Hps 322 Final

Front 1

What does Galileo see through his telescope, and what does it show?

Back 1

He sees the moons of Jupiter; he keeps drawing of the light on the moons and is able to ID them as 4 moons. He also sees the phases of Venus, which help to show that the Ptolemaic view was wrong, because if the sun was behind Venus, it would only be a sliver all the time. He also sees the rings of Saturn, and the Mountains of the Moon. These imperfections disproved Aristotle's idea that the universe is perfect.

Front 2

How does Galileo raise nature to the level of scripture?

Back 2

He says that there are two books he believes in: the Bible and Nature. Anytime our idea of nature contradicts the Bible, it is an error in our understanding, not a contradiction of the Bible.

Front 3

What was the issue at the first trial of Galileo?

Back 3

Aristotle said that simple things have simple motion, but Galileo proposes that objects fall, but also have a horizontal component to their motion. When this is looked at on a larger scale, however, these things could continue on forever (Circular Motion).

Front 4

What is Galileo's description of the cannon ball's motion?

Back 4

A cannonball falls like a body. It is pulled at a uniform acceleration towards the Earth, but these falling bodies also gain equal distance measurements horizontally.

Front 5

What is the main difference between Galileo's physics and Aristotle's physics?

Back 5

Galileo's physics were quantitative, depending on equations and the actual values, while Aristotle's physics were not. Also, Galileo believed in inertia while Aristotle didn't.

Front 6

How did Galileo "slow down" gravity?

Back 6

He used ramps or inclined surfaces.

Front 7

What is Keplar's First Law of Planetary Motion?

Back 7

Planets move in ellipses, and the focus of these ellipses is the Sun.

Front 8

What is Keplar's Second Law of Planetary Motion?

Back 8

Planets sweep out the same area in the same amount of time. So when the line joining the planet and the sun is the shortest, the planet is moving its fastest, so the triangle made in the same amount of time is always equal to the other triangles made in the same amount of time.

Front 9

What is Keplar's Third Law of Planetary Motion?

Back 9

The period of motion squared is proportional to the radius of the orbit, or T^2*r^3

Front 10

We said that Keplar starts with a false idea and creates his laws. How were they then hard to trust?

Back 10

The Bad arguments—rays of light pushes planets. Regular shapes inside spheres (there are six planets because there are five regular solids, one planet inside each solid).

But it fits Tycho’s data incredibly well, and is a fairly simple system.

Front 11

What is Mechanical Philosophy?

Back 11

The idea that motion occurs through contact of one object on another object. Also, all objects are composed of smaller pieces that interact in accordance with fixed laws.

Front 12

Why does Decartes call his book the Mediation?

Back 12

Because his thoughts that were recorded never involved a physical experiment. All of his ideas were thought experiments that he used to makes sense of things. One of the ideas that he had was to cast everything he knew in doubt, and then rebuild his world around that.

Front 13

How can we tell between Dreams and Reality according to Decartes?

Back 13

We can take all of our ideas and memories and compose them into a uniform story that makes sense, excluding the parts that don't fit in well to the story. After the story is finished, those parts that didn't work with the story are shown to be dreams. The way this is distinguished is that the living experience has to fit the mathematical and physical model that we understand and live by.

Front 14

What is Decartes' theory of Gravity?

Back 14

Because there is no empty space in the Universe, every space must be filled with matter that is moving in a simple line. To Decartes, all universal motion must then be circular. This leads to the idea that the universe is filled with vortices, and the centrifugal energy of these causes the objects to stay on the edge of the vortices, resulting in the gravitation of objects towards a rotating center.

Front 15

What can Decartes explain about the motion of planets that Newton cannot?

Back 15

Decartes' idea about the motion of planets due to centrifugal energy helps to show exactly why the planets all appear to be spinning the same way which is something that Newton can't explain.

Front 16

How can a mechanical philosopher explain the erosion of metal by acid?

