Physical Science SOL Practice Test — Set 3 of 4
Set 3 of 4 — 50 more free Physical Science SOL practice questions from official VDOE released tests.
1. Students rolled a marble down a ramp during several trials. They were given the hypothesis: If friction increases, then the rolling distance of a marble will decrease. What should be changed to best test this hypothesis?
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Answer: C — Roughness of the ramp surface
2. A student recorded the temperature of an aquarium each hour for 8 hours. Which of these will best display the data the student collected?
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Answer: D — Line graph
3. A cold air mass moves underneath a warm air mass, causing the warm air to rise. This event can best be identified as —
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Answer: A — a cold front
4. Which body of water is often protected naturally from storms by barrier islands and also contains a mixture of fresh water and salt water?
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Answer: A — Estuary
5. Conversion Table: 1 km = 1,000? 1 m = 100? Which of these best completes the conversion table?
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Answer: D — 1 km = 1,000 m; 1 m = 100 cm
6. A student measured the power of a motor operating at different temperatures. The student recorded a total of 11 measurements, one at each 2-degree interval between 10 °C and 30 °C. Which change in the procedure would most improve the validity of conclusions based on this investigation?
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Answer: C — Repeating the experiment several times
7. Which of these has the strongest gravitational field?
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Answer: A — Sun
8. Students placed steel wool into four liquids arranged from most acidic to neutral. Observations showed that more acidic liquids produced bubbles more quickly and caused the steel wool to turn brown faster. Which is the best conclusion based on these observations?
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Answer: A — The more acidic the substance, the faster it reacts with steel wool.
9. Which is the result of using a more powerful motor to run an elevator?
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Answer: A — The same amount of work is done in less time.
10. A major scientific concern over nuclear energy is how to —
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Answer: D — store the waste products safely
11. Why is water known as the “universal solvent”?
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Answer: C — It dissolves the greatest number of substances.
12. Which of these has been improved by genetic engineering?
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Answer: D — Resistance of corn plants to insects
13. Which action will most reduce the use of nonrenewable energy resources in a school district?
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Answer: D — Replacing current lighting with more efficient lighting
14. Sound waves are unable to travel through —
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Answer: B — a vacuum
15. The speed of light is about 300,000,000 m/s. Which is the correct expression for the speed of light in scientific notation?
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Answer: D — 3.0 × 10⁸ m/s
16. Which of these properties of an unknown liquid can be found using a beaker, a hot plate, and a temperature probe?
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Answer: B — Boiling point
17. A group of campers travels to a cabin that has no electrical power. In order to provide power for a heater and lights, which device would be appropriate?
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Answer: C — A generator
18. Which of these is most likely the result of weasels and foxes depending on the same food source?
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Answer: A — The populations will compete with each other.
19. A farmer wants to plant a crop that grows well in a marshland environment. To produce a good harvest, the most important characteristic this plant should have is the ability to —
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Answer: A — thrive in wet soil
20. Water is heated in a glass pot on an electric heater. As heating continues, the volume of water decreases, and water droplets form on a cool surface placed above the pot. In this setup, water —
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Answer: B — vaporizes and then condenses
21. Which is an abiotic change in an ecosystem?
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Answer: D — Annual rainfall totals for an area increase.
22. Physical and chemical weathering processes are responsible for breaking down rocks. Which of these is an example of chemical weathering by water?
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Answer: B — Limestone reacts with acid rain and dissolves.
23. In a partial periodic table, a single horizontal row of elements is shaded. This shaded row is called a —
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Answer: D — period
24. White-footed mice have thicker fur than cactus mice. This difference is probably influenced most by differences in the —
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Answer: C — environmental climates where they live
25. During human fertilization, an egg cell and a sperm cell unite. Which structures in these cells carry the genes that will be transferred to the offspring?
