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🇺🇸 GED (General Educational Development) · flashcards
GED (General Educational Development) Science Flashcards
59 question-and-answer cards covering Science as it is examined in GED (General Educational Development). 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Science deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What is the basic structure of an atom?
A central nucleus of positively charged protons and neutral neutrons, surrounded by negatively charged electrons in surrounding energy levels.
What does the atomic number of an element represent?
The number of protons in the nucleus, which defines the identity of the element.
How are elements arranged in the periodic table?
By increasing atomic number; vertical columns (groups) share similar chemical properties and horizontal rows (periods) share the same number of electron shells.
What is the difference between an element and a compound?
An element consists of only one type of atom; a compound is two or more different elements chemically bonded in a fixed ratio.
What does the Law of Conservation of Mass state?
Matter cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction; the total mass of the reactants equals the total mass of the products.
In a chemical equation, what is the difference between reactants and products?
Reactants are the starting substances written on the left of the arrow; products are the new substances formed, written on the right.
Why must chemical equations be balanced?
To satisfy the Law of Conservation of Mass; the number of each type of atom must be equal on both sides of the equation.
What is the difference between a physical change and a chemical change?
A physical change alters form or state without forming a new substance (e.g., melting); a chemical change produces a new substance with new properties (e.g., burning).
What does Newton's First Law of Motion (inertia) state?
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion at constant velocity unless acted on by an unbalanced (net) force.
What is the formula relating force, mass, and acceleration (Newton's Second Law)?
Force = mass x acceleration (F = ma), where force is in newtons, mass in kilograms, and acceleration in m/s^2.
How is speed calculated, and what are its units?
Speed = distance / time; common units are meters per second (m/s).
What is the formula for work in physics?
Work = force x distance (W = Fd), measured in joules, when the force acts in the direction of motion.
How is power defined and calculated?
Power is the rate of doing work: Power = work / time (P = W/t), measured in watts.
What does the Law of Conservation of Energy state?
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another or transferred; the total energy stays constant.
What are the three main layers of the Earth's interior?
The crust (thin outer layer), the mantle (thick middle layer of hot, semi-solid rock), and the core (outer liquid and inner solid, mostly iron and nickel).
What is the theory of plate tectonics?
Earth's outer shell is divided into large plates that slowly move on the mantle, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain formation at their boundaries.
What are the three main types of rock and how does each form?
Igneous rock forms from cooled magma/lava; sedimentary rock forms from compacted sediments; metamorphic rock forms when existing rock is changed by heat and pressure.
What are the main steps of the water cycle?
Evaporation (water to vapor), condensation (vapor to clouds), precipitation (rain/snow), and collection/runoff back into bodies of water.
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather is the short-term, day-to-day state of the atmosphere; climate is the average weather pattern of a region over a long period (typically 30+ years).
What is the greenhouse effect?
Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane trap heat radiated from Earth's surface in the atmosphere, warming the planet; excess greenhouse gases intensify global warming.
What is the difference between a renewable and a nonrenewable resource?
Renewable resources are naturally replenished within a human lifetime (e.g., solar, wind, water); nonrenewable resources form over millions of years and are depleted faster than replaced (e.g., coal, oil, natural gas).
Name one major human impact on the environment and its consequence.
Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect and contributing to climate change (other valid answers: deforestation reduces habitat and oxygen; pollution harms ecosystems).
What keeps the planets in orbit around the Sun?
The Sun's gravity, which provides the centripetal force that holds the planets in their orbital paths.
What is the difference between a star, a planet, and a galaxy?
A star is a luminous ball of gas that produces its own light through fusion; a planet orbits a star and reflects light; a galaxy is an enormous collection of billions of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity.
What this deck covers
The Science deck follows the GED (General Educational Development) Science syllabus — 4 chapters and 17 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 14.8 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 140 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Science flashcards FAQ
How many Science flashcards are in this GED (General Educational Development) deck?
59 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these GED (General Educational Development) flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 59-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Science cards cover?
They follow the GED (General Educational Development) Science syllabus — 4 chapters and 17 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.