Deck 16: Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: The Scientific Revolution and the Emergence of Modern Science

Question 1

How did the Catholic Church respond to Galileo and his ideas?

A)It reluctantly agreed to his theories.
B)It forced Galileo to recant them in a trial before the Inquisition.
C)It allowed Galileo six months to change his mind, during which he escaped to England to continue his work.

Answer 1

It forced Galileo to recant them in a trial before the Inquisition.

Question 2

Who was the first European to make systematic observations of the heavens by telescope?

A)Galileo
B)Copernicus
C)Brahe

Answer 2

Galileo

Question 3

The Inquisition found Galileo guilty of teaching condemned ideas gave him what sentence?

A)To be burned at the stake
B)To house arrest
C)To five years of hard labor in prison

Answer 3

To house arrest

Question 4

Newton's contribution to astronomy was to prove which of the following?

A)The planets obey the same laws as do objects on earth.
B)Accurate observation is the foundation of sound theory.
C)The earth is at the center of the solar system.

Question 5

Galileo's Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems was chiefly an attempt to do which of the following?

A)Expose the errors in the thinking of Copernicus
B)Support Copernicus through a publication in Italian accessible to a wide audience
C)Attack Luther and Protestant theological restrictions on scientific inquiry

Question 6

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, female midwives experienced which of the following changes?

A)They gained great fame and wealth, as childbirth was defined as a female scientific specialty.
B)They increased dramatically in number, due to women's abilities to read midwifery manuals.
C)They were replaced by men who used devices and techniques derived from the study of anatomy.

Question 7

Who was Maria Winkelmann?

A)She was an English aristocrat.
B)She was a German astronomer.
C)She became a member of the England's Royal Society for her scientific work.

Question 8

How is Antoine Lavoisier best described?

A)He is regarded as the founder of modern chemistry.
B)He gave scientific proof to the theories of Newton.
C)He reconciled religion and reason in his Pensées .

Question 9

How are Isaac Newton's scientific discoveries best described?

A)They were resisted more in his own country, England, than in the rest of Europe.
B)Although they were readily accepted in his own country, they were resisted on the continent.
C)They were modern in their removal of God from universal laws.

Question 10

Maria Sibylla Merian is significant for what reason?

A)She gained fame as an important entomologist.
B)She was trained at the University of Berlin.
C)She earned herself a place in the Royal Academy of Science.

Question 11

Johannes Kepler was the first astronomer to show which of the following?

A)The planets are made of earth-like material.
B)Planetary orbits are elliptical.
C)The stars are immensely far away.

Question 12

Galileo's idea that a body in motion continues in motion unless deflected by an external force is referred to as what principle?

A)Planetary motion
B)Gravity
C)Inertia

Question 13

All are considered possible influences and causes of the Scientific Revolution EXCEPT which of the following?

A)The practical knowledge and technical skills emphasized by sixteenth-century universities
B)Mathematical and naturalistic skills of Renaissance artists
C)The Hermetic belief in magic and alchemy

Question 14

How are scholars devoted to Hermeticism best described?

A)They believed that the world was a very recent and still imperfect creation.
B)They credited the devil with control over the dark secrets of nature.
C)They saw the world as a living embodiment of divinity where humans could use mathematics and magic to dominate nature.

Question 15

How is the philosophy of René Descartes best described?

A)He stressed a separation of mind and matter.
B)He stressed a holistic universe of mind and matter devoid of a creator-God.
C)He saw the material world as a living thing containing the human essence.

Question 16

Who was the scientist whose work led to the law that states that the volume of a gas varies with the pressure exerted upon it and who argued that matter is composed of atoms, later known as the chemical elements?

A)Robert Boyle
B)Paracelsus
C)Andreas Vesalius

Question 17

How did Paracelsus revolutionize the world of medicine in the sixteenth century?

A)By disproving Galen's ancient theory of two separate blood systems
B)By dissecting human rather than animal cadavers
C)By advocating the chemical philosophy of medicine

Question 18

What was the overall effect of the Scientific Revolution on the querelles des femmes?

A)It dispelled traditional myths of female inferiority.
B)It increased the role of women in the child-bearing process.
C)It generated facts about differences between men and women that were used to prove male dominance.

Question 19

How is Newton's world-machine best described?

A)It refers to Newton's assertion that alchemical techniques could turn the world into a machine that generated abundant supplies of gold.
B)It created a new cosmology in which the world was seen largely in mechanistic terms.
C)It suggested that the secrets of the natural world could not be revealed by human investigations.

Question 20

William Harvey's On the Motion of the Heart and Blood refuted which of the following formerly held understandings?

A)The immune system was located in the blood and was associated with the pancreas.
B)The brain stem was disconnected from the brain, and no blood flowed into it.
C)The liver was the beginning point of the circulation of blood.

Question 21

The foundation of Francis Bacon's scientific method was built on which of the following?

A)Inductive reasoning
B)Speculative reasoning
C)Deductive reasoning

Question 22

What were some of Galileo's most important observations?

Question 23

Why did science become an integral part of Western culture in the eighteenth century?

A)People perceived it to be rationally superior to other belief systems.
B)Its mechanistic nature was popular with the lower classes.
C)It offered a new means to make profits and maintain social order.

Question 24

How did Descartes believe that the world could be understood?

A)The same principles inherent in mathematical thinking
B)Quiet contemplation and following of the Scriptures
C)Mystical experiences

Question 25

Describe the Platonic model of the solar system.

Question 26

Why was the development of the telescope such an important contribution to astronomy?

Question 27

How did the scientific revolution affect European economic life?

Question 28

For Spinoza, the failure to understand God led to which of the following?

