ASVAB General Science Practice Test 129760

Questions 5
Topics Decomposers, Ecosystem, Law of Universal Gravitation, Mass vs. Weight, Nucleus

Study Guide

Decomposers

Decomposers (saprotrophs) are organisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down the organic matter in the dead bodies of plants and animals into simple nutrients.

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. This includes both the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living).

Law of Universal Gravitation

Newton's law of universal gravitation defines gravity: All objects in the universe attract each other with an equal force that varies directly as a product of their masses, and inversely as a square of their distance from each other. Expressed as a formula: \(\vec{F_{g}} = { Gm_{1}m_{2} \over r^2}\) where r is the distance between the two objects and G is the gravitational constant with a value of 6.67 x 10-11.

Mass vs. Weight

Mass is the amount of matter something has while weight is the force exerted on an object's mass by gravity. So, although a person's mass doesn't change when going from the Earth to the Moon, their weight will decrease because the force of the Moon's gravity is much less than that of Earth.

Nucleus

Cells are classified into one of two groups based on whether or not they have a nucleus. Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus, prokaryotic cells do not have a nucleus and therefore have a less complex structure than eukaryotic cells.