Astronomy Exam 2

Front 1

The term in Arabic for the direction the Muslim faithful must face to pray is

Back 1

quiblah

Front 2

One of the earliest zijes, the earliest still extant, was produced by which of the following scholars at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad?

Back 2

al-Khwarizmi

Front 3

A moveable ecliptic, a fixed ecliptic, and a point that
connects the two to make the vernal equinox oscillate back
and forth over a period of several thousand years (and
also change the obliquity) were the elements of which of
the following?

Back 3

trepidation

Front 4

The Hakemite Tables was a zij that was especially noteworthy because of which of the following features?

Back 4

a compilation of observational data on conjunctions and eclipses

Front 5

The great observatory of the Islamic period which was
equipped with large instruments, a library, a sizeable staff and also produced a definite school of thought about the planetary motions was

Back 5

Maragha

Front 6

The Samarkand Observatory, one of the great observatories of the Islamic period, was founded by

Back 6

Ulugh Beg

Front 7

The planetary tables that were considered by Europeans to be the best available until Copernicus came along were the

Back 7

Alfonsine Tables

Front 8

The date of Easter is fixed by rule on

Back 8

a combination of the solar cycle (tropical year), lunar cycle (synodic month), and day of the week

Front 9

Nicole Oresme of the University of Paris pointed out in the Middle Ages that Aristotle’s argument against the Earth’s
rotation could be refuted using the newly-introduced concept of

Back 9

impetus

Front 10

Georg Peurbach’s lectures on the Ptolemaic system of planetary motions (with some improvements of his own) were
turned into the most widely used university text on the subject by Regiomontanus. Its title was

Back 10

New Theory of the Planets

Front 11

The first extensive (three decades) series of fairly accurate observations of the Sun, Moon, and planets carried out in Europe was by

Back 11

Bernard Walther

Front 12

Which of the following instruments was used for measuring the angular separation between objects?

Back 12

sextant (old and new)

Front 13

The instrument that was used either to correct the altitude of Polaris to get the observer’s latitude or to tell the time of night was the

Back 13

nocturnal

Front 14

Copernicus estimated the distance of an inferior planet from the Sun by using

Back 14

trigonometry with its angle of greatest elongation

Front 15

The real significance of Copernicus’s book On the Revolutions was that it

Back 15

reintroduced the idea of a heliocentric universe and presented arguments for it

Front 16

Andreas Osiander changed the title of Copernicus’s book On the Revolutions and added an unsigned preface because

Back 16

he was afraid the Protestants would consider it against Holy Scripture

Front 17

The planetary tables that were based on Copernicus’s On the Revolutions were the

Back 17

Prutenic Tables

Front 18

Tycho Brahe used observations of which of the following to disprove for the first time Aristotle’s doctrine that nothing ever changes in the superlunary region?

Back 18

The "new star" 1752

Front 19

One of the innovations introduced into observational
astronomy by Tycho Brahe involved a change in the way a
certain instrument was used that allowed two observers to
observe simultaneously. This was the

Back 19

sextant, by moving the backsight from the pivot to two points along the angular scale

Front 20

One of the reasons that Tycho Brahe was able to obtain more accurate positions of planets and stars than the Greeks was

Back 20

his application of a correction for atmospheric refraction from tables he compiled

Front 21

The Tychonic system of planets had an apparent conflict
because the orbits of the Sun and Mars seemed to cross at
two points. However, Tycho didn’t worry about this; he was
sure that crystalline spheres for the two didn’t exist because

Back 21

the comet of 1577 had moved freely among the planets without bumping into anything

Front 22

Kepler’s book which presented his third law of planetary motion was

Back 22

Harmony of the World

Front 23

Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion (actually the first to be discovered) states that

Back 23

an imaginary line from the Sun to a given planet sweeps out equal areas in equal
time intervals

Front 24

The shape of a planet’s elliptical orbit is given by its

Back 24

eccentricity e

Front 25

Galileo’s discovery that Venus shows all the same phases as the Moon proved

Back 25

that the Ptolemaic system was incorrect but nothing about the Copernican system

Front 26

Which of the following points was not used by Galileo to argue that sunspots really are on the Sun’s surface and not simply passing in front of it?

Back 26

the spots appear to move across the Sun’s disk at a constant rate

Front 27

Which of the following books marked the beginning of
modern planetary theory and theoretical astronomy?

