History Of Astronomy Test 3

Front 1

Which feature of Ptolemy's models did Copernicus object to most strongly?

Back 1

Equant

Front 2

Which of the following statements about Copnercius' work is not correct?

Back 2

His models were much simpler than the Ptolemaic ones

Front 3

The person who persuaded Copernicus to publish his On The Revolutions was ...

Back 3

Rheticus

Front 4

The Prutenic Tables based on Copernicus' models were the work of ...

Back 4

Reinhold

Front 5

The significance of Tycho Brahe's measurements of the "new star" of 1572 was that

Back 5

They demonstrated that change does occur in the superlunary/celestial region, contrary to Aristotle

Front 6

The Tychonic model of the universe put forward by Brahe had

Back 6

The Sun and the Moon orbitering the Earth and the other planets orbiting the Sun

Front 7

An innovation which Tycho introduced in connection with the sextant was

Back 7

Reversing the sighting direction so that two observers could sight simultaneously in two directions rather than have one observer trying to do it

Front 8

Kepler's book, in which he presented the first two laws of planetary motion, at least for the case of Mars, was

Back 8

Astronomia nova or New Astronomy

Front 9

The shape of a planet's orbit is given by ...

Back 9

eccentricity e, a pure number with no units

Front 10

According to what is known today as Kepler's First Law of planetary motion, a given planet moves in an orbit around the Sun that is

Back 10

an ellipse with the Sun at one focus

Front 11

The superiority of Kepler's Rudolphine Tables to the Alfonsine Tables and the Prutenic Tables was primarily due to

Back 11

its use of a basically correct form (the ellipse) for the planetary orbits and the correct equation for their motion

Front 12

Which of the following was one of the discoveries described by Galileo in the Starry Messenger?

Back 12

Jupiter had four moons

Front 13

Galileo wrote his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina and traveled to Rome in 1616 because

Back 13

As a devout Catholic, he hoped to get the Church to accept Copernicanism

Front 14

The book which presented Galileo's arguments for the Copernican system and led to his trial and conviction for "vehement suspicion of heresy" was

Back 14

Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems

Front 15

The approach to understanding which proceeds from a few general principles to specific consequencs by application of the rules of logic is termed

Back 15

The deductive method

Front 16

Emphasis on experimentation in order to understand Nature and the practical application of knowledge so obtained were key elements of the writings of

Back 16

Bacon

Front 17

Philosophical Transactions, one of the first scientific research journals, was published by which the following organizations?

Back 17

Royal Society of London

Front 18

The use of telescopic sights in instruments that are used for measuring star positions was advocated by

Back 18

Hooke

Front 19

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, was discovered by

Back 19

Christiaan Huygens

Front 20

The speed of light was first determined using eclipses of Jupiter's moons by

Back 20

Roemer

Front 21

The use of the transit telescope together with the pendulum clock to measure right ascensions and declinations was pioneered by

Back 21

Roemer

Front 22

The first accurate pendulum clock was constructed by

Back 22

Christiaan Huygens

Front 23

Newton's methodology in the Principia was

Back 23

a mixture of inductive and deductive methods

Front 24

According to Newton's Laws of Motion, an object moving in a circle at a constant speed

Back 24

is acted on by a force always directed toward the center of the circle

Front 25

Which of the following is *not* a possible form for an orbit in the gravitational two-body problem?

Back 25

figure eight

Front 26

Newton's version of Kepler's Third Harmonic Law is particularly important because it provides us with information on

Back 26

the masses of planets, stars and galaxies

Front 27

The tides that occur when the Moon is at first and third or last quarter are

Back 27

The weakest during the month

Front 28

The regression of the Moon's nodes is mainly caused by

Back 28

The tidal forces of the Sun trying to pull the Moon's orbit plane into the plane of the ecliptic

Front 29

If earth is prolate, the length of a degree of latitude will

Back 29

Decrease when going from the Equator to the Pole

Front 30

The first measurement demonstrating that the Earth is oblate, was made by the expedition led by

Back 30

Maupertuis

Front 31

Halley's idea that the comet bearing his name keeps coming back was confirmed by

Back 31

A numerical prediction of its reappearance by Clairaut and Lapaute which turned out to be correct