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Answer: C — Chromosomes
26. Which facility relies on a nonrenewable source of energy?
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Answer: C — A power station that burns coal
27. As the frequency of a wave decreases, the wave’s —
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Answer: D — wavelength increases
28. A zebra has tick birds on its back. The tick birds eat ticks found on the zebra and alert the zebra to nearby predators. What is the primary type of interaction between the tick birds and the zebra?
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Answer: A — Mutualism
29. Which change will most likely increase the strength of a magnetic field produced by an electromagnet?
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Answer: D — Add a battery
30. The physical expression of a trait in an organism is known as the —
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Answer: C — phenotype
31. Earth’s atmosphere includes the stratosphere (approximately 10–50 km above Earth’s surface) and the mesosphere (approximately 50–90 km above Earth’s surface). Which statement correctly describes a difference between these two layers?
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Answer: B — The mesosphere contains fewer oxygen molecules than the stratosphere.
32. A food web includes grass, shrubs, and trees as plant organisms, along with rabbits, deer, snakes, and hawks. Which organisms in this food web are producers?
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Answer: A — Grass, shrubs, and trees
33. Which of these represents the freezing point of water in correct SI units?
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Answer: A — 0 °C
34. A girl kicks a soccer ball into the air. Which of these best explains why the soccer ball falls back to Earth?
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Answer: B — The motion of the ball is changed by external forces.
35. Students measured the amount of an unknown substance that dissolved in water at different temperatures. What was the independent variable in this investigation?
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Answer: C — Water temperature
36. Which characteristic is common to the four outer planets in our solar system?
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Answer: D — Gaseous composition
37. When comparing a plant cell to an animal cell, only the plant cell will contain —
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Answer: C — chloroplasts
38. A student measures her heart rate after each of the following activities: one hour of napping, one hour of watching television, and one hour of walking on a treadmill. Which factor is a constant in the investigation?
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Answer: B — Length of activity time
39. Which of these is the best description of a typical organism in the Plant kingdom?
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Answer: C — Makes its own food
40. Which of these is a way that a person can help improve air quality?
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Answer: B — Carpool with several people
41. Which of these best completes the statement about the interaction of the respiratory system with the circulatory system?
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Answer: H — Oxygen is added to the blood
42. Which of these will cause water to change to ice?
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Answer: A — Removing heat from the water
43. Crickets chirp to attract other crickets. A graph shows temperature (°C) on the horizontal axis and number of chirps per minute on the vertical axis. The data show that as temperature increases, the number of chirps per minute increases steadily. Which statement is most likely true for the data represented?
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Answer: H — The warmer the temperature, the more often crickets chirp.
44. A periodic table is shown with families labeled. Which of the following elements belongs to the family indicated?
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Answer: B — Helium belongs to the noble gas family.
45. A graph shows populations of lemmings and snowy owls over eight years. Lemming populations increase sharply about every four years. Shortly after each increase in lemmings, the snowy owl population also increases. Which statement is supported by the data?
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Answer: J — The snowy owl population increases because of an increase in lemmings.
46. Which of these has the greatest number of different simple machines?
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Answer: C — A bicycle
47. The atom is composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons. What is the electric charge on the neutron?
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Answer: H — 0
48. A tick that feeds on the blood of animals is a —
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Answer: D — parasite
49. The distance between one compression and the next compression in a sound wave is called a —
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Answer: F — wavelength
50. Which of the following do typical plant cells have that typical animal cells do not?
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Answer: D — Chloroplasts
Physical Science SOL practice test — FAQ
Are these Physical Science SOL practice questions free?
Yes — this Physical Science SOL practice test is completely free with no signup. Answer each question to check it instantly, or open "Show answer" to review.
How many Physical Science SOL practice questions are there?
Across all sets, there are 187 Physical Science practice questions drawn from official Virginia Department of Education released SOL tests. This set has 50.
Are these real Virginia SOL questions?
The questions are adapted from official VDOE released SOL tests for Physical Science. SOL Prep is an independent study aid and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Virginia Department of Education.
Practice items adapted from Virginia Department of Education released SOL tests. Practice items are provided for study purposes and are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Virginia Department of Education.