Answers in blue

1. The Copernican model of the Solar System ... than the Ptolemaic model?

a. predicted planetary motion more accurately
b. made it computing planetary positions much simpler
c. explained more phenomena with fewer assumptions
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.

2. The Copernican model of the Solar System ...

a. retained the Ptolemaic devices of epicycles, deferents, and eccentrics.
b. made it possible to determine the semi-major axes of all of the planetary orbits.
c. initially produced more resistance in Protestant Europe than in Catholic Europe.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.

3. Tycho Brahe ...

a. had a green nose.
b. proved that the Earth moved around the Sun by observing that the positions of nearby stars shifted because of parallax.
c. developed his own model of the Solar System with the Earth moving around the Sun and all of the planets moving around the Earth as it did so.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.

4. Kepler's initial publication of what became known as his First and Second Laws was based on Tycho's observations of ...

a. Venus.
b. Mars.
c. Jupiter.
d. All of the superior planets.
e. None of the above, because Kepler's work was based on Arab observations.

5. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation ...

a. explains the orbit of the Moon and the falling of an apple with the same mechanism.
b. shows that the force of gravity follows an inverse square law.
c. shows that the Earth pulls on the Sun with the same force that the Sun pulls on the Earth.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.

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