Exam 2: The Copernican Revolution: The Birth of Modern Science

Relate Kepler's Second Law to the speeds of the planets.

Today we rely largely on what technique to precisely measure distances in the solar system?

The most accurate Greek attempt to explain planetary motion was the model of:

Using Newton's first law,describe the motion of a body is moving in the absence of any net external force.

Galileo's discovery of four moons orbiting ________ provided new support for the ideas of Copernicus.

Orbital speed is the speed with which a planet moves around the Sun.This speed is determined by:

Of all his laws,Kepler was proudest of the third.Why was it so appealing in his search for cosmic harmony?

How would Ptolemy explain the rising of the Sun? Contrast this to Copernicus' explanation of the same event.

As originally stated,the Copernican model did no better job of predicting planetary behavior than did the Ptolemaic one.

According to Newton,the gravity of the ________ is needed to explain planetary orbits.

If the mass of a body were doubled,its gravity would become 4 times stronger.

The Ptolemaic model probably persisted for all these reasons EXCEPT:

Upon which point do Copernicus and Kepler disagree?

Like the Sun and the Moon,the planets appear to move from west to east from one day to the next.

In what geometric way can we determine the absolute distances to the planets?

Escape velocity is the speed required to:

Which of these was a contribution of Newton to astronomy?

According to Newton's third law,the Voyager probes pulled just as hard on Jupiter as it did on them when they flew past it.Why were they accelerated enough to leave the solar system but Jupiter still is in orbit about the Sun?

How does Kepler's First Law refine the Copernican model greatly?

Explain how Kepler's laws allow us to use the motion of an asteroid to find its average distance from the Sun.