Deck 16: The New Science of the Seventeenth Century

Question 1

One result of Galileo's trial was that:

A)the Church accepted his findings on mechanics but refused to accept Copernicanism.
B)De Revolutionibus was removed from the Index of Forbidden Books.
C)he left Italy for England and became a member of the Royal Society.
D)the New Science flourished in northwest Europe.
E)scientists in Italy publicly rallied to Galileo's cause.

Answer 1

the New Science flourished in northwest Europe.

Question 2

Many Roman Catholic churchmen viewed the "New Science," especially as typified by Copernican theory:

A)as completely compatible with Church doctrine.
B)with some skepticism but as being overall acceptable.
C)as a valuable tool,as long as the scientists were Catholic.
D)as a direct threat to Church doctrine.
E)with great suspicion,even though they could find nothing specific that challenged Catholic doctrine.

Answer 2

as a direct threat to Church doctrine.

Question 3

Johannes Kepler built on the work of his mentor,Tycho Brahe,to:

A)discover the undreamed galaxy.
B)become the first court astrologer to Christiana of Sweden.
C)become the first court astronomer to the Holy Roman Emperor.
D)correct two of Copernicus's assumptions concerning planetary motion.
E)correct Galileo's first law of motion.

Answer 3

correct two of Copernicus's assumptions concerning planetary motion.

Question 4

The bulk of the philosophy of René Descartes may be summed up by which statement?

A)"But still,it moves!"
B)"I think,therefore I am."
C)"Tell us how to go to heaven,not how heaven goes."
D)"I frame no hypotheses."
E)"Dare to think!"

Question 5

Europeans believed,generally,in the geocentric theory of the universe,even though this model was contradicted well over a thousand years before Copernicus by:

A)Aristarchus.
B)Ptolemy.
C)Archimedes.
D)Aristotle.
E)Plato.

Question 6

The trial of Galileo by the Inquisition resulted in all of the following EXCEPT:

A)the cessation of his scientific work.
B)the spread of a "new philosophy" based on Galileo's work in northwest Europe.
C)his imprisonment.
D)his work being placed on the Index.
E)a rift between religion and science that he had wanted to avoid.

Question 7

Galileo hoped for support from his friend Maffeo Barberini who became:

A)the doge of Venice.
B)the head of the Medici family.
C)pope.
D)the king of France.
E)the Holy Roman Emperor.

Question 8

Throughout the Middle Ages,the most important classical authorities on natural philosophy were _________ and _________.

A)Plato;Aristotle
B)Plato;Ptolemy
C)Aristotle;Galen
D)Aristotle;Ptolemy
E)Galen;Ptolemy

Question 9

A method of reasoning that goes from the specific to the general was developed by:

A)René Descartes.
B)Francis Bacon.
C)Isaac Newton.
D)Blaise Pascal.
E)Baruch Spinoza.

Question 10

The view that progress in scientific knowledge requires the cooperative effort of experimentalists and researchers who would draw inferences and develop practical applications was made by Francis Bacon in his fable:

A)Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.
B)The Discourse on Method.
C)Novum Organum.
D)The New Atlantis.
E)Two New Sciences.

Question 11

In 1616,Galileo Galilei was urged by his supporters to stop promulgating Copernican ideas,when the Catholic Church:

A)placed Copernicus's work on the Index of Forbidden Books.
B)threatened him with excommunication.
C)inducted him into the Knights of Malta.
D)named his good friend,Cardinal Barberini,as Pope Urban VIII.
E)established the Vatican observatory under Jesuit control.

Question 12

Galileo concluded that the Copernican hypothesis was correct after observing:

A)the rings of Saturn.
B)the phases of the Moon.
C)irregular,dark markings on Mars.
D)the moons of Jupiter.
E)a comet.

Question 13

Although logic and geometry had played a role in the medieval worldview,_________ would assume a much more central role in the "New Science."

A)semantics
B)optics
C)the dialectic
D)mathematics
E)theology

Question 14

The term heliocentric means:

A)god-centered.
B)sky-centered.
C)gas-centered.
D)sun-centered.
E)human-centered.