Front 32

The Keplerian or astronomical refractor has

Back 32

a convex objective lens and a convex eyepiece lens

Front 33

The aberration in which different colors are brought to a focus at different distances from the objective lens is

Back 33

Chromatic aberration

Front 34

The main disadvantage of the reflector in Newton's time was that

Back 34

The metal of which the mirror was made tarnished quickly

Front 35

The approximate date of Copernicus is

Back 35

1540

Front 36

Copernicus was especially unhappy about the equant in Ptolemy's models because

Back 36

It violated the principle of uniform circular motion

Front 37

Were Copernicus' models simpler than those of Ptolemy?

Back 37

No, they were NOT much simpler than the Ptolemaic ones

Front 38

The person who persuaded Copernicus to publish his On the Revolutions was

Back 38

Rheticus

Front 39

The first set of planetary tables based on the Copernican system was the

Back 39

Prutenic Tables by Reinhold

Front 40

The significance of Tycho Brache's measurements of the "new star" of 1572 was that

Back 40

They demonstrated that change does occur in the superlunary/celestial region, contrary to Aristotle

Front 41

The Tychonic model of the universe put forward by Brahe had

Back 41

the Sun and Moon orbiting the Earth and the other planets orbiting the Sun

Front 42

An innovation which Tycho introduced in connection with the mural quadrant was

Back 42

The use of transversals, a zig-zag pattern of dots to measure angles precisely

Front 43

Kepler's first book, in which he explained the distances of the planets from the Sun in the Copernican system, was

Back 43

Mysterium Cosmographicum or Cosmographic Mystery

Front 44

The shape of a planet's orbit is given by the

Back 44

eccentricity, e; a pure number with no units

Front 45

According to what is known today as Kepler's Second Law of planetary motion, a given planet moves fastest in its orbit around the Sun at

Back 45

Perihelion

Front 46

Copernicus was especially unhappy about the equant in Ptolemy's models because

Back 46

It violated the principle of uniform circular motion

Front 47

Were Copernicus' models simpler than those of Ptolemy?

Back 47

No, they were NOT much simpler than the Ptolemaic ones

Front 48

The person who persuaded Copernicus to publish his On the Revolutions was

Back 48

Rheticus

Front 49

The first set of planetary tables based on the Copernican system was the

Back 49

Prutenic Tables by Reinhold

Front 50

The significance of Tycho Brache's measurements of the "new star" of 1572 was that

Back 50

They demonstrated that change does occur in the superlunary/celestial region, contrary to Aristotle

Front 51

The Tychonic model of the universe put forward by Brahe had

Back 51

the Sun and the Moon orbiting the Earth and the other planets orbiting the Sun

Front 52

An innovation which Tycho introduced in connection with the mural quadrant was

Back 52

The use of transversals, a zig-sag pattern of dots to measure angles more precisely

Front 53

Kepler's first book, in which he explained the distances of the planets from the Sun in the Copernican system, was

Back 53

Mysterium Cosmographicum or Cosmographic Mystery

Front 54

The shape of a planet's orbit is given by the

Back 54

eccentricity, e, a pure number with no units

Front 55

According to what is today known as Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion, a given planet moves fastest in its orbit around the sun at

Back 55

Perihelion

Front 56

Kepler's Rudolphine Tables were superior to the Alfonsine Tables and the Prutenic Tables was primarily because

Back 56

They used a basically correct form (the ellipse) for the planetary orbits

Front 57

Did Galileo discover that Venus shows the same phases as the Moon and describe it in his Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger)?

Back 57

No; he discovered that Jupiter has four moons and that the Moon's surface is rough

Front 58

Galileo's last book, which by introducing the concept of inertia and showing that math is the language of physics, replaced Aristostle's physcs and was called

Back 58

Discourses on Two New Sciences

Front 59

The approach to understanding that proceeds from a few general principles to specific consequences in called

Back 59

Deductive method

Front 60

Critical doubt, the radical rejection of all assumptions except those which appear beyond any question, was a key element in the philosophical system of

Back 60

Descartes

Front 61

What was Accademia dei Lincei in Italy?

