FOUNDATIONS
What was the Scientific Revolution?
A major change in how Europeans investigated and explained the natural world during the 1500s and 1600s
What does geocentric mean?
Earth-centered; Earth is stationary near the center while other heavenly bodies move around it.
What instrument did Galileo improve and point toward the sky?
The telescope.
Whose precise observations did Kepler use?
Tycho Brahe’s observations, especially data about Mars
What is observation?
Carefully gathering information through the senses or instruments
Before the Scientific Revolution, whose ideas did European scholars often rely upon?
Ancient authorities such as Aristotle and Ptolemy, along with established religious and university traditions.
What does heliocentric mean?
Sun-centered; Earth rotates on its axis and travels around the Sun.
What did Jupiter’s moons show?
Not everything in the heavens revolved around Earth.
What shape did Kepler show planetary orbits follow?
Ellipses, or oval-shaped paths.
What is experimentation?
Testing an idea under controlled or repeatable conditions.
What is scientific inquiry?
A systematic process of asking questions and using evidence to build or revise explanations.
Who published a Sun-centered model in 1543?
Nicolaus Copernicus.
How did the Moon’s rough surface and sunspots challenge older beliefs?
They challenged the idea that heavenly bodies were perfectly smooth and unchanging
How does a planet’s speed change during its orbit?
It moves faster when closer to the Sun and slower when farther away.
How did Galileo and Kepler contribute differently to heliocentrism?
Galileo supplied telescopic observations; Kepler supplied a more accurate mathematical model
Put these steps in a logical order: test, observe, revise, question, measure.
Observe, question, measure, test, and revise.
Why did the geocentric model seem reasonable to ordinary observers?
Earth does not feel as if it is moving, while the Sun and stars appear to cross the sky.
Why were the phases of Venus important evidence?
The full set of phases did not fit the standard Ptolemaic arrangement and was consistent with Venus orbiting the Sun.
What is the relationship between a planet’s distance from the Sun and its orbital period?
The farther a planet is from the Sun, the longer its orbital period
What should investigators do when evidence does not fit an explanation?
Revise the explanation rather than force the evidence to fit the old model.
Explain the key shift in how Europeans decided whether knowledge was reliable.
Observation, measurement, testing, and evidence gained greater power alongside inherited authority.
Why was Copernicus revolutionary even though his model was not completely modern?
He made Earth a moving planet and showed that a mathematical model could challenge a long-accepted explanation.
What happened to Galileo after he publicly defended heliocentrism?
In 1633 the Roman Inquisition required him to recant, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
Why did Kepler reject perfect circular orbits?
He changed the model because precise observations and mathematics did not fit the old assumption of perfect circles
Explain how observation, mathematics, and evidence changed understanding of the natural world.
They allowed claims to be measured, tested, checked, and revised, weakening explanations based only on inherited authority.