Question 15

The dispersal of ancient texts by the humanists of the late Renaissance that served to encourage study and debate was facilitated by:

A)new translations from the Islamic world.
B)the discovery of the New World.
C)the discovery in the late sixteenth century of the complete works of Plato.
D)the removal of the works of Aristotle from the Index of Forbidden Works.
E)the widespread use of the printing press.

Question 16

_________ was the "new scientist" whose work laid the foundation for Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation.

A)Johannes Kepler
B)Johannes Muller
C)Robert Hooke
D)Robert Boyle
E)Tycho Brahe

Question 17

"Science" entails all of the following except:

A)a body of knowledge.
B)a community of practitioners.
C)a system of inquiry.
D)institutions to support the practitioners.
E)an adoption of a secular rather than religious worldview.

Question 18

Copernicus's work on the problem of the Ptolemaic system was commissioned by:

A)the Polish royal family.
B)Tycho Brahe's observatory.
C)the Roman Catholic Church.
D)Galileo Galilei and the University of Padua.
E)the tsar of Russia.

Question 19

Galileo Galilei was brought to trial by the Inquisition because he:

A)failed to prove Copernican ideas to Cardinal Baronius.
B)promoted Copernican ideas and had insulted his old patron,Cardinal Barberini,who was now Pope Urban VIII.
C)refused to accept the truth of Christianity;he remained an avowed Muslim.
D)made too good an impression on his Medici patrons.
E)refused to publish the results of his observations refuting Copernicus.

Question 20

Kepler believed _________ was God's language.

A)science
B)astronomy
C)mathematics
D)music
E)poetry

Question 21

The deductive method of inquiry was formulated by:

A)René Descartes.
B)Francis Bacon.
C)Isaac Newton.
D)Blaise Pascal.
E)Baruch Spinoza.

Question 22

____________ searched for the ideal and perfect structures that they felt must line behind the "everyday" world.

A)Neo-Platonists
B)Humanists
C)Muslim scholars
D)Greek mathematicians
E)Astronomers

Question 23

Which of the following best describes Sir Isaac Newton's attitude toward Christianity?

A)Religion is nothing more than the "opiate of the masses."
B)All religions must be rejected because they are contrary to human reason.
C)All worldly concerns must be rejected in order for the soul to be saved.
D)Science and faith are compatible and mutually supporting.
E)Christianity is a superstition that ought to be rejected when tested by science.

Question 24

Galileo had made improvements on the lens developed by the Dutch for use in telescopes,but some of the earliest work on the nature of how humans see was done by:

A)Isaac Newton.
B)Christian Huygens.
C)Galileo Galilei.
D)John Locke.
E)David Hume.

Question 25

As a leader of the "scientific revolution," Isaac Newton was:

A)an affable,public figure who enjoyed London society.
B)a recluse who spent his time in Cambridge.
C)a public figure who gave open lectures at Oxford.
D)a recluse who spent his time at Oxford.
E)a public figure who took an active role in the scientific community of the Continent.

Question 26

All of the following contributed greatly to the development of astronomy during the scientific revolution except:

A)Tycho Brahe.
B)Robert Boyle.
C)Johannes Kepler.
D)Galileo Galilei.
E)Nicholas Copernicus.

Question 27

The new scientific societies did all of the following except:

A)gave natural philosophers a common sense of purpose.
B)provided a system to reach agreement and establish "matters of fact."
C)separated scientific research from politics and religion.
D)helped restore a sense of order and consensus in society.
E)challenged the mystical basis of monarchical authority.

Question 28

Science undermined a belief in God through:

A)the use of microscopes and telescopes,which revealed useless worlds far beyond the range of human senses,irrelevant to humanity,the supposed culmination of God's Creation.
B)mechanical philosophy,which eliminated a need for divine action in the universe.
C)the revelation of the needless complexity of objects and systems,which seemed incompatible with the design of an intelligent creator.
D)an application of geometry and ethics to prove the single substance of the universe that was nature.
E)There is no evidence to suggest that scientific discoveries in the seventeenth century actually undermined religious faith.For many,these discoveries provided new evidence of God's existence.

