Pioneers

Activities

1. Describe the method used by Eratosthenes to measure the diameter of the Earth.
2. Outline Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.
3. What were the main astronomical discoveries made by Galileo?
4. Explain, with the aid of a diagram, why planets which are further from the Sun than the Earth describe a loop in the night sky every year.
5. What are the major differences between the planetary systems of Ptolemy and Copernicus?
6. Describe three of William Herschel's major contributions to astronomy.
7. How would you prove that the Earth is round to someone who believed it was flat?
8. Tycho Brahe argued that the Sun orbited the Earth but that the other planets orbited the Sun. Could Tycho's model explain the phases of Venus as observed by Galileo? Why?