Answers in blue

1. Which of the following statements best describes Egyptian astronomy?

a. Initial progress, for example a solar calendar, followed by millenia of stagnation.
b. Continuous progress.
c. Revolutions in astronomy which were never transmitted to the Greeks, for example a Sun-centered Solar System.
d. Most of Greek astronomy was inherited from the Egyptians.
e. None of the above.

2. Progress in Mesopotamian astronomy was driven by ...

a. the belief that comets were the souls of the dead.
b. Moon worship.
c. judicial astrology.
d. precession of the equinoxes.
e. None of the above.

3. The development of astronomy in ancient Greece depended on the philosophy that nature could be explained ...

a. only by referring to the gods.
b. with unifying principles, like the arche (primal substance).
c. with theories based on and tested by careful observation and experiment.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.

4. The Pythagoreans believed that ...

a. beans were bad.
b. number was the arche.
c. there were ten celestial objects.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.

5. Thales ...

a. is often called the father of Western philosophy.
b. predicted a total Solar eclipse in 585 BC, at least in legend.
c. stated that the arche was water.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.

Home

Last modified 6 October, 2006. © Gregory C. Sloan.