A changing picture of the universe (1)

Sources: A Brief History of Time

I From: A Brief History of Time

1. Click on the turtle on Hawking’s desk. What is scientific theory? Is the ‘turtle theory’ a scientific theory? Support your answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Click on the yellow hexagons and choose: 1. Our Picture of the Universe.

A. Aristotle

Lived in the __________ century B.C.

1. He said that the earth was a __________________, not a __________________.

He based this on the fact that _______________________________________

_______________________________________________________________.

2. According to Aristotle, where was the earth relative to the stars, sun and moon?

2. Ptolemy

Lived in the ____________ century A.D.

What assumption did Ptolemy make in order to accept Aristotle’s model?

3. Copernicus

Proposed a new theory in __________ A.D.

What is his model of the solar system?

4. Galileo

Proposed a new theory in __________ A.D.

1. What technological advance led Galileo to his new theory?
2. What led him to believe that the planets and sun do not orbit around the earth?

 

3. What group opposed Galileo’s theory? Why?

E. Newton

Lived ________________________.

1. What is Hawking’s opinion of Newton’s Principia Mathematica?

2. What are some of the ideas developed in the Principia?

Click on Interactivity and then on Orbit.

1. What holds the planets in our solar system in orbit?

 

2. How long does it take Venus to orbit the sun?
3. Describe the orbit of the sun.

How does the speed of a small body orbiting a large one change as the small body completes a full orbit?

Choose any four types of orbits. For each, explain the situation in which that kind of orbit exists and give an example.

Explore how the initial location and speed of a small body determine its orbit around a larger body.