incidence and propagation speeds?
• What does the first law of thermodynamics state?
• Which of these best describes a conductor in an electrical context?
• What is the layer of material within the transducer that has an intermediate impedance between the transducer element and human tissue called?
• What does the first law of thermodynamics imply about energy transformations?
• A decibel (dB) describes what aspect of sound?
• In normal incidence, if the impedance of medium 2 equals that of medium 1, what happens to the intensity?
• Which formula would most likely be used in applications of Snell's law?
• What happens to the amplitude of a wave if its energy is increased?
• What is a primary drawback of using higher frequencies in ultrasound?
• How is acceleration defined?
• The frequency ranges for ultrasound are _____.
• What effect does an unbalanced force have on an object?
• A transducer with which frequency would have the thickest elements?
• How is total mechanical energy calculated in a system?
• What does the work-energy principle state?
• What does the term 'kinetic energy' refer to?
• What happens to the intensity reflection coefficient when the intensity transmission coefficient is 0.5?
• Which frequency is classified as infrasound?
• Which operator control adjusts the intensity of the transmitted pulse?
• What Doppler mode uses the amplitude of the Doppler shift to provide an image demonstrating flow in a vessel?
• What happens to gas pressure if the volume is held constant and the temperature is increased?
• What is the correct equation for Snell's law?
• What does the distance to reflector depend on, according to the range equation?
• Which equation is used to express Newton's Second Law of Motion?
• What is an effect of focusing on ultrasound imaging?
• Which of the following describes the three types of heat transfer?
• Which statement is true about color Doppler imaging?
• How do sound waves travel through different mediums?
• Which of the following describes how fluid velocity affects pressure?
• Which of the following materials is most commonly used in ultrasound transducers?
• If the frequency of a transducer is increased, what happens to the wavelength?
• What must be known in order to calculate the distance to a reflector?
• When two sound beams with different frequencies travel through soft tissue, which will travel faster?
• Which statement accurately describes simple harmonic motion?
• What portion of the ultrasound system drives the transducer?
• How does the size of the aperture affect the near zone?
• What is the effect of a thinner piezoelectric element on frequency?
• Which force results in an acceleration of an object?
• What is the initial format of information that travels to the scan converter from the receiver?
• What is the outcome of an elastic collision?
• What is the primary function of a circuit breaker in an electrical system?
• In which condition can a conductor material be typically found?
• A two-element continuous-wave transducer is primarily used for:
• What effect does increasing pressure have on a fluid according to Pascal's Principle?
• What does ALARA stand for in a clinical context?
• In a series circuit, how does current behave?
• What is the formula for gravitational potential energy?
• What is a characteristic application of Snell's law?
• How can the attenuation coefficient of sound in soft tissue be defined?
• Which statement about energy transformation is true?
• Which property of ultrasound imaging is improved by increasing the size of the transducer aperture?
• What factor is NOT directly described by Snell's Law?
• Which of the following represents the strength of the beam?
• Which two particles are found in the nucleus of an atom?
• How is buoyancy fundamentally defined in fluid mechanics?
• If the gain of an amplifier is 18 dB, what is the gain after reducing the power by one-half?
• What happens to temporal resolution when more focal zones are used?
• Which statement regarding SPTA and SPTP is correct?
• In which context would Bernoulli's principle be irrelevant?
• Area is measured in which unit?
• Which law describes the relationship between temperature and gas pressure?
• Bandwidth is defined as:
• What is the principle of superposition in wave physics?
• Which is NOT a method of heat transfer?
• The unit for wavelength is:
• Which factor is not related to axial resolution?
• What does Rayleigh scattering exemplify?
• The length of the pulse is known as what?
• Specular reflections occur when?
• What is the maximum temperature increase that should not induce thermal biologic effects?
• What characterizes the motion in simple harmonic motion?
• The spatial resolution capabilities of the system are primarily functions of the:
• What is the primary focus of Doppler's law?
• How many bits of pixel can be displayed with 4 bits of memory?
• What is the preferred method of sterilizing ultrasound transducers?
• What is the reflected intensity from a boundary between two materials if the incident intensity is 1 mW/cm² and the impedances are 25 and 75?
• Which law describes the relationship between flow and pressure differential, viscosity, and vessel length?
• What is acoustic impedance defined as?
• Which parameter can be adjusted by the operator?
• What is defined as absolute zero?
• What is the formula for work done on an object?
• What occurs during thermal equilibrium?
• How is frequency related to wave speed?
• What is the unit of measurement for electrical resistance?
• Which of the following laws pertains to the flow of viscous fluids?
• How is pressure defined in relation to force?
• What type of wave is sound?
• Which characteristic of sound is referenced by the term 'wavelength'?
• What technique allows for 'virtual palpation' of a lesion?
• What does Coulomb's Law describe?
• What is buoyancy?
• The intensity transmission coefficient is equal to what?
• Which type of energy is represented at the highest point of a pendulum swing?
• How does a figure skater increase their spin speed?
• What is the name of the control that compensates for attenuation related to path length?
• What does the term "vector" imply in physics?
• What is one benefit of using tissue harmonic imaging?
• Diffraction refers to what phenomenon?
• What is electric potential energy fundamentally based on?
• Which of the following factors does NOT affect gravitational potential energy?
• What distinguishes speed from velocity?