History of Astronomy - Ancient Astronomy

Why are Stonehenge and The Big Horn Medicine Wheel thought to be ancient astronomical observatories?

• Petroglyphs at each site describe how they were used to make observations.

• Ancient Greek writings list the important discoveries made at each of these two sites.

• Stones at each site aligned with significant rising and setting positions.

• All of the above.

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NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

Which one is NOT atttributed to Plato's proposal of heavenly motion?

• constantly changing

• circular

• uniform

How did Claudius Ptolemaeus account for the retrograde motion of the planets?

• Planets slow down, stop, and then reverse their orbital direction around the Sun.

• Inner planets orbit the Sun faster and pass outer planets as they orbit around the Sun.

• Each planet moves on an epicycle, that in turn moves on a deferent that circles around Earth.

• The Sun and Moon orbit Earth, whereas all the other planets orbit the Sun.

Who accurately determined the Earth’s radius by considering Sun angles at Syene and Alexandria?

• Eratosthenes

• Pythagoras

• Eudoxus

• Aristotle

One of the first principles of ancient astronomy is that the heavens beyond _____ are perfect, and the Earth is corrupt.

• Mars

• the Sun

• the Earth

• Saturn

Who taught that the Earth is stationary and at the center of the universe with the Sun, the Moon, and the planets moving around Earth in perfect circles?

• Thales of Miletus (c. 624-547 BC)

• Pythagoras (c. 570-500 BC)

• Eudoxus (409-356 BC)

• Aristotle (384-322 BC)

The first preserved written documents about ancient astronomy are from ________________.

• Egyptians

• Romans

• Greeks

• None of these

Ancient people used the stars, moon and sun to determine when the spring _________ to tell them when to plant crops.

• radius

• solstice

• equation

• equinox

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NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

The Greeks and other early astronomers had little technology available they had to rely on their own ________.

• observations

• telescopes

• Iphone 10

• spheres

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NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

Aristotle believed that the universe was ______________ with the earth at the center.

• heliocentric

• geocentric

• excentric

• happy