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

Question 1

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
alchemy

Answer 1

Answers will vary.

Question 2

In what ways was the work of Isaac Newton the culmination of almost two centuries of scientific research and development?

Answer 2

Answers will vary.

Question 3

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the Empyrean Heaven

Answer 3

Answers will vary.

Question 4

What were the key features of medieval cosmology?

Question 5

How did women contribute to the beginnings of modern science? How did most male scientists view women in general and female scientists in particular?

Question 6

Compare the methods used by Bacon and Descartes. How did each thinker contribute to the development of the scientific method?

Question 7

How did Pascal view the relationship between science and religion?

Question 8

What were the contributions of Isaac Newton to a new vision of the universe? Does he deserve to be considered the most significant figure from the Scientific Revolution? Why or why not?

Question 9

Why were seventeenth-century European intellectuals so intent on developing methods of study for entire bodies and specific fields of human knowledge? What did it mean then to become a methodical (or systematic)thinker or researcher?

Question 10

What was rationalism? Why is Descartes considered the founder of "modern rationalism"?

Question 11

Why did the Catholic Church view Galileo as a threat to its power and authority?

Question 12

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
"natural philosophers"

Question 13

To what extent did the Scientific Revolution represent a revolutionary break with the past, and to what extent was it a continuation of old modes of thinking, knowledge, and perspectives?

Question 14

In what ways did Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton challenge prevailing ideas about the structure of the universe? What elements of that cosmology did they leave intact?

Question 15

What impact did the new scientific conception of the universe and the natural world have on Western society and secular authorities?

Question 16

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
"God's handiwork"

Question 17

What did Paracelsus, Vesalius, and Harvey contribute to a scientific view of medicine? Be specific and give examples.

Question 18

What factors propelled the development of new scientific theories and methods in the seventeenth century?

Question 19

How was the new scientific knowledge spread in the seventeenth century?

Question 20

In what ways did the fifteenth-century Renaissance contribute to the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Scientific Revolution?

Question 21

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Galileo Galilei

Question 22

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Nicolaus Copernicus

Question 23

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Andreas Vesalius

Question 24

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Robert Boyle

Question 25

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
William Harvey

Question 26

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Blaise Pascal

Question 27

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
René Descartes

Question 28

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Isaac Newton

Question 29

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
English Royal Society

Question 30

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
heliocentric conception

Question 31

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
metallurgy

Question 32

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Scientific Revolution

Question 33

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Margaret Cavendish

Question 34

Which statement best describes the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century?

A)It was stimulated by a revived interest in Galen and Aristotle.
B)It directly resulted from reaction and revolt against the social and historical conditions of the Middle Ages.
C)It was largely due to a monastic revolution.
D)Although an innovative phase in western thinking, it was based upon the intellectual and scientific accomplishments of previous centuries.
E)It marked a complete break with the past.

Question 35

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Francis Bacon

Question 36

Renaissance humanists' mastery of Greek made new works of which of the following available?

A)Archimedes.
B)Galen.
C)Ptolemy.
D)Plato.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 37

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
scientific method

Question 38

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Galenic hypotheses

Question 39

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

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.
D)the humanists' rediscovery of Greek mathematicians and thinkers.
E)the inspired work of a few intellectuals.

Question 40

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Johannes Kepler

Question 41

The greatest achievements in science during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came in what three areas?

A)astronomy, medicine, and mechanics
B)astronomy, botany, and chemistry
C)biology, mechanics, and ballistics
D)engineering, physics, and dentistry
E)biology, surgery, and astronomy

Question 42

By what other name is the Ptolemaic conception of the universe?

A)God's master plan
B)The geocentric conception
C)The lunacentric conception
D)The expanding universe
E)The pantheistic theory

Question 43

Tycho Brahe contributed to the advance of astronomy by

A)working out the theory of inertia.
B)making accurate observations of the planets.
C)calculating the pull of gravity on the tides by the moon.
D)calculating the distance to the sun.
E)inventing the astrolabe.

Question 44

Knowledge of ____ was crucial to Renaissance painters.