Back 61

The first scientific society

Front 62

The use of telescopic sights in instruments that are used for measuring star positions was vigorously opposed by

Back 62

Hevelius

Front 63

Four medium sized moons of Saturn were discovered by

Back 63

GD Cassini = Cassini I

Front 64

The founder and first director of the Paris Observatory, and the first of a four-generation dynasty in that position, was

Back 64

Cassini I

Front 65

The use of the transit telescope together with the pendulum clock to measure right ascensions and declinations was pioneered by

Back 65

Roemer

Front 66

The formula for centrifugal and centripetal force was first published by

Back 66

Christiaan Huygens

Front 67

Newton's methodology in the Principia was which reasoning method?

Back 67

a mixture of inductive and deductive methods

Front 68

According to Newton's Laws of Motion, an object moving in a circle at constant speed

Back 68

is acted on by a centripetal force that changes its velocity

Front 69

Which of the following is not a possible form for an orbit in the gravitational two-body problem?
figure eight, ellipse, hyperbola

Back 69

Figure Eight

Front 70

Newton's version of Kepler's Third Law is important because it provides us with information on

Back 70

The masses of the planets, stars and galaxies

Front 71

The tides that occur when the moon is new and full are

Back 71

the strongest

Front 72

The Earth's precession is caused by

Back 72

The tidal forces of the Sun and Moon trying to pull the rotating Earth's equatorial bulge into the ecliptic plane

Front 73

If the Earth is oblate the length of a degree of latitude will

Back 73

increase when going from the Equator to the pole

Front 74

The first reasonably close determination of the Earth's oblateness, though not the first measurement, was made by the expedition led by

Back 74

Bouguer and La Condamine

Front 75

Halley's idea that Halley's comet keeps coming back was confirmed by

Back 75

a numerical prediction of its reappearance by Clairaut and Lepaute

Front 76

The Galilean refractor has

Back 76

a convex, objective lens and a concave eyepiece lens

Front 77

The abberation in which different colors are brought to a focus at different distances from the objective lens is

Back 77

Chromatic aberration

Front 78

The main disadvantage of the reflector in Newton's time was that

Back 78

The metal of which the mirror was made tarnished rapidly

Front 79

The approximate date of Newton was

Back 79

1690

Front 80

Copernicus was especially unhappy about which of the following features of the Ptolemaic models?

Back 80

The equant, violated principle of uniform motion

Front 81

The true significance of Copernicus' work is that it

Back 81

Paved the way for a correct understanding of the Solar System and the planets' orbits by putting the Sun at the center

Front 82

The writer of the preface of On The Revolutions, which characterized the work as hypothetical, was

Back 82

Osiander

Front 83

The first set of planetary tables based on the Copernican system was the

Back 83

Prutenic Tables of Reinhold

Front 84

Tycho Brahe's measurements of the new star of 1572 showed that

Back 84

Its geocentric parallax was smaller than the Moon's, making it farther away, contrary to Aristotle

Front 85

The accuracy of the positional measurements made by Tycho and his assistants at Uraniborg and Stjerneborg was

Back 85

considerably better than Walther's and far better than those of the later Greeks

Front 86

The innovation which Tycho introduced in connection with the sextant was to

Back 86

Reverse the sighting direction

Front 87

The work in which Kepler first tried to figure out the physics behind the planetary motions was

Back 87

Astronomia Nova or New Astronomy

Front 88

The size of a planet's orbit is usually given by the

Back 88

Semimajor axis a, in astronomical units

Front 89

According to Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion, a planet moves slowest around the Sun at

Back 89

aphelion

Front 90

The planetary tables whose accuracy, far exceeding that of the Alfonsine Tables because they used the ellipse for planetary orbits, were

Back 90

Rudolphine Tables

Front 91

Which of the following was one of the discoveries described by Galileo in the Starry Messenger?