Question 29

In European states,the New Science:

A)was not discovered outside of Poland and Italy until the eighteenth century.
B)was encouraged in England and other countries through the establishment of royal societies.
C)triggered a rebirth of faith throughout the continent.
D)was suppressed in all Catholic countries,especially in France.
E)was privately welcomed but not supported by any national state.

Question 30

One of the leading German astronomers of the seventeenth century was:

A)Maria Winkelmann.
B)Gottfried Leibniz.
C)Franz Kirch.
D)Hildegard von Bingen.
E)Christian Huygens.

Question 31

Although it was the norm with European academic societies to not admit women,one exception to this was:

A)Maria Winkelmann.
B)Elena Cornaro Piscopia.
C)Maria Sibylla Merian.
D)Margaret Cavendish.
E)Laura Bassi.

Question 32

One of the founders of modern chemistry was the Englishman:

A)William Harvey.
B)Francis Bacon.
C)Robert Hooke.
D)Robert Boyle.
E)John Locke.

Question 33

The first woman to receive a doctorate degree in philosophy in Italy was:

A)Maria Winkelmann.
B)Margaret Cavendish.
C)Elena Cornaro Piscopia.
D)Maria Sibylla Merian.
E)Laura Bassi.

Question 34

One effect of the work of Isaac Newton was to:

A)demonstrate the value of persistent,dogged work toward a single goal.
B)show that even someone from a poor family could,with ability,rise to the heights of political life.
C)show the value of religious belief when pursuing a career in science.
D)demonstrate the ability of mathematics to explain the workings of the universe.
E)show the value of meditation and prayer in solving the most persistent scientific problems.

Question 35

Which English natural philosopher discovered the cellular structure of plants?

A)William Harvey
B)Isaac Newton
C)Edmund Halley
D)Robert Hooke
E)Robert Boyle

Question 36

René Descartes believed he had proven the existence of God through his use of systematic doubt in his book:

A)Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.
B)The Discourse on Method.
C)Novum Organum.
D)The New Atlantis.
E)Two New Sciences.

Question 37

All of the following can be said about mechanism except:

A)it was a view of the universe shared by Descartes,Bacon,and Galileo.
B)it considered nature as a machine.
C)it rejected Aristotelian distinctions between the works of man and those of God.
D)it taught that the works of nature were of a higher order than those of humans.
E)it held that all motion was subject to the same laws.

Question 38

From the seventeenth century on,there existed a fundamental shift in the view of the world by the Western world to be considered "modern," one now approached the world through:

A)philosophy.
B)mysticism.
C)religion.
D)science.
E)the humanities.

Question 39

Isaac Newton's best-known work today was his research conducted on:

A)light.
B)gravity.
C)mathematics.
D)refraction.
E)electricity.

Question 40

For Neo-Platonists,________ was one of the tools for finding God's perfect structure.

A)solar system
B)mathematics
C)geometry
D)algebra
E)reason.

Question 41

Baruch Spinoza applied geometry to ethics and deduced that the universe was made of a single substance that was both God and nature in one.

Question 42

The general conception of the universe [in Europe] before Copernicus was that:

A)it was orderly with Heaven at the center of the universe and the earth was circling around it.
B)the earth revolved around the sun,which was at the center of the universe.
C)the earth was just one planet among millions that could possibly support life.
D)the earth was at the center and the heavens circled around it.
E)the earth was one of many planets that revolved around the sun,which moved through space.

Question 43

Copernicus believed that his work:

A)restored a pure understanding of God's design.
B)broke with the ideas of the Catholic Church.
C)was an attack on the authority of ancient texts.
D)did not contradict centuries of astronomical thought.
E)was used by the Catholic Church to refute the ideas of Aristotle.

Question 44

The book by Galileo,which openly declared his support for Copernican ideas was:

A)Starry Messenger.
B)Three Laws of Planetary motion.
C)Letters on Sunspots.
D)Cosmographic Mystery.
E)On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres.

Question 45

Galileo argued that one could not be both a sincere Copernican and a Catholic.

