Chapter 2: The Copernican Revolution: The Birth of Modern Science Review Sheet Flashcards
The principal culture that transferred Greek astronomical knowledge to Renaissance Europe was:
Islamic
The most accurate Greek attempt to explain planetary motion was the model of:
Ptolemy
The Ptolemaic model probably persisted for all these reasons EXCEPT:
It accounted well for Galileo’s observations of the phase cycle of Venus
The greatest contribution of the Greeks to modern thought was:
the development of scientific inquiry and model building
On which of these assumptions do Ptolemy and Copernicus agree?
All orbits must be perfect circles
The heliocentric model was actually first proposed by:
Aristarchus
According to Copernicus, the retrograde motion for Mars must occur:
At opposition, when the Earth overtakes Mars and passes between Mars and the Sun.
Which was a contribution to astronomy made by Copernicus?
He laid out the order and relative motion of the known solar system
Which of these was NOT seen telescopically by Galileo?
Stellar parallax
Which of the following is a contribution to astronomy made by Galileo?
All of the above
Which of these observations of Galileo refuted Ptolemy’s epicycles?
The complete cycle of Venus’ phases
A fatal flaw with Ptolemy’s model is its inability to predict the observed phases of:
Mercury and Venus
Kepler’s first law worked, where Copernicus’ original heliocentric model failed because Kepler described the orbits as:
elliptical, not circular
Tycho Brahe’s contribution to Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion was:
his detailed and accurate observations of the planet’s position
The most famous prehistoric astronomical observatory is:
Stonehenge
What contribution to astronomy was made by Tycho Brahe?
His observations of planetary motion with great accuracy proved circular orbits could not work
According to Kepler’s third law, the square of the planet’s period in years is:
Proportional to the cube of its semimajor axis in A.U.
What does Kepler’s third law imply about planetary motion?
Planets further from the Sun orbit at a slower speed than planets closer to the Sun
Today we rely largely on what technique to precisely measure distances in the solar system?
Radar echo timings
The Law of Universal Gravitation was developed by
Newton
The force of gravity between two objects:
increases with the masses of the bodies, but decreases with the square of the distances between them
Which of these was a contribution of Newton to astronomy?
All of these were due to Newton’s work
Kepler’s second law implies what about planetary motion?
A planet moves faster when it is closer to the Sun
SHORT ANSWER: What did Galileo discover about Jupiter that supported Copernicus?
Its four moons were a model solar system, orbiting a larger central body just as the smaller planets orbit the Sun