Back 91

Jupiter has four moons

Front 92

The Copernican theory was first officially declared to be heretical by the Roman Catholic Church in

Back 92

1633, as a result of Galileo's trial

Front 93

The lasting significance of Galileo's last two books, the Dialogues and the Discources, is that they

Back 93

Finished off Aristotelian physics as an obstacle to the acceptance of Copernicus

Front 94

The attempt to understand nature by carrying out experiments and making observations to be used to extract general principles is the

Back 94

Inductive method

Front 95

Experimental philosophy, research carried out in an organized fashion to study nature, and practical applications of knowledge were advocated by

Back 95

Bacon

Front 96

Which of the following was formed last?

Back 96

Academie des Sciences in France

Front 97

The first research journal was

Back 97

Journal des Savants in France

Front 98

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, was discovered by

Back 98

Christiaan Huygens

Front 99

The geocentric parallax of Mars at opposition was measured by Jean Picard observing with

Back 99

Cassini I

Front 100

The speed of light was first determined, using eclipses of Jupiter's moons, by

Back 100

Roemer

Front 101

The pendulum clock first became a precision instrument that could be used in astronomy for example in measuring right ascension, because of the design of

Back 101

Christiaan Huygens

Front 102

Newton's methodology in the Principia was

Back 102

a mixture of inductive and deductive methods

Front 103

According to newton's Laws of Motion, an object moving in a circle at constant speed

Back 103

Is acted on by a centripetal force which changes its velocity

Front 104

Which of the following is the form of an orbit [in the gravitational two-body problem that is periodic]?

Back 104

Ellipse

Front 105

Newton's version of Kepler's Third Law is important because it gives us information on

Back 105

The masses of the planets, stars and galaxies

Front 106

The tidal forces due to the Moon at the Earth's surface is/are directed outwards at

Back 106

The two points lying on the line that passes through the centers of the Earth and Moon

Front 107

The regression of the Moon's nodes is caused by

Back 107

The sun's tidal forces trying to pull the moon's orbit plane into alignment with the ecliptic plane

Front 108

If the Earth were prolate, as the French thought, the length of a degree of latitude would

Back 108

Decrease when going from equator to pole

Front 109

The fact that the Earth is oblate, as Newton had claimed, was first established by the expedition led by

Back 109

Maupertuis

Front 110

Halley's idea that the comet which bears his name keeps coming back was confirmed by

Back 110

A numerical prediction of its reappearance by Claiuraut and Lepaute

Front 111

The Keplerian or astronomical refractor has

Back 111

A convex objective lens and a convex eyepiece lens

Front 112

The aberration in which different colors are brought to a focus at different distances from the objective lens is

Back 112

Chromatic aberration

Front 113

The type of reflector having a concave primary mirror with a hole in the center and a concave secondary mirror that reflects light back through the hole to a focus is the

Back 113

Gregorian

Front 114

The approximate date of copernicus is

Back 114

1540

Front 115

Tycho Brahe was by birth a

Back 115

Danish nobleman

Front 116

In his little book On the New Star about the star of 1572, Tycho showed that

Back 116

Its geocentric parallax was too small to measure; therefore it was at least as far away as the Moon

Front 117

Tycho used transversals, the zig zag pattern of dots such as those on his mural to

Back 117

Increase the precision of angular measurement

Front 118

In Tycho's theory of the Solar System

Back 118

the Sun and Moon orbit the Earth while remaining planets orbit the sun

Front 119

Kepler's account of his war with Mars and his discovery of what would be his first two laws of planetary motion is in his book

Back 119

Astronomia nova (New Astronomy)

Front 120

According to Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion, the orbits of the planets are

Back 120

Ellipses with the Sun at one focus and nothing at the other

Front 121

The shape of an elliptical orbit is specified by its

Back 121

eccentricity

Front 122

The first set of planetary tables to be based upon an essentially correct description of the planetary orbits was the

Back 122

Rudolphine Tables

Front 123

There were two occasions when Kepler corresponded with his great contemporary Galileo -- one was when Galileo's book Sidereus nunicus (Starry Messenger) was being criticized. The other was

Back 123

After Kepler sent Galileo a copy of his book Mysterium cosmographicum (Cosmographic mystery)

Front 124

The outcome of Galileo's trip to Rome in 1616, after publication of his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, to sell the Catholic Church on Copernican Theory was that

