Find the answer to at least 10 of the following questions before next class. This is a hw grade. We will discuss them next class
History of Astronomy Scavenger Hunt
Directions: Use the Internet and any sites you might find using a search engine to answer as many of the following questions about the history of astronomy as possible. Hint - pick out the key words in each question to facilitate finding the answers using a search engine.
1. What is the difference between a heliocentric model of the solar system and a geocentric model?
2. What does the word "Planet" mean in Greek?
3. What are the characteristics of Aristotle's picture of the heavens?
4. When did Aristarchus of Samos propose his heliocentric model? Why wasn't it accepted at that time?
5. What is retrograde motion?
6. When and where did Ptolemy make his astronomical observations?
8. How long did Chinese astronomer Zu determine a year was?
9. What is an Armillary Sphere?
10. What purpose did studying the heavens serve for the Mayan people?
11. Why did Islamic astronomers want to figure out how to determine direction using latitude and longitude?
12. What is the Copernican theory of the universe?
13. What key factor kept the Copernican theory from being widely accepted at first?
14. What was Tycho Brahe's model of the solar system?
15. What was the name of the observatory created by Brahe?
16. Whose data did Johannes Kepler analyze to arrive at his three laws of planetary motion?
17. State Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.
18. What year did Galileo make his first telescope?
19. How many moons did Galileo find orbiting about Jupiter?
20. What is the significance of Galileos observations of the phases of Venus?
21. Why was Galileo sent to exile in Siena?
22. What major discovery did Isaac Newton make about the motion of the planets?
23. What are Newton’s 3 laws of motion and how do they relate to the planets?
24. How can Newton’s work be considered a synthesis of previous scientists?
