The Copernican Revolution Textbook Review

Islamic scholars helped preserve the astronomy of Ancient Greece during Europe's Dark Ages.

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When a planet retrogrades, it appears to move westward for weeks at a time.

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As originally stated, the Copernican model did no better job of predicting planetary behavior than did the Ptolemaic one.

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Galileo's observations of the entire phase cycle of Venus proved that Ptolemy's epicycles could not be correct in keeping Venus between us and the Sun.

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Galileo's observations of sunspots proved the Sun was rotating, like the Earth.

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Kepler found the orbits of planets are ellipses, not circles.

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Kepler based his theories on the precise planetary observations of Tycho Brahe.

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Kepler determined the shape of each planet's orbit by triangulation from different points on Earth's orbit, using observations made at many different times of the year.

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A planet (or comet) will speed up as it approaches the Sun.

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Newton's Laws completely replaced the incorrect work of Kepler.

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