Question 46

Copernicus' Heliocentric theory:

A)exchanged the position of the earth and the sun in the Ptolemaic model.
B)was published by him as soon as he formulated his discovery.
C)was endorsed by the Catholic Church.
D)was supported by the Lutheran Church but not the Catholic Church.
E)was immediately ridiculed amongst the scientific community.

Question 47

Which scientist brought up before the Inquisition for challenging the Ptolemaic model?

A)Galileo.
B)Newton.
C)Copernicus.
D)Bacon.
E)Kepler.

Question 48

The "Ptolemaic system" was the first system to question whether planets moved in a circular path around a stationary earth.

Question 49

While the French scholastic societies reserved science as "a gentlemanly pursuit," English societies freely admitted women.

Question 50

Which of the following was an ancient scholar whose ideas were relied upon by the Catholic Church as a source of "scientific" knowledge in the field of astronomy?

A)Vesalius.
B)Ptolemy.
C)Galen.
D)Newton.
E)Aristarchus.

Question 51

The "prime mover" was the force that put into place the motions of the celestial bodies and was interpreted as being the Christian God.

Question 52

Copernicus' ideas:

A)were widely accepted during his lifetime.
B)brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church and the Inquisition.
C)was the first serious and systematic challenge to the Ptolemaic Conception of the Universe.
D)brought him great wealth.
E)saw him rewarded with a prestigious teaching position in Padua.

Question 53

For Newton,science,if properly conducted,could always uncover the causes of phenomena.

Question 54

Galileo's work apparently had no support from within the Catholic Church.

Question 55

The great Greek mathematician who proposed that the natural world operated on the basis of mechanical forces was:

A)Johannes Regiomontanus.
B)Archimedes.
C)Ptolemy of Alexandria.
D)Aristotle.
E)Pythagoras.

Question 56

Although Kepler was one of the first to challenge the Ptolemaic system,it was _________ who took his abstract mathematical terms and first put them into the vernacular.

A)Brahe
B)Galileo
C)Copernicus
D)Newton
E)Descartes

Question 57

Galileo's works were widely read and raised awareness of changes in natural philosophy across Europe.

Question 58

Which of the following statements about Galileo is true?

A)The recognition of his accomplishments by the Pope made him well respected by the Catholic Church.
B)His telescopic observations of the planets led to the discovery of moons that orbited Jupiter.
C)His invention of the moveable-type printing press allowed for scientific knowledge to be spread quickly throughout the scientific revolution.
D)His Letters on Sunspots discounted the theories of sunspots that were prevalent at the time.
E)He eventually was canonized by the Catholic Church for his work on celestial bodies.

Question 59

Descartes introduced a new method for understanding called deductive reasoning,which relied on proceeding logically from one certainty to another.

Question 60

The scientific revolution stood apart from other social,religious,and cultural transformations.

Question 61

What was the role of women in the scientific revolution?

Question 62

Copernicus was an atheist scientist trying to discredit the Catholic Church.

Question 63

What were Newton's contributions to the scientific revolution?

Question 64

What were the origins of geology and the earth sciences?

Question 65

What did the scientific revolution owe to the Middle Ages?

Question 66

What impact did the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration have on the scientific revolution?

Question 67

Isaac Newton was a Protestant scientist from England who sought to discredit the Catholic Church.

Question 68

What was the main difference between the English Baconian natural philosophers and their Cartesian counterparts in France,Holland,and elsewhere in northern Europe?

Question 69

Newton realized his work was groundbreaking,but he proved to be an egotistical recluse who did not credit his predecessors' work in laying a foundation for his own,bringing upon himself the censure of his peers.

Question 70

Why were Galileo's ideas considered so dangerous?

Question 71

One of the important pioneers in developing the science of geology was Nicolas Steno.

Question 72

Was the scientific revolution a revolution?

Question 73

Tycho Brahe differed from Copernicus in believing that planets orbited the sun and the whole system orbited around a stationary Earth.

Question 74

What changes did the scientific revolution entail?

Question 75

Why was Copernicus chosen by the Church as an astronomer,and how were his findings understood by the Church?