Chapter 13 Section 5

Question 0

Heliocentric

Answer 0

Based on the belief that the sun is the center of the universe.

Question 1

Nicolaus Copernicus

Answer 1

A Polish scholar who published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543 where he proposed a heliocentric, or sun-centered, model of the universe.

Question 2

Tycho Brahe

Answer 2

A Danish astronomer who provided evidence that supported Copernicus’s theory in the late 1500s.

Question 3

Johannes Kepler

Answer 3

The assistant of Brahe, he was a brilliant German astronomer and mathematician. He used Brahe’s data to calculate the orbits of the planets revolving around the sun and his calculations supported Copernicus’s heliocentric view.

Question 4

Galileo Galilei

Answer 4

He assembled an astronomical telescope in Italy and proved Copernicus’s theory.

Question 5

Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes

Answer 5

Francis was an Englishmen and Rene was a Frenchman. Each devoted himself to understanding how truth is determined. Both rejected Aristotle’s scientific assumptions and they also challenged the scholarly traditions of the medieval universities that sought to make the physical world fit in with the teachings of the Church. Both argued that truth is not known at the beginning of inquiry but at he end, after a long process of investigation. Bacon stressed experimentation and observation while Descartes emphasized human reasoning as the best road to understanding.

Question 6

Scientific Method

Answer 6

A careful, step-by-step process used to confirm findings and to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

Question 7

Hypothesis

Answer 7

An unproved theory accepted for the purposes of explaining certain facts or to provide a basis for further investigation.

Question 8

Robert Boyle

Answer 8

An English chemist who refined the alchemist’s view of chemicals as the basic building blocks in the 1600s. His work opened the way to modern chemical analysis of the composition of matter.

Question 9

Issac Newton

Answer 9

As a student in England, he devoured the works of leading scientists in his day and by the age of 24, he formed a brilliant theory to explain why the planners moved as they did. In the next 20 years, he perfected his theory. Using math, he showed that a single force keeps the planets in their orbits around the sun. He called it gravity.

Question 10

Gravity

Answer 10

The force that pulls objects in Earth’s sphere to the center of Earth.

Question 11

Calculus

Answer 11

A branch of mathematics in which calculations are made using special symbolic notations; developed by Issac Newton.