Back 124

The theory was condemned by the Church as absurd and Galileo was instructed not to hold or defend it

Front 125

Galileo's Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems was actually a discussion and comparison of the systems of

Back 125

Aristotle and Copernicus

Front 126

Experimental Philosophy and the inductive method, reasoning from specific observations and experiments to general principles, was promoted as a new approach to understanding nature by

Back 126

Bacon

Front 127

The first scientific society seems to have been the

Back 127

Academia dei Lincei (Academy of the Lynx-Eyed)

Front 128

The aerial telescope designed by Christian Huygens consisted of

Back 128

an objective lens and eyepiece lens connected by a rope with no tube

Front 129

The first four medium sized moons of saturn were found by

Back 129

Cassini I

Front 130

The pendulum clock was made into a precision instrument that could be used in astronomy by

Back 130

Huygens

Front 131

Roemer introduced the transit telescope to the measurement of a star's equatorial coordinates .. the right ascension is measured

Back 131

as the time on a sidereal clock at the instant the star crosses the sidereal meridian

Front 132

The research journal published by the Royal Society of London is

Back 132

Philosophical Transactions

Front 133

Galileo made the serious tactical error of placing Pope Urban VIII's pet argument against the Copernican theory in the mouth of the Aristotelian in his Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems, a character named

Back 133

Simplicio, after the commentator on Aristotle

Front 134

Newton's methodology in his Principia was based on

Back 134

A combination of the inductive and deductive methods

Front 135

In the general sense used in the courst, as contrasted with everyday language, acceleration means

Back 135

the rate at which an object's velocity is changing, both its amount and its direction

Front 136

According to Newton's First Law of MOtion, an object not being acted upon by an external force moves with

Back 136

Constant velocity

Front 137

According to the Law of Universal Gravitation, the gravitational force between two bodies is proportional to

Back 137

The product of their masses Ma times Mb

Front 138

What we call surface gravity is actually

Back 138

The acceleration of gravity at the Earth's surface, caused by the Earth's gravitational force

Front 139

In the gravitational two-body problem, which of the following shapes is not possible, at least in principle, for the orbits?

Back 139

Figure eight, like the hippopede

Front 140

Kepler's Law of Areas (second law) is a geometric statement of which physical law which applies

Back 140

Conservation of angular momentum

Front 141

Newton's version of Kepler's Harmonic Law (Third Law) is extremely important in astronomy because it enables the determination of

Back 141

masses of many stars and galaxies

Front 142

The earth's oblateness, namely is being broader across the Equator than from pole to pole, was predicted by Newton because

Back 142

it is rotating and the centrifugal force opposing Earth's gravity is greatest at the equator

Front 143

The Earth's precession is caused by

Back 143

the tidal forces of the Sun and Moon trying to pull its equatorial bulge into the ecliptic plane

Front 144

The main advantage of the Galilean refractor over the Keplerian or astronomical refractor is

Back 144

it gives an upright image instead of an inverted one

Front 145

The type of reflector which has a concave primary mirror and a flat secondary mirror at the front is

Back 145

Newtonian

Front 146

The problem of different colors being brought to a focus at different points with the refractor, which lead to the reflector, is

Back 146

Chromatic aberration

Front 147

The return of Halley's comet was successfully predicted using Newton's theory of gravitation by

Back 147

Clairaut and Madame Lepaute

Front 148

The repeated return of Halley's comet disproved whose theory of comets?

Back 148

Descartes

Front 149

Which of the following discoveries with the telescope was NOT announced in Galileo's the Starry Messenger?

Back 149

Saturn is in triple form (looked weird)

Front 150

Which of Galileo's works was his first challenge to the theologians regarding Copernicus and the interpretation of scripture?

Back 150

Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina

Front 151

The Copernican Theory was officially declared to be heresy by the Roman Catholic Church in

Back 151

1633, as a result of Galileo's trial after his publication of the Dialogues on the Two Great World Systems

Front 152

Who showed that sunspots are on the Sun's surface and that it rotates?

Back 152

Galileo

Front 153

What was not part of Bacon's program for "experimental philosophy"?

