Chapter 3 Reading Quiz – Flashcards

What practical value did astronomy offer to ancient civilizations?

a.) It helped them understand our cosmic origins.
b.) It helped them find uses for ancient structures like Stonehenge.
c.) It allowed them to predict eclipses with great accuracy.
d.) It helped them keep track of time and seasons, and it was used by some cultures for navigation.

Scientific thinking is _________.

a.) a difficult process that only a handful of people can do well
b.) completely different from any other type of thinking
c.) an ancient mode of thinking first invented in Egypt
d.) based on everyday ideas of observation and trial-and-error experiments

The names of the seven days of the week are based on _________.

a.) the names of prophets in the Bible
b.) the seven naked-eye objects that appear to move among the constellations
c.) the names of the seven planets closest to the Sun
d.) the seven most prominent constellations in the summer sky

The Metonic cycle is

a.) used to keep lunar calendars approximately synchronized with solar calendars.
b.) the ancient Greek name for the cycle of lunar phases that repeats every 29 1/2 days.
c.) used to predict the future orientation of the Earth’s axis in space.
d.) the 18-year, 11-day period over which the pattern of eclipses repeats.

Ptolemy was important in the history of astronomy because he _________.

a.) was the first to believe that all orbits are perfect circles
b.) was the first to create a model of the solar system that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center
c.) developed a model of the solar system that made sufficiently accurate predictions of planetary positions to remain in use for many centuries
d.) developed the first scientific model of the universe

The ancient Greeks get a lot of attention for their contributions to science because _________.

a.) they were the first people known to try to explain nature with models based on reason and mathematics, without resort to the supernatural
b.) they were the first people to realize that Earth is a planet orbiting the Sun
c.) they were the only ancient culture that kept written records of their astronomical observations
d.) the books of every other culture were lost in the destruction of the library of Alexandria

What do we mean by a geocentric model of the universe?

a.) A model of the Milky Way Galaxy that has our solar system located at its center.
b.) A model designed to explain what we see in the sky while having the Earth orbit the Sun.
c.) A model designed to explain what we see in the sky while having the Earth located in the center of the universe.
d.) It is the name given to sphere-shaped models that show all the constellations as they appear in our sky on the celestial sphere.

What was the Ptolemaic model?

a.) The Earth-centered model of the cosmos in which the Earth was surrounded by seven perfect spheres, one each for the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn
b.) A Sun-centered model of planetary motion published by Ptolemy
c.) An Earth-centered model of planetary motion published by Ptolemy
d.) The first scientific model to successfully predict solar and lunar eclipses

The great contribution of Nicholas Copernicus was to _________.

a.) discover the laws of planetary motion
b.) discover the law of gravity
c.) create a detailed model of our solar system with the Sun rather than Earth at the center
d.) prove that the Earth is not the center of the universe

The great contribution of Tycho Brahe was to _________.

a.) observe planetary positions with sufficient accuracy so that Kepler could later use the data to discover the laws of planetary motion
b.) discover that planets orbit the Sun in elliptical orbits with varying speed
c.) offer the first detailed model of a Sun-centered solar system, thereby beginning the process of overturning the Earth-centered model of the Greeks
d.) discover four moons orbiting Jupiter, thereby lending strong support to the idea that the Earth is not the center of the universe

Which of the following was not observed by Galileo?

a.) Stellar parallax
b.) Mountains and valleys on the Moon
c.) Phases of Venus.
d.) Four moons orbiting Jupiter

Which of the following statements about an ellipse is not true?

a.) The semimajor axis of an ellipse is half the length of the longest line that you can draw across an ellipse.
b.) An ellipse with a large eccentricity looks much more elongated (stretched out) than an ellipse with a small eccentricity.
c.) The focus of an ellipse is always located precisely at the center of the ellipse.
d.) A circle is considered to be a special type of ellipse.

Which of the following is not one of, nor a direct consequence of, Kepler’s Laws?

a.) More distant planets orbit the Sun at slower speeds.
b.) As a planet moves around its orbit, it sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
c.) A planet or comet in a noncircular orbit travels faster when it is nearer to the Sun and slower when it is farther from the Sun.
d.) The force of attraction between any two objects decreases with the square of the distance between their centers.
e.) The orbit of each planet about the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.

Scientific models are used to _________.

a.) make miniature representations of the universe
b.) present the scale of the solar system to the general public
c.)make specific predictions that can be tested through observations or experiments
d.) prove that past paradigms no longer hold true

In science, a broad idea that has been repeatedly verified so as to give scientists great confidence that it represents reality is called _________.

a.) a Ptolemaic model
b.) a hypothesis
c.) a theory
d.)a paradigm