Astronomy Chapter 3 Test Questions – Flashcards
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When did Copernicus live?
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about 500 years ago
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He discovered what we now call Newton's first law of motion.
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Galileo
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He discovered that the orbits of planets are ellipses.
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Kepler
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He was the first to prove that comets lie beyond Earth's atmosphere.
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Tycho Brahe
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He developed a system for predicting planetary positions that remained in use for some 1,500 years.
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Ptolemy
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The controversial book of this famous person, published in 1543 (the year of his death), suggested that Earth and other planets orbit the Sun.
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Copernicus
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During the Dark Ages in Europe, the scientific work of the ancient Greeks was preserved and further developed primarily by scholars in
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Baghdad.
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Why did Ptolemy have the planets orbiting Earth on "circles upon circles" in his model of the universe?
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to explain the fact that planets sometimes appear to move westward, rather than eastward, relative to the stars in our sky
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When did Ptolemy live?
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about 2000 years ago
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True or False?A model can be used to explain and predict real phenomena.
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True
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How did Eratosthenes estimate the size of Earth in 240 B.C.?
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by comparing the maximum altitude of the Sun in two cities at different latitudes
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People of central Africa predicted the weather by
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observing the orientation of the crescent moon relative to the horizon
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Historians trace the origins of a 24-hour day to
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the ancient Egyptians.
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At the Sun Dagger in New Mexico, a dagger-shaped beam of sunlight pierces a spiral
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at noon on the summer solstice.
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The Metonic cycle is the
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19-year period over which the lunar phases occur on about the same dates.
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The path that led to modern science emerged from ancient civilizations in which part of the world?
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the Mediterranean and the Middle East
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When and where did the Library of Alexandria exist?
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from 300 B.C. to A.D. 400 in Egypt
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The Jewish calendar is kept roughly synchronized with a solar calendar by
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adding a thirteenth lunar month to 7 out of every 19 years.
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The Muslim fast of Ramadan occurs
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during the ninth month of a 12-month lunar cycle.
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One of the "nails in the coffin" for the Earth-centered universe was
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Galileo's observations of the moons of Jupiter.
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-a planet's period does not depend on the eccentricity of its orbit. -all orbits with the same semimajor axis have the same period. -planets that are farther from the Sun move at slower average speeds than nearer planets. -the period of a planet does not depend on its mass.
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Kepler's third law, p^2 = a^3
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When we see Venus in its full phase, what phase would Earth be in as seen by a hypothetical Venetian?
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full
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From Kepler's third law, a hypothetical planet that is twice as far from the Sun as Earth should have a period of
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more than 2 Earth years.
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From Kepler's third law, an asteroid with an orbital period of 8 years lies at an average distance from the Sun equal to
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4 astronomical units.
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The Earth is instantly replaced in its orbit by a speck of dust. Which statement best describes the subsequent orbital motion of that piece of dust?
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The dust particle will continue in the same orbit as the Earth did, orbiting the Sun in 1 year.
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Kepler's second law, which states that as a planet moves around its orbit it sweeps out equal areas in equal times, means that
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a planet travels faster when it is nearer to the Sun and slower when it is farther from the Sun.
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The point along a planet's orbit where it is closest to the Sun is called the orbit's
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perihelion.
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The principle of Occam's Razor states that
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in explaining natural phenomena, the simplest explanation consistent with the observations is to be preferred.
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What is meant by a scientific paradigm?
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a generally well-established scientific theory or set of theories
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True or False?A theory cannot be taken seriously by scientists if it contradicts other theories developed by scientists over the past several hundred years.
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False.
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The ancient goal of astrology was to
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predict human events.
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When did humans first learn that Earth is not the center of the universe?
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within the past 500 years
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Which of the following is the reason for the solar day being longer than a sidereal day?
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the combined effect of the rotation of Earth and its orbit about the Sun
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In the Ptolemaic model of the solar system, Venus should exhibit which of the following phases?
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new and crescent
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Galileo observed which of the following phases of Venus?
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full, crescent, gibbous, new
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True or False?Kepler's laws explain why planets with larger semi-major axes have much longer orbital periods.
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False
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Why did Tycho conclude that the Sun revolves around the Earth?
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He could not detect the parallax of stars expected if the Earth revolves around the Sun.
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What discoveries or further ideas were most critical for Copernicus' hypothesis that the planets orbit the sun to be promoted to a theory?
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observation of Venus' phases and the moons of Jupiter
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Which of the following critical features of the heliocentric model leads to Venus exhibiting a full range of phases?
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Venus passes on the far-side of the sun from the Earth's perspective.
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What led Kepler to abandon circular orbits and his discovery that planetary orbits are ellipses?
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a deviation between observed and model values that was much larger than the observation uncertainties
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a simple model that explains a wide variety of phenomena and that has survived repeated tests
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Scientific theory
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Match the accomplishment to the person.
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Tycho collected data, Kepler found elliptical orbits, Newton explained in terms of physics.
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Which pair of ball-drop experiments will best test whether mass affects the acceleration of gravity? Exp 1. Mass 0.5 kilograms, height 20 meters Exp 2. Mass 5.0 kilograms, height 20 meters Exp 3. Mass 0.5 kilograms, height 30 meters
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Exp 1 and 3
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True or False?The names of the seven days of the week are derived from the names of the members of the solar system that are visible to the naked eye.
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True
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True or False?The Polynesian navigators of the South Pacific found their way primarily by observing the position of Polaris in the night sky.
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False
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True or False?The Ptolemaic model of the solar system was useless for predicting planetary positions.
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False
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True or False?Copernicus was the first person to suggest a Sun-centered solar system.
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False
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True or False?Copernicus's model of the solar system gave much better predictions than the model of Ptolemy.
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False
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True or False?In the Ptolemaic system, Venus should not show phases.
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False
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True or False?Galileo found "imperfections" on the Sun in the form of sunspots and "imperfections" on the Moon in the form of mountains and valleys.
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True
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True or False?It is possible for science as a whole to be objective despite the fact that all individual scientists have personal biases and beliefs.
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True
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True or False?Scientific theories can never be proved true beyond all doubt.
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True
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True or False?Scientific thinking developed only in the past few decades.
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False
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True or False?A scientific model must make an observational prediction.
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True
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True or False?Kepler developed his model of elliptical orbits because of an 8-arcminute discrepancy between observations and a model of planetary motion with circular orbits.
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True
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True or False?Tycho used his high accuracy observations to conclude that the Earth revolves around the sun.
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False
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True or False?Columbus was the first person to discover that Earth is round.
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False
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True or False?Science can say nothing about the validity of nonscientific practices that do not make testable predictions.
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True
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True or False?Astronomy and astrology were often practiced together in ancient cultures, and astrology played an important role in the historical development of astronomy.
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True
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He discovered that Jupiter has moons.
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Galileo
