Deck 2: The Copernican Revolution: the Birth of Modern Science

Question 1

Kepler found the orbits of planets are ellipses, not circles.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

According to Copernicus, retrograde motion occurs at opposition for the outer planets.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

According to Copernicus, retrograde motion for Venus must occur around

A) greatest elongation, when the planet is farthest from the Sun.
B) inferior conjunction, when it passes between us and the Sun.
C) opposition, when the planet lies opposite the Sun in the sky.
D) quadrature, when the planet is 90 degrees away from the Sun.
E) superior conjunction, when the planet is on the far side of the Sun.

Answer 3

inferior conjunction, when it passes between us and the Sun.

Question 4

According to Copernicus, the retrograde motion for Mars must occur

A) at greatest elongation, when Mars can get up to 47 degrees from the Sun.
B) at quadrature, when Mars lies exactly 90 degrees east or west of the Sun.
C) at opposition, when the Earth overtakes Mars and passes between Mars and the Sun.
D) at superior conjunction, when Mars lies on the far side of the Sun.
E) at inferior conjunction, when Mars laps the Earth and passes between us and the Sun.

Question 5

Compared to when it was on the surface, a satellite in an orbit whose radius is about 4 times the Earth's radius will experience about 1/16 the force due to the Earth's gravity.

Question 6

Kepler's third law allows us to find the average distance to a planet from observing its period of rotation on its axis.

Question 7

According to Newton's third law, when the Voyager probes passed Jupiter in 1979, they exerted exactly the same force on Jupiter as the giant planet did on them.

Question 8

In Ptolemy's geocentric model, the normal eastward motion of the planets was along

A) a retrograde loop.
B) an epicycle.
C) the equant.
D) a deferent.
E) an ellipse.

Question 9

In Ptolemy's geocentric model, retrograde motion occurs when the planet is closest to us, on the inside portion of the

A) equant.
B) deferent.
C) ecliptic.
D) epicycle.
E) ellipse.

Question 10

Galileo's observations of the entire phase cycle of Venus proved that Ptolemy's epicycles could not be correct in keeping Venus between us and the Sun.

Question 11

According to Newton's second law, if you double the force acting on a body, the acceleration will double.

Question 12

In Ptolemy's geocentric model, the planet's motion along its deferent is all that is needed to understand retrograde motion.

Question 13

Copernicus' Heliocentric theory explains that

A) the Sun lies at one focus of an ellipse.
B) Mars will retrograde when it reaches a certain position on its epicycle.
C) planetary orbits are elliptical in shape.
D) Venus retrogrades when she overtakes us at inferior conjunction.
E) all planets lie between the Sun and Earth.

Question 14

According to Newton's first law, an object traveling in a circle does not have a force acting on it.

Question 15

Copernicus believed the Earth was the center of all celestial motion.

Question 16

Kepler's third law relates the square of the planet's orbital period in years to the cube of its average distance from the Sun in astronomical units.

Question 17

A planet (or comet) will speed up as it approaches the Sun.

Question 18

According to Kepler's third law, if you know the planet's orbital period, you can find its average distance from the Sun.

Question 19

Kepler relied heavily on the telescopic observations of Galileo in developing his laws of planetary motion.

Question 20

Among Galileo's discoveries with his telescope were sunspots.

Question 21

's theories were based on the very accurate observations made by .

A) Galileo; Kepler
B) Kepler; Galileo
C) Kepler; Tycho Brahe
D) Tycho Brahe; Kepler

Question 22

According to Newton, the gravity of the is needed to explain planetary orbits.

A) Venus
B) Sun
C) Earth
D) Moon
E) Jupiter

Question 23

Kepler's first law worked, where Copernicus' original heliocentric model failed, because Kepler described the orbits as

A) being on equants instead of epicycles.
B) complex, with epicycles to account for retrograde motions.
C) around the Sun, not the Earth.
D) much larger than Copernicus had envisioned.
E) elliptical, not circular.

Question 24

The mean distance between the Earth and Sun is called

A) the parsec.
B) the light-year.
C) the megameter.
D) the Kepler.
E) the astronomical unit.

Question 25

A fatal flaw with Ptolemy's model is its inability to predict the observed phases of

A) Mercury and Venus.
B) the Sun during an eclipse.
C) Jupiter and Saturn.
D) Mars and Jupiter.
E) the Moon in its monthly cycle.

Question 26

Because he failed to observe stellar , Aristotle wrongly concluded we could not be in orbit around the Sun.

Question 27

Which of these was NOT seen telescopically by Galileo?

A) sunspots
B) craters and mare on the Moon
C) Venus' phase cycle
D) stellar parallax
E) four moons around Jupiter

Question 28

A circular orbit would have an eccentricity of

A) 0.
B) between 0 and 0.5.
C) between 0.5 and 1.
D) exactly 1.0.
E) infinity.