A)statistics
B)trigonometry
C)calculus
D)geometry
E)algebra

Question 45

The greatest achievements in science during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came in what three areas?

A)astronomy, medicine, and mechanics
B)astronomy, botany, and chemistry
C)biology, mechanics, and ballistics
D)engineering, physics, and dentistry
E)biology, surgery, and astronomy

Question 46

According to Leonardo da Vinci, what subject was the key to understanding the nature of things?

A)Astronomy
B)Art
C)Biology
D)The Bible
E)Mathematics

Question 47

Whose work represented the culmination of the attack on Ptolemaic-Aristotelian cosmology?

A)Copernicus
B)Newton
C)Kepler
D)Galileo
E)Bacon

Question 48

Kepler believed that the orbits of the planets were

A)elliptical.
B)circular.
C)random.
D)unknowable.
E)variable.

Question 49

Why was Galileo convicted of heresy in 1633?

A)For denying the existence of God
B)For dropping heavy objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa
C)For receiving money from the Medici
D)For claiming that Copernicus was in league with the Devil
E)For ridiculing the Ptolemaic model in print

Question 50

What was the title of Copernicus's most important book?

A)On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
B)Novum Organum
C)Principia
D)On the Motion of the Heart and Blood
E)The Great Instauration

Question 51

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

A)Galileo
B)Copernicus
C)Galen
D)Kepler
E)Newton

Question 52

Why did Copernicus prefer the heliocentric model?

A)As a Protestant, he felt free to disagree with the Pope.
B)It earned him lots of money and fame.
C)It made the planetary orbits easier to calculate.
D)He regarded the Sun as the most powerful god
E)The sun is the source of all energy on earth.

Question 53

What existed at the center of the heliocentric conception of the universe?

A)The heavenly bodies
B)The sun
C)The earth
D)God
E)Human beings

Question 54

Which statement applies to scholars devoted to Hermeticism?

A)They believed that the world was a very recent creation still imperfect.
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.
D)They retreated from study of the natural world to concentrate on mastery of theories of magic.
E)They believed that in the future human beings would become gods.

Question 55

What was the general conception of the universe before Copernicus?

A)It was orderly with heaven at the center and the earth circling around it.
B)The earth was the stationary center and heavenly spheres orbited it.
C)The earth rested on the shell of a giant tortoise.
D)It could not be revealed according to God's will.
E)The world was both flat and infinite.

Question 56

Galileo used his telescope to discover

A)the temperature of the Sun.
B)the geography of Neptune.
C)Jupiter's moons.
D)gravity.
E)the size of the universe.

Question 57

Kepler, Galileo, and Newton were all interested in

A)alchemy.
B)painting.
C)Islam.
D)radioactivity.
E)the ancient Aztecs.

Question 58

The immediate reaction of the clerics to the theories of Copernicus was

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.
D)the calling of the Council of Dort by Protestants and Catholics to question the astronomer closely prior to trial for blasphemy.
E)apathy because his calculations were revealed to contain numerous mathematical errors.

Question 59

Who sought to discover the "music of the spheres"?

A)Galileo
B)Kepler
C)Newton
D)Galen
E)Harvey

Question 60

How did Kepler build upon the foundation established by Copernicus?

A)Kepler used data to derive laws of planetary motion that confirmed Copernicus's heliocentric theory, but that showed the orbits were elliptical.
B)Kepler observed the heavens and proved that planetary motion was circular around the sun.
C)Kepler used magic to prove that the earth moved in a manner based on geometric figures, trying to bring harmony of the human soul into alignment with the universe.
D)Kepler demonstrated that the motion of the planets is steady and unchanging.
E)Kepler discovered the three laws of thermodynamics.

Question 61

The starting point for Descartes' philosophical system was

A)reason.
B)God.
C)doubt.
D)the soul.
E)faith.

Question 62

In Grounds of Natural Philosophy , ____ attacked the defects of the rationalist approach to scientific knowledge.