Back 27

New Astronomy

Front 28

Bacon’s approach to natural philosophy (science) was based
on experimentation and observation as well as the application of the

Back 28

inductive method

Front 29

As far as is known the first scientific society was the

Back 29

Accademia dei Lincei (Academy of the Lynx-Eyed)

Front 30

The Journal des Savants

Back 30

was the research journal of the French Academy of Sciences

Front 31

The first successful pendulum clock as a precision instrument for keeping time was invented by

Back 31

Huygens

Front 32

The largest moon of Saturn, Titan, was discovered by Huygens.
Four additional moons were then discovered by

Back 32

G. D. Cassini = Cassini I

Front 33

The speed of light was first measured successfully
by Roemer using

Back 33

the time delay of eclipses of Jupiter’s moons across the Earth’s orbit

Front 34

The instrument that was capable of measuring both altitude and azimuth at the same time was the

Back 34

azimuthal quadrant

Front 35

The approximate date of Kepler was

Back 35

1620

Front 36

The branch of the Chinese Astronomical Bureau that was concerned with regular phenomena such as the calendar and the 12-year Jupiter cycle was

Back 36

lifa

Front 37

The idea that misrule on Earth can lead to disorder in the heavens -- the Moon wandering erratically, for instance -- was expressed by

Back 37

Shi Shen

Front 38

The "guest star" of 1054 AD, whose appearance was recorded in the Chinese records but not in European ones, was what we now know as a

Back 38

supernova

Front 39

Which of the following had its origins in the Babylonians' sexagesimal number system?

Back 39

60 arcminutes in a degree

Front 40

The Babylonian astronomical document we considered that was based on the zigzag approximation was the

Back 40

Jupiter tablet

Front 41

The zigzag approximation for the variable motion in longitude was invented by

Back 41

Kidinnu (Cidenas to the Greeks)

Front 42

The saros is

Back 42

a pattern of eclipse series over
a period of slightly more than 18 years

Front 43

At their most advanced the Babylonians were able to

Back 43

predict when lunar eclipses would
occur and whether they would be partial or total

Front 44

As far as is known the first of the Greeks to think of the cosmos as an object to be understood
using reason was

Back 44

Thales

Front 45

The hippopede was devised by Eudoxus to account for retrograde motion using rotating spheres. For which of the following planets did it not work?

Back 45

Mars

Front 46

Aristotle's argument against the Earth's rotation was the

Back 46

argument of fall

Front 47

According to Aristotle, comets -- which undergo changes -- must be located

Back 47

in the sublunary realm, where change occurs

Front 48

The actual size of the Earth, as distinct from its relative size compared to the Sun and Moon,
was first determined by

Back 48

Eratosthenes

Front 49

Ptolemy's model for the Sun's orbit was

Back 49

simply a rehash of Hipparchus's,
an eccentric circle

Front 50

In our simplified geocentric model of the Solar System, the time for the epicycle of an inferior planet to go around the deferent with respect to the star background is

Back 50

sidereal year

Front 51

The term in Arabic for the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca -- the direction for Muslims to face when praying -- is

Back 51

quibla

Front 52

Trepidation, an erroneous feature
introduced by Thabit ibn Qrra (Tobit) because of mistakes in Ptolemy's data, was

Back 52

a motion of the equinox around its
average position following precession

Front 53

The Book on the Constellations of the Fixed Stars was a star atlas with revised magnitudes written by

Back 53

al-sufi

Front 54

The person responsible for the establishment of the Maragha Observatory, one of the great
observatories of the Islamic period, was

Back 54

al-tusi

Front 55

The Samarkand Observatory, one of the great observatories of the Islamic period, produced a zij that was noteworthy because it

Back 55

contained a star catalogue with
newly measured positions rather than a rehash of Ptolemy's corrected for precession

Front 56

The planetary tables that were considered by Europeans to be the best available until Copernicus came along were the

Back 56

Alfonsine tables

Front 57

The concept of impetus was introduced into the study of violent or forced motion by

Back 57

Buridan and Oresme

Front 58

Treatise on the Sphere was a university textbook on the celestial sphere written by

Back 58

Sacrobosco (John of Holywood)

Front 59

The first extensive (three decades) series of fairly accurate observations of the Sun, Moon, and planets carried out in Europe was by

Back 59

Walther

Front 60

Which of the following instruments was used for measuring the ecliptic coordinates of objects?

Back 60

zodiacal armillary sphere

Front 61

The main difference between the old hand-held quadrant and the new one was

Back 61

inclusion of features of the
astrolabe in the new quadrant

Front 62

The approximate date of Hipparchus was

Back 62

150 BC

Front 63

The approximate date of the translation of Ptolemy's great work into Arabic (the Almagest was

Back 63

830 AD

Front 64

The natural motion of objects in the
sublunary realm according to Aristotle is

Back 64

vertical, either straight down for
heavy elements or straight up for light ones

Front 65

So far as we know, the first of the Greeks to consider the Universe as capable of being understood using reason was

Back 65

Thales

Front 66

The central fire and counter-Earth were features of the cosmology put forward by

Back 66

Philolaus

Front 67

The hippopede was introduced by Eudoxus to represent what?