Question 29

The time for a planet to revolve around the Sun is its _.

Question 30

If the distance between two asteroids is doubled, the gravitational force they exert on each other will

A) be four times greater.
B) be one- fourth as great.
C) also be doubled.
D) be 1/16 as great.
E) be one- half as great.

Question 31

How much stronger is the gravitational pull of the Sun on Earth, at 1 AU, than it is on Saturn at 10 AU?

A) 5
B) 10
C) 25
D) 100
E) 250

Question 32

Which of these observations of Galileo refuted Ptolemy's epicycles?

A) the rotation of sunspots across the Sun's surface
B) the complete cycle of Venus' phases
C) the craters on the Moon
D) the revolution of Jupiter's moons around it
E) the visibility of many more stars with the telescope

Question 33

The hypothesis is that the Earth does not occupy any special place in the universe.

A) Ptolemaic
B) Copernican
C) Aristotelian
D) Galilean
E) Pythagorean

Question 34

When Earth overtakes Mars, the outer planet retrogrades near .

Question 35

When a planet's orbit takes it closest to the Sun, it's called

A) aphelion.
B) vernal equinox.
C) crossing the ecliptic.
D) perihelion.
E) none of the above; a planet's distance from the Sun never changes.

Question 36

The "guest star" observed by the Chinese in 1054 is now known to have been a(n) _ _.

Question 37

Galileo found the rotation period of the Sun was approximately

A) a day.
B) a week.
C) a month.
D) three months.
E) a year.

Question 38

The model of used circular deferents and epicycles in a geocentric universe to explain planetary motions.

A) Ptolemy
B) Pythagoras
C) Hipparchos
D) Copernicus
E) Aristarchus

Question 39

Tycho Brahe's contribution to Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion were

A) his observations of Jupiter's moons.
B) a precise lunar calendar.
C) his detailed and accurate observations of the planets' positions.
D) a mathematical explanation of epicycles.
E) the correct explanation of lunar phases.

Question 40

Ptolemy's model was , with the Earth fixed in the center of the universe.

Question 41

How did Tycho's detailed observations of Mars' brightness help show that its orbit could not be circular?

Question 42

Newton found that gravity varied with the of the distance between the two bodies pulling on each other.

Question 43

How do the two factors (mass and distance) in Newton's law of gravitation each affect the force on the two bodies?

Question 44

According to Newton's laws, the planets orbit the Sun due to .

Question 45

What did Galileo discover through his telescope when he looked at Jupiter, and how did it refute the Ptolemaic model?

Question 46

Explain how the eccentricity describes the shape of an ellipse.

Question 47

The three laws of planetary motion by allowed us to predict planetary motion.

Question 48

Galileo's discovery of four moons orbiting provided new support for the ideas of Copernicus.

Question 49

What did Galileo discover when looking at the Sun with his telescope, and how did this support Copernicus?

Question 50

What "imperfections" on the Moon were visible to Galileo's telescopes?

Question 51

What is meant by the astronomical unit?

Question 52

The speed of light (and radio waves) is 300,000 km/s. How far away is a spacecraft if its radio signal takes 10 minutes to reach Earth?

Question 53

How did Ptolemy explain the retrograde motion of Mars?

Question 54

According to Newton's second law, when the same force acts on two bodies, the body with the larger mass will have the acceleration.

Question 55

While both Ptolemy and Copernicus assumed all orbits were _, Kepler's first law corrected this and made planetary motion predictable.

Question 56

For Galileo, the observation of the phases of proved that Ptolemy's geocentric model with epicycles was wrong.

Question 57

Why do Newton's Laws show a force must be acting on the planets?

Question 58

In Newton's first law, the of a body causes it to resist changes in its motion

Question 59

How did Ptolemy explain the retrograde motion of Venus?

Question 60

According to Newton's first law, if a body is moving in the absence of any net external force, describe the continuing motion of the object.

Question 61

According to Newton's third law, the Voyager probes pulled just as hard on Jupiter as it did on them when they flew past it. Why were they accelerated enough to leave the solar system but Jupiter still is in orbit about the Sun?

Question 62

While the Copernican model was simpler than Ptolemy's, it was no more accurate in predicting planetary behavior at first. How did Kepler improve it?

Question 63

How can astronomers determine the mass of the Sun?

Question 64

How would Ptolemy explain the rising of the Sun? Contrast this to Copernicus' explanation of the same event.

Question 65

Explain how the telescopic discoveries of Galileo could be used in support of Copernicus.

Question 66

Why argument did the Aristotelian school present to reject the concept of Aristarchus that the Earth could be revolving around the Sun? Why was it wrong?

Question 67

Why was Copernicus' model much simpler than Ptolemy's?

Question 68

Explain how Kepler's laws allow us to use the motion of an asteroid to find its average distance from the Sun.