Use these questions to test your understanding. If you get them wrong, you will be linked back to the relevant part of the notes.
Be sure you study them thoroughly (don't just get a quick fix for your mistake) so your overall understanding is improved.
1. Newton explained Kepler's Laws
a. by a more sophisticated version of Kepler's "music of the spheres"
b. by giving them a sound religious foundation
c. by making them consistent with Aristotle's works
e. by developing an explanation of Kepler's works that could be more easily understood
2. Newton’s laws were a "simple" explanation for the motions of the planets because
a. once they were published, it was obvious that they did the job
c. although it required calculus to prove it, they fit the facts with a minimum of assumptions
d. they were based on everyday experience
e. they were just common sense
3. At the time of Copernicus and Kepler, all but one of the following was a weakness in Ptolemy’s theory. Which item was not fairly considered to be a weakness?
a. it had gotten more and more complex
b. it could not make accurate predictions
c. there was no underlying physical explanation for it
d. it needed constant updating
e. it could not explain parallax
4. Galileo’s discovery of the phases of Venus proved that
a. Venus orbits the earth, like the moon
b. Tycho's model for the solar system was wrong
d. Venus comes between the earth and sun on its orbit
5. Ptolemy’s model of the system was scientific in approach except that
a. it started from simple assumptions
b. it was based on observations
c. it was later shown to be wrong
d. it was developed before people thought scientifically
e. it was not based on broad principles that could be applied in other situations
6. If a planet is in a circular orbit at a distance of 1 AU (earth orbit) from a star, compare the force of gravity on it with another planet in a circular orbit twice as big (2 AU)
a. twice as big b. four times less c. two times less d. four times more
e. cannot determine from the facts given
7. Galileo's dispute with the Church
a. was purely a case of a hard-working scientist being persecuted for his views
b. reflected deep and fundamental philosophical differences about science and what it could do
c. was trumped up by the Church with no provocation from Galileo
d. should never have occurred because Galileo had absolute proof of all of his claims
8. Galileo dropped objects from the leaning tower of Pisa to show
a. That heavy and light objects fall at the same rate
b. How air resistance slows the fall of objects
c. To see if freely falling objects behaved like those he had studied on inclined planes
d. He did not drop things from the tower - some one else did to attack Galileo's theories
e. To determine the local vertical and hence measure how far the tower was leaning
9. Galileo's greatest contribution to science was
b. he showed that science was superior to religion
c. he wrote his results up in books and had them published for general circulation