Questions for Test #2

 

  1. What did Johannes Kepler do to improve Copernicus' system?
  2. Draw a diagram depicting retrograde motion in the heliocentric system.
  3. Draw a diagram depicting why Venus and Mercury are always close to the sun in the heliocentric system.
  4. Kepler's use of elliptical orbits made predictions much better than the original heliocentric theory of ________________.
  5. When people first examined the Moon through a telescope they thought that the craters and mountains were surrounded by lakes and oceans (the broad, flat, dark regions).  Why was this theory quickly abandoned?
  6. What was Galileo's estimate for the height of the mountains on the Moon?
  7. Briefly, what is Ockham's Razor?
  8.  Give a free-hand drawing of an ellipse and label (approximately) the location of the focci.
  9. What was the first astronomical object Galileo observed with his telescope?
  10.  Draw a diagram and define the focal length of a lens.
  11.  How do you determine the magnification of a telescope.
  12.  According to Seeing and Believing, before 1409 world maps produced in Europe were usually very simple – a circle divided into three parts with a “T”.  What significant publication in 1409 changed all that?
  13. Who is often designated as the "Father of Science" or the "Father of Philosophy"?
  14.  What major branch of mathematics was invented in the Arabic speaking Islamic world during the medieval period? What significant feature of our number system (known to the Maya but not the Romans) also came to Europe from the Arabic speaking world?
  15.  Name three things that Galileo observed with his telescope that contradicted the teachings of Aristotle and most other ancient Greek philosophers.
  16.  Why is the year 1609 considered a turning point in the history of astronomy?
  17.  In which era ( pre-classical, classical antiquity, medieval, or renaissance) did Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler and Galileo live?
  18.  What were the three land masses of the Earth (we would call them continents) known to medieval Europe?
  19.  What mathematical instrument did Galileo devise around the year 1597 (not the telescope!)
  20.  In what fundamental way are Newton's laws different from Kepler's?
  21. What are the key features of the heliocentric system?
  22.  State Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.
  23. How did Ptolemy explain retrograde motion?
  24.  Describe Aristarchus' method for estimating the size of the Moon.
  25.  Describe Aristarchus' method for estimating the distance to the Sun.
  26.  Describe Erathosthenes' method for estimating the circumference of the Earth.
  27.  List the two things for which Hipparchus of Nicaea is remembered.
  28.  Give two pieces of evidence used by Ptolemy to argue that the earth is round.
  29.   What evidence does Ptolemy cite to argue the earth is in the center of the universe?
  30.  What three types of celestial objects did Galileo report observing in the Starry Messenger?
  31.  For whom did Galileo originally want to name the four moons of Jupiter?
  32.  State Newton's three laws of motion.
  33.  State Newton's law of universal gravity.
  34.  The following diagram shows the orbit of earth and the orbit of Mars.  With Earth in the position shown, where is Mars when, from the viewpoint of the Earth,  it begins retrograde motion?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

  1. What did Nicole Oresme have to say about the rotation of the celestial sphere and the rotation of the earth?
  2.  How did Tycho's model of the solar system differ from Copernicus'?
  3. Who proposed a heliocentric system in ancient times (around 300 B.C.)?
  4.  How does the geocentric system explain the day, the year and the month?
  5.  How does the heliocentric system explain the day, the year and the month?

 

Longer answers are required for the following.  You might be asked to choose one of these to answer.

  1. With Copernicus' simpler theory of a heliocentric model, the opposite reactions from the scientific community and the "lay" community (i.e., non-scholarly people) concerned Copernicus to the point of delaying his book release.  Explain the differences in the reactions between these two groups and basis for his concerns.
  2. Ptolemy attempted numerous times to make his geocentric model with epicycles and deferents fit properly to a correct solution.  What does this tell you about science and experiments?
  3. What were the main issues in the battle between the Catholic Church and Galileo?