Back 67

retrograde motion

Front 68

Comets are a phenomenon in the upper level of Earth's atmosphere according to Aristotle because

Back 68

they change, whereas everything in the superlunary region is immutable

Front 69

The relative sizes of the Sun, Moon, and Earth were first estimated from observations by

Back 69

Aristarchus

Front 70

The idea that Mercury and Venus go around the Sun instead of the Earth was suggested by

Back 70

Heraclides

Front 71

Aristarchus is noteworthy in part
for having

Back 71

first proposed a heliocentric
theory of the Universe

Front 72

Precession, with all its effects on star positions, was first discovered by

Back 72

Hipparchus

Front 73

The first reasonably close value for the Moon's geocentric parallax (and the first distance of a celestial body) was obtained by

Back 73

Hipparchus

Front 74

In the simplified Earth-centered epicyclic system we discussed in class, the deferent for a superior planet is identical in size to

Back 74

the planet's orbit around the sun

Front 75

In the Greek way of reckoning (with respect to the Earth), a superior planet's period of revolution around its epicycle is

Back 75

synodic period

Front 76

The work that contained Ptolemy's schematic arrangement of the planetsrather than the detailed mathematical models was the

Back 76

Planetary Hypotheses

Front 77

Ptolemy introduced the equant in order to
better represent the variable motion in longitude.It became the most controversial feature of his system because

Back 77

it violated the principle of uniform circular motion

Front 78

Which of the following was first incorporated in a zij by al-Battani (Albategnius)?

Back 78

a table of sines instead of chords for trigonometry

Front 79

The Book on the Constellations of the Fixed Stars by al-Sufi was original in what respect?

Back 79

it had new magnitudes for stars instead of Ptolemy's

Front 80

The Maragha Observatory was founded by

Back 80

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

Front 81

Ulugh Beg's great observatory was located at

Back 81

samarkand

Front 82

The concept of impetus was introduced by Buridan and Oresme as an alternative to Aristotle's problematic notion of

Back 82

violent or forced motion

Front 83

Which of the following statements about Copernicus's work is not correct?
1) His models were much simpler than the Ptolemaic ones.
(2) He used epicycles, just as Ptolemy had, but with the Sun near the center instead of the Earth.
(3) He was unable to prove that the Earth rotates around an axis or that it revolves around the Sun.

Back 83

1) His models were much simpler than the Ptolemaic ones.

Front 84

Rheticus was the person who

Back 84

persuaded Copernicus to write On the Revolutions

Front 85

Tycho's theory of the Solar System

Back 85

had the Moon and Sun going around the Earth and the other planets going around the Sun

Front 86

Which of the following was not one of the innovations introduced into observational astronomy by Tycho?
(1) the cross-staff
(2) transversals on the mural quadrant to measure angles more precisely
(3) reversing the viewing direction of the sextant so that it could be used by two observers instead of one

Back 86

(1) the cross-staff

Front 87

Tycho Brahe's observations of the "new star" of 1572 established that it was

Back 87

farther away than the Moon and
therefore contradicted Aristotle

Front 88

The first set of planetary tables that was based on Copernicus's heliocentric theory was created by

Back 88

Reinhold

Front 89

The hand-held instrument that could be used for measuring altitudes but also had some (not all) of the features of the astrolabe was the

Back 89

"new" quadrant

Front 90

The approximate date of Aristarchus is

Back 90

250 BC

Front 91

In the simplified Earth-centered epicyclic system we discussed in class, the epicycle for a superior planet is identical in size to

Back 91

the Earth's orbit around the sun

Front 92

Which of the following was first incorporated in a zij by al-Battani (Albategnius)?

Back 92

advance of the solar apogee

Front 93

Which of the following was not one of the innovations introduced into observational astronomy by Tycho?
(1) the first accurate pendulum clock
(2) transversals on the mural quadrant to measure angles more precisely
(3) reversing the viewing direction of the sextant so that it could be used by two
observers instead of one

Back 93

(1) the first accurate pendulum clock

Front 94

The first set of planetary tables that was based on Copernicus's heliocentric theory was the

Back 94

Prutenic tables

Front 95

The approximate date of Ptolemy is

Back 95

150 AD

Front 96

The approximate date of Copernicus is

Back 96

1540

Front 97

The concept of "music of the spheres" was associated with the school of

Back 97

pythagoras

Front 98

The hippopede was introduced by which of the following to represent retrograde motion?