Back 16

The acid is composed of small sharp bits that get in close to the metal and chip away at it, resulting in the erosion of the metal.

Front 17

Why do we need Calculus to account for instantaneous speed or velocity?

Back 17

If an object is frozen at one point, it is impossible to see how it is moving, because it is stopped. This however, isn't true of the slope of the line of the distance versus the time. So the smaller that interval gets, the more accurate the approximation. This is why Calculus is required, because it helped to get that approximation perfectly.

Front 18

What is Newton's proof of the equal area law?

Back 18

If there is an object with velocity that is being pulled towards a center, its forces create object SAB. As time goes on, you get object SBC, SCD, SDE, and SEF, all of which are equal because the forces are still equal.

Front 19

How is it fair to say that Newton unified both Celestial and Terrestrial Physics?

Back 19

Both of the physicists before Newton were in charge of creating part of it: Galileo focused on the Terrestrial physics, and Keplar focused on Celestial. By creating the Law of Universal Gravitation, however, Newton creates a system that unifies the two prevailing sets of physics.

Front 20

How is it not quite right to say that Newton proves Galileo's idea of falling bodies?

Back 20

Galileo thought that the acceleration experienced by these bodies was universal, but Newton goes on to show that the acceleration was a function of the distance between two bodies and their masses, or: a = G(m1*m2)/(r^2)

Front 21

Why is it not correct to say that Newton shows that Keplar's 3 Laws are correct?

Back 21

Keplar's Laws were only accurate up to 2 different bodies. Newton's theory of Universal Gravitation can be used in the case of any number of bodies that are desired.

Front 22

Why does the mechanical philosophy reject Newton's idea of forces?

Back 22

Mechanical Philosophers only believed in contact action, but by introducing these forces, Newton creates a system of contact at a distance, which is something that undermines the entire mechanical philosophy.

Front 23

What does Newton mean by "hyphoteses non fingo"?

Back 23

He isn't going to put forth Hypothesis for further experimentation that could be up to chance. He only wants to put forward ideas that he can prove. This creates a system in which he shows what he knows but doesn't speculate further. He does, however, pose queries, which are possibilites to look into in the future.

Front 24

What is the difference between dynamics and kinematics?

Back 24

Kinematics is the way in which an object moves, and the dynamics of that object are the reasons why it moves.

Front 25

Compare Aristotle, Decartes, and Newton on the way that they reach conclusions.

Back 25

Aristotle: Evidence justifies theory

Decartes: Consistency to the physical rules helps justify theory.

Newton: Justification (Mainly statistical) proves theory.

Front 26

What is Leibniz’ reaction to Newton’s work?

Back 26

Newton's idea was that the heavens move apart over time, and that every now and again, God has to come in and push them back. Leibniz says that Newton's God must be a fool to not have accounted for this. Newton responds by asking if God is a fool, how can he answer prayers? Leibniz responds saying that God can anticipate these needs, and thus has created a system that can maintain itself.

Front 27

What role does God play in Newton's astronomy?

Back 27

The heavens move apart over time, and God comes in and pushes everything back to where it was.

Front 28

When was Newtonian Physics accepted on the continent?

Back 28

It was accepted around 1750, because Mechanical philosophers thought that all things required contact action. However, over time, they began to see that even small corpuscles wouldn't create the motions they wanted, and so some action at a distance was required to have the system work properly.

Front 29

What is the difference between Newton's and Leibniz' theory of space?

Back 29

To Newton, space was absolute: an object's motion could be defined in the confines of the space, because it was a set volume and position. But to Leibniz, space was not absolute. With only one object by itself, motion and position could not be described. But when you have 2 objects, all motions and positions can be described, but only as an idea relative to the other object.

Front 30

How does Decartes' distinction between mind and body help physics and botany?

Back 30

He thought that the body was just a piece of meat, and the mind was a thinking piece of body. So in regards to physics, bodies were just robots, but the mind was actually able to change its direction. In regards to botany, however, plants had no minds, therefore they were just bodies.