A)False worship of nature
B)People using nature for their own self-interest
C)A lack of moral judgment of others

Question 29

The greatest achievements in science during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came in which of the following three areas?

A)Astronomy, medicine, and mechanics
B)Astronomy, botany, and chemistry
C)Biology, mechanics, and ballistics

Question 30

How are organized religions in the seventeenth century best described?

A)They conceded the accomplishments of science and separated theology from science proper.
B)They rejected scientific discoveries that conflicted with the Christian view of the world.
C)They contributed greatly to scientific research through work in cathedral schools.

Question 31

What was the name of Descartes's book that expounded his theories about the universe?

A)On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies
B)On the Fabric of the Human Body
C)Discourse on Method

Question 32

How did the French Academy differ from the English Royal Society?

A)It enjoyed abundant government support and control.
B)It focused on publication of scientific journals.
C)It focused on theoretical work in mechanics and astronomy.

Question 33

Benedict de Spinoza held which of the following positions?

A)He believed that humans were created separate from nature in order to rule the earth.
B)He claimed that God was not just the creator the universe; God was the universe.
C)He gained fame for his acceptance of Descartes's theory about the separation between mind and matter.

Question 34

Which one of the following comments best summarizes the impact of the Scientific Revolution on Western Civilization?

A)It created a new "heaven" but had little impact on conceptions of the earth.
B)It slightly modified the medieval, Aristotelian-Ptolemaic worldview.
C)It was a major turning point that represented cooperation in the pursuit of new knowledge.

Question 35

How is the work of Blaise Pascal best described?

A)It succeeded in uniting Christianity and science.
B)It prioritized reason over faith.
C)It believed that reason had limitations.

Question 36

The scientific societies of early modern Europe first established which of the following?

A)Fund-raising events for medical research
B)Regularly published scientific journals
C)Code of ethics for experimentation on humans and animals

Question 37

During the seventeenth century, what happened to royal and princely patronage of science?

A)It declined greatly.
B)It was common only in Italy.
C)It became an international phenomenon.

Question 38

Describe the Copernican model of the solar system.

Question 39

What is experimental philosophy, and why is it significant?

Question 40

As per the cosmological views of antiquity and the Middle Ages, which of the following was the center of the universe?

A)The sun
B)The earth
C)Heaven

Question 41

Describe the European model of medicine after the Scientific Revolution.

Question 42

To what extent did the scientific revolution rely on older knowledge, and to what extent did it create completely original ideas about the world?

Question 43

What was the relationship between magic and the early scientific revolution? Why is this significant?

Question 44

What was the role of Royal Societies in spreading scientific knowledge?

Question 45

What kinds of women typically participated in scientific endeavors across Europe?

Question 46

What is Boyle's law?

Question 47

The Ptolemaic conception of the universe was also known as which of the following?

A)The heliocentric conception
B)The geocentric conception
C)The lunacentric conception

Question 48

For what reason did Copernicus support the sun-centered model of the universe?

A)As a Protestant, he felt free to interpret Scripture in a nonliteral fashion.
B)It earned him entrance into the Royal Academy of Science.
C)It offered a simpler and more accurate explanation for the observed motions of heavenly bodies.

Question 49

How did Copernicus, Brahe, and Kepler each contribute to creating the model of the solar system we now believe to be correct?

Question 50

Describe Spinoza's objections to reliance only on new scientific knowledge.

Question 51

What is René Descartes's main argument?

Question 52

What was the role of states in spreading scientific knowledge?

Question 53

What was the Lavoisier's contribution to chemistry?

Question 54

Describe the European model of medicine before the 1600s.

Question 55

Why was the theory of gravity so important to Newton's system?

Question 56

What is the Scientific Method, and why is it important?

Question 57

What are the three laws of motion?

Question 58

What was the importance of publications in the spread of scientific knowledge?

Question 59

What was the relationship between Galileo's observations and church teachings? How did the church respond to Galileo's work? How did Galileo respond to the church?

Question 60

Describe Margaret Cavendish's contributions to the scientific revolution.

Question 61

Describe the idea of Cartesian dualism. Why was this significant? To what extent do we still use this concept today?

Question 62

What was the immediate reaction of the clerics to the theories of Copernicus?

A)Condemnation, initially by Protestant leaders like Luther who condemned the discovery as contrary to their literal interpretation of the Bible
B)Broad approval motivated by their now higher educational achievements and interest in the sciences
C)Support in the form of a papal decree praising his innovative thinking

Question 63

Describe the features of Newton's idea of the "world machine." What are the implications of this worldview?

Question 64

What was the significance of scientific societies in spreading scientific knowledge? How did scientific societies also limit the spread of scientific knowledge?

Question 65

Which of the following is NOT true of the ideas of Copernicus?

A)They raised serious questions about Aristotle's astronomy and physics.
B)They resulted in a system much less complicated than that of Ptolemy.
C)They seemed to create uncertainty about the role of humans in the universe.

Question 66

Whose work was the most important for the field of medicine: Paracelsus, Vesalius, or Harvey? Why?

Question 67

Who did the scientific revolution benefit the most: governments, scientists themselves, or ordinary people? Why?

Question 68

Why was Boyle's work so important to the discipline of chemistry? How has the basic model of matter changed since his work?

Question 69

Which of the following created three laws of planetary motion that helped disprove the basic structure of the Ptolemaic system?

A)Johannes Kepler
B)Tycho Brahe
C)Nicolaus Copernicus

Question 70

How did Tycho Brahe contribute to the advance of astronomy?

A)By working out the theory of inertia
B)By making accurate observations of the planets
C)By calculating the pull of gravity on the tides by the moon

Question 71

How did women participate in the scientific revolution? Why is their participation so often left out of accounts of this period?