Back 98

Eudoxus

Front 99

The idea that the daily motion of Sun, Moon, planets, and fixed stars is caused by the Earth's rotation was suggested by

Back 99

Heraclides

Front 100

Eratosthenes is noteworthy for

Back 100

first determined, rather accurately,
the Earth's circumference

Front 101

In the modern way of reckoning (with respect to the fixed stars), an inferior planet's period of revolution around its epicycle is

Back 101

its sidereal (orbital) period

Front 102

The work that contained Ptolemy's detailed mathematical models for the planets (including the Sun and Moon) was the

Back 102

Matematike syntaxis or
Mathematical Compilation, later known as the Almagest

Front 103

The term that applies to the thin crescent Moon that marks the beginning of the month in the Islamic calendar is

Back 103

hilal

Front 104

The Maragha Observatory produced which of the following zijs?

Back 104

Ilkhanic Tables

Front 105

Who was the person responsible for production of the only star catalogue of the Islamic period which used newly-measured star positions instead of rehashing Ptolemy's?

Back 105

Ulugh Beg

Front 106

Who was the author of the university textbook on astronomy entitled (in English) Theory of the Planets?

Back 106

anonymous author

Front 107

The Alfonsine Tables, which became the standard planetary tables in use in Europe for several centuries until after the time of Copernicus, were supposedly produced in what is the modern country of

Back 107

Spain

Front 108

The significance of Tycho's measurements of the "new star" of 1572 at that time was that

Back 108

they showed that Aristotle was wrong about the superlunary region never changing

Front 109

Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion (the first as we count today) states that

Back 109

a planet's orbit is an ellipse
with the Sun at one focus

Front 110

The size of an elliptical orbit is given by its

Back 110

semimajor axis

Front 111

The first set of planetary tables that was based on an essentially correct theory of the planets'
orbital motions was the

Back 111

Rudolphine tables

Front 112

The instrument that could be used for directly measuring the equatorial coordinates of a star or planet was the

Back 112

equatorial armillary

Front 113

The Counter-Earth was a feature of the cosmology associated with the school of

Back 113

Pythagoras

Front 114

The argument of fall was an argument of Aristotle's

Back 114

against the Earth's rotation

Front 115

Which of the following advocated a
heliocentric model for the Universe?

Back 115

Aristarchus

Front 116

Trepidation was

Back 116

a supposed wobble of the equinox in a circle around its average motion of precession

Front 117

The advance of the solar apogee was first incorporated in a zij by

Back 117

al-Battani (Albategnius

Front 118

Which short-lived observatory was founded at almost exactly the same time as that of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, at the end of what we have called Islamic astronomy?

Back 118

Istanbul

Front 119

Which of the following instruments could not measure the altitude of a star or planet at any azimuth but rather was restricted to only two?
(1) mural quadrant
(2) cross-staff
(3) triquetrum or three-staff

Back 119

(1) mural quadrant

Front 120

Which of the following does not go back to The Babylonians' sexagesimal number system?
(1) the number of hours in a day
(2) the number of arcminutes in a degree
(3) the number of minutes in an hour (centered on the ecliptic)

Back 120

(1) the number of hours in a day

Front 121

The hippopede was inadequate to represent the apparent motion of which of the following planets?

Back 121

Mars

Front 122

According to Aristotle's philosophy, the natural motion of everything in the superlunary (that is, celestial) part of the Universe is

Back 122

circular at constant speed, that is,
uniform circular motion

Front 123

Precession, with all its effects on star positions, was first discovered by Hipparchus

Back 123

by comparing his star catalogue
with an earlier one

Front 124

Hipparchus's model for the Sun, which was adopted by Ptolemy later, used

Back 124

eccentric circle

Front 125

The Hakemite Tables, which were distinguished by the inclusion of observational data on eclipses and
conjunctions, were the work of

Back 125

Abd al-Rahman Ibn Yunus

Front 126

Bernhard Walther, who made the first extensive (that
is, over several decades) European series of high-quality
astronomical observations (for the time), was a pupil of

Back 126

Regiomontanus, also known as Johannes Mueller

Front 127

The instrument that was used to measure precisely the altitude of a star or planet when it crosses the celestial meridian was the

Back 127

mural quadrant

Front 128

Which of the following did Heraclides not advocate?

Back 128

the Earth and the planets orbit
the Sun

Front 129

The zij which was distinguished by its inclusion of observational data on eclipses and conjunctions was the

Back 129

hakemite tables

Front 130

The instrument that could be used either to measure the angular separation between two objects on the sky or the altitude of an object was the

Back 130

cross staff