Chap 2 astronomy HSU – Flashcards
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A comet that takes 64 years to go around the sun would be (on average) ____ astronomical units from the sun
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from 0.4 to 10.5 astronomical units
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A typical distance from the earth for those planets visible to the naked eye is:
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what they are made of
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According to Aristotle, objects rise or fall based on
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because small forces (like friction or air resistance) act to slow it down and stop it
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According to Galileo, a moving object eventually stops
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an object acted on by a constant force moves with a constant acceleration.
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According to Newton's second law of motion,
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put the individual planets on separate spheres orbiting earth
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Aristotle
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time slows
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At speeds near that of light
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true
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Copernicus was the first astronomer to put the sun in the center
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moons around Mars
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Galileo observed all but the following
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the earth passes a planet and it appears to fall backwards
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In Copernicus' system, retrograde motion occurs because:
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because the earth revolves around the sun
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In Copernicus' system, the stars go around during the year because:
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speed up as they approach the sun
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In Kepler's system, the planets:
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by the motion of the epicycles on the deferents
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In Ptolemy's system, retrograde motion itself is caused by:
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deferents
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In Ptolemy's system the large spheres that directly surround the earth are called:
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along the longer diameter, passing through the foci of the ellipse
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In an ellipse, the major axis is a distance measured
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revolves around the sun faster
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Mercury undergoes retrograde motion more often than the other planets because it:
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move more slowly
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Planets that are farther from the sun
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geocentric system
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Ptolemy's system is a:
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planets
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The ancient Greeks called lights that wandered in the sky
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the Greeks
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The earliest civilization to do modern astronomy, i.e. to apply mathematics to models of planetary motion combined with careful observation was:
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Copernicus's System
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The fact that Galileo saw spots on the sun and phases for Venus supported
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True
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The moon circles about the earth but stays about the same distance away from it. This means that it is falling towards the earth
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the distance from the center of the ellipse to one end, along the largest diameter of the ellipse.
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The semi-major axis of an ellipse is
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is the same area wherever the planet is in its orbit.
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The triangular area swept out in a certain amount of time by a line drawn from the sun to a planet:
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the same no matter what planet you are on
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Your mass would be greatest on
