Lesson 3 Flashcards
People of central Africa predicted the weather by
Observing the orientation of the crescent Moon relative to the horizon
At the Sun Dagger in New Mexico, a dagger-shaped beam of sunlight pierces a spiral
at noon on the summer solstice
The Metonic cycle is the
19-year period over which the lunar phases occur on about the same dates
The Jewish calendar is kept roughly synchronized with a solar calendar by
adding a thirteenth lunar month to 7 out of every 19 years
When and where did the Library of Alexandria exist?
from 300 B.C. to A.D. 400 in Egypt
Which of the following statements about scientific models is true?
A model can be used to explain and predict real phenomena
When did Ptolemy live?
about 2000 years ago
How did the Ptolemaic model explain the apparent retrograde motion of the planets?
It held that the planets moved along small circles that moved on larger circles around Earth
He developed a system for predicting planetary positions that remained in use for some 1,500 years.
Ptolemy
He discovered what we now call Newton’s first law of motion.
Galileo
When Copernicus first created his Sun-centered model of the universe, it did not lead to substantially better predictions of planetary positions than the Ptolemaic model. Why not?
Copernicus used perfect circles for the orbits of the planets
Which of the following is not one of, nor follows directly from, Kepler’s laws?
The force of attraction between any two objects decreases with the square of the distance between their centers.
From Kepler’s third law, an asteroid with an orbital period of 8 years lies at an average distance from the Sun equal to
4 astronomical units.
All the following statements are true. Which one follows directly from Kepler’s third law?
Venus orbits the Sun at a slower average speed than Mercury.
What is meant by a scientific paradigm?
a generally well-established scientific theory or set of theories