Back 153

Deductive method

Front 154

In Descartes' system, comets are bodies which

Back 154

Only pass through the Solar System one time

Front 155

The first scientific society dealing with natural philosophy was

Back 155

Academia dei Lincei

Front 156

The first research journal was

Back 156

Journal des Savants

Front 157

Titan, the largest moon of saturn, was discovered by

Back 157

Cassini I

Front 158

The use of instruments without telescopic sights for positional measurements was championed by

Back 158

Hevelius

Front 159

The first accurate pendulum clock was built by

Back 159

Christian Huygens

Front 160

The first reasonably good estimate of the Earth-Sun distance came from a measurement of Mar's geocentric parallax at opposition made by Picard and

Back 160

Cassini I

Front 161

The sped of light was first measured, based on the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, by

Back 161

Roemer

Front 162

Roemer measured which equatorial coordinate using a sidereal pendulum clock?

Back 162

Right ascension

Front 163

By demonstrating that white light is dispersed by a glass prism into the colors of the rainbow, Newton provided an explanation of

Back 163

Chromatic aberration

Front 164

The Newtonian reflector has a

Back 164

Solid primary mirror and a flat secondary mirror that reflects light

Front 165

The person who was responsible for the publication of Principia (though he never could write it himself) was

Back 165

Halley

Front 166

Newton's methodology in Principia was

Back 166

deductive and inductive methods

Front 167

The definition of acceleration is

Back 167

The rate at which velocity changes

Front 168

Newton's First Law of Motion states that in the absence of a net external force a body moves with

Back 168

Constant velocity

Front 169

According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, if two bodies having different masses are acted on the same amount of force,

Back 169

The less massive will have the greater acceleration

Front 170

The gravitational force depends on the

Back 170

product of the masses of the two bodies

Front 171

In the gravitational two-body problem, which of the following is not a form for a bound orbit?

Back 171

Hyperbola

Front 172

Newton's version of Kepler's Third Law is important because it allows for the determination of

Back 172

The sum of the masses of the two bodies

Front 173

The surface gravity of a planet is greater when the

Back 173

Planet's radius is smaller

Front 174

The tidal force due to the moon at the point on the Earth directly beneath the moon is in the direction of

Back 174

Towards the moon

Front 175

The tides that occur at the times of the quarter moon are called

Back 175

Neap tides

Front 176

The earth's precession is caused by

Back 176

The sun and moon's tidal forces trying to pull the equatorial bulge into the ecliptic plane

Front 177

If the earth is prolate, the length of a degree of latitude

Back 177

decreases as one goes from the equator to the pole

Front 178

The first reasonably accurate measurement of the Earth's oblateness came from the expedition of

Back 178

Bouger and La Condamine to Peru

Front 179

The return of Halley's comet in 1759 was accurately predicted by

Back 179

Clairaut and Mme Lepaute

Front 180

The "Great Inequality", an irregularity in the motions of Jupiter and Saturn, was satisfactorily explained within Newtonian theory as a resonance effect by

Back 180

Laplace

Front 181

Which of the following is not an advantage of the Keplerian or astronomical refractor over the Galilean refractor?

Back 181

An erect/upright image

Front 182

The approximate date of Newton is

Back 182

1690

Front 183

Which of the following discoveries made by Galileo with the telescope were not reported in his SIderius Nuncius (The Starry Messenger?

Back 183

Saturn has a triple form (turned out to be rings)

Front 184

Venus goes through all the phases that the Moon does, which proves that

Back 184

the Ptolemaic system is wrong

Front 185

Galileo first challenged the Roman Catholic Church to take a position on the relation of Copernicus' ideas to Church doctrine by writing his

Back 185

Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina

Front 186

Galileo's real opponent in his Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems was

Back 186

Aristotle and his dynamics

Front 187

Galileo's Discourses on the Two New Sciences showed in the law of falling bodies that the language of dynamics/physics would be

Back 187

Mathematics

Front 188

Who of the following was an advocate of the deductive method?

Back 188

Descartes

Front 189

The first scientific society was the

Back 189

Academia dei Lincei (Academy of the Lynx-Eyed)