question

The observation that there are constellations that can be seen from Egypt but not from Greece convinced the ancient Greeks that

answer

the Earth is round

question

Which of Keplerís Laws governs how a particular planet speeds up and slows down?

answer

The Equal Area Law

question

At midsummer in Murmansk (which is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle), you would expect the Sun to

answer

stay above the horizon all day, every day

question

The star Sirius can be located by using the pointer stars in

answer

Orion

question

Copernicus said that the Earth and planets orbiting the Sun caused

answer

The retrograde motion of the planets

question

The stars, as seen from the Earth, appear to be attached to

answer

the Celestial Sphere, a sphere that surrounds the Earth

question

The earliest known measurement of the circumference of the Earth used

answer

noon Sun angles at two locations to determine the angle between the Earth radii to those locations

question

A constellation is a collection of stars that

answer

form a pattern in our sky

question

Which of the following statements is falsiÖable?

answer

The Minoans were the First civilization on Crete

question

The Ptolemaic model of the Solar system accounted for the daily rising and setting of the Sun by assuming that

answer

The Sun moves around the Earth once a day

question

Aristotle pointed out that assuming that gravity pulls everything toward a common center

answer

explains why the Earth is spherical

question

Which of the following statements is falsiÖable?

answer

There are no green fish in Lake Nyak

question

Sarah reports that she saw a green star close to the star Betelgeuse. Actually she did not even look there. The most likely outcome of her fraud is that:

answer

Other people look near Betelgeuse. They do not see the green star, and attack her report as a mistake or a fraud

question

As seen from North America, the constellation Ursa Major

answer

never sets

question

In one day, the position of the Sun on the Celestial Sphere

answer

moves eastward along the ecliptic by 1

question

The Ptolemaic System continued to be accepted long after such people as Aristarchus and Copernicus had proposed alternatives. All of the following reasons why it lasted so long are at least partly true. Which reason is the one that would be stressed by the philosophy of science that we have been discussing?

answer

It correctly predicted what was observed and thus did not need to be replaced

question

When compared to planets that are closer to the sun, planets that are farther from the sun

answer

move slower on the average

question

Most of the ancient Greek astronomers believed that the Earth was Öxed at the center of the universe. There was one, however, who thought that the Sun was Öxed and a rotating Earth moved around the Sun. That was

answer

Aristarchus of Samos

question

Which of the following statements is falsiÖable?

answer

Passenger pigeons are extinct

question

In comparison to the established, earth-centered theory, the Copernican Theory of planetary motion made predictions that were of

answer

about the same accuracy

question

Copernicus said that the rotation of the Earth on its axis caused the

answer

daily motions in the heavens

question

Copernicus said that the rotation of the Earth on its axis caused the

answer

(planets appearing to move backwards relative to the distant stars in relation to their usual motion.)

question

At which of these times of day would you expect to Önd the Sun in the West?

answer

6:00pm

question

Einsteinís Theory of Relativity has passed every observational test for over 100 years. Among other things, it predicts that no material object can go faster than the speed of light. Fred Zveistein (twice as smart as Einstein) has a new theory that predicts that some material objects can go faster than light. Fred presents his new theory at a scientiÖc meeting (in 2009). These meetings have several talks going on at the same time, so people normally move from one room to another to hear the talks they are interested in. When Fred gets up to talk, everyone leaves the room to go to other talks. The reason for this behavior is that

answer

there is no interest in replacing a theory that has passed every observational test

question

You read in an Astronomy book that the temperature at the center of the Sun is 30,000,000 degrees Kelvin. How do you suppose this number was determined?

answer

By using a model of the Sun that correctly accounts for everything that has been measured so far

question

The brightest star in the constellation Orion might be named

answer

Alpha Orionis

question

Tycho Braheís main contribution to the understanding of planetary motion was to

answer

make extensive observations

question

One reason that temperatures are higher in the summer than in the winter is that

answer

the sun is higher in the sky in the summer

question

The idea of a scientific fact presents di¢ culties for the falsiÖcationist philosophy that we have been discussing because that philosophy insists that every scientiÖc statement is

answer

subject to change

question

The Winter Solstice is the time when

answer

the noon sun is lowest in the sky

question

At 10pm, you see that the pointer stars of the Big dipper and the star Polaris are arranged in a vertical line. at what time. give or take a minute or so, would you see them arranged at 45 degrees to the vertical?

answer

1:00 a.m. the next day

question

Joseph Weber designed a series of devices to detect ripples in space-time, called gravitational waves. After several years of e§ort, Joe announced that he had detected gravitational waves. He built several versions of his devices and they all detected the waves. When other people tried to build similar devices, none of them detected anything at all. Joeís evidence was ignored by the scientiÖc community because

answer

Joeís observations were not reproduced by others

question

The statement that the orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus is due to

answer

Kepler

question

One observation that Aristotle used to justify a spherical model of the Earth was that

answer

southern constellations were seen higher in the sky in Egypt than in Greece

question

In a solar day, the sun comes back to the same place in the sky but, in relation to the distant stars, the Earth actually rotates

answer

More than one revolution

question

Einsteinís Theory of Relativity has passed every observational test for over 100 years. Cli§ has analyzed a large family of alternative theories and Ögured out what each one predicts for the results of observational tests. Cli§ presents his analysis at a scientiÖc meeting. Which of the following would be the most likely reaction of the scientists at the meeting to this new development?

answer

There is great interest because the analysis suggests new tests that could prove that Relativity is wrong, so lots of scientists come to Cli§ís talk to congratulate him

question

The newspaper says that the Moon was full last night. That statement is most likely

answer

based on some authoritative reference such as the U.S. Naval Observatory

question

One reason that the Copernican System failed to Öt Tychoís observations was that

answer

it used circular orbits instead of ellipses

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