A)Cavendish
B)Winkelmann
C)Bacon
D)Descartes
E)Harvey

Question 63

Which scientist's work led to the law that states that the volume of a gas varies with the pressure exerted upon it and the idea that matter is composed of atoms, later known as the chemical elements?

A)William Harvey
B)Paracelsus
C)Andreas Vesalius
D)Robert Boyle
E)Antoine Lavoisier

Question 64

Paracelsus revolutionized the world of medicine in the sixteenth century by

A)disproving Galen's ancient theory of two separate blood systems.
B)dissecting human rather than animal cadavers.
C)advocating the chemical philosophy of medicine.
D)rejecting the medieval medical philosophy of the four humors.
E)discovering the circulation of blood throughout the body.

Question 65

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, female midwives

A)gained great fame and wealth, as childbirth was defined as a female scientific specialty.
B)increased dramatically in number, due to women's abilities to read midwifery manuals.
C)were replaced by men who used devices and techniques derived from the study of anatomy.
D)were newly organized into their own craft guilds, regulated by aristocratic and royal patrons.
E)began to receive recognition and training as medical professionals in universities.

Question 66

What was Antoine Lavoisier's scientific accomplishment?

A)He discovered the law of gasses.
B)He gave scientific proof to the theories of Newton.
C)He reconciled religion and reason in his Pensées .
D)He was the father of the Scientific Revolution.
E)He is regarded as the father of modern chemistry.

Question 67

Which scientist solved the problem of explaining the motion of the universe?

A)Newton
B)Copernicus
C)Galileo
D)Kepler
E)Galen

Question 68

Which second-century Greek physician provided the major model for medicine in the late medieval period?

A)Vesalius
B)Boyle
C)Galen
D)Galileo
E)Harvey

Question 69

Isaac Newton's scientific discoveries

A)were resisted more in his own country, England, than in the rest of Europe.
B)although readily accepted in his own country, were resisted on the continent.
C)were modern in their removal of God from universal laws.
D)were among the first to be printed in a language other than Latin.
E)were condemned by the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Question 70

Who was Maria Winkelmann?

A)An English aristocrat
B)A German astronomer
C)A founder of England's Royal Society
D)The mother of the more famous Robert Boyle
E)A Dutch brewer

Question 71

What was On the Fabric of the Human Body ?

A)It was Andreas Vesalius' masterpiece on anatomical structure.
B)It contained William Harvey's theories on blood circulation.
C)It contained Boyle's work on the properties of gases.
D)It was Galen's masterpiece that influenced so many doctors in the Middle Ages.
E)It was Cavendish's theory of human dissection.

Question 72

The author of Observations upon Experimental Philosophy and Grounds of Natural Philosophy was

A)Marie-Anne Lavoisier.
B)Maria Merian.
C)Margaret Cavendish.
D)Maria Winkelmann.
E)Sarah Newton.

Question 73

____ was an ancient Greek physician.

A)Vesalius
B)Euclid
C)Ptolemy
D)Galen
E)Aristotle

Question 74

Who demonstrated the role of the heart in the circulation of blood?

A)Vesalius
B)Boyle
C)Galen
D)Pascal
E)Harvey

Question 75

Newton's world-machine

A)refers to Newton's assertion that alchemical techniques could turn the world into a machine that generated abundant supplies of gold.
B)had little impact on the Western worldview until the twentieth century.
C)suggested that the secrets of the natural world could not be revealed by human investigations.
D)created a new cosmology in which the world was seen largely in mechanistic terms.
E)indicated a rejection of the work of his predecessors.

Question 76

What statement best describes the philosophy of René Descartes?

A)It stressed a separation of mind and matter.
B)It stressed a holistic universe of mind and matter devoid of a creator-God.
C)It saw the material world as a living thing containing the human essence.
D)It would not have a wide influence upon Western thought until the nineteenth century.
E)It was condemned by the government of the Dutch Republic.

Question 77

What did Newtown explain in his major work, Principia ?

A)A technique for unclogging arteries
B)The mathematical foundation for the universal law of gravitation
C)The astronomical work of his predecessors
D)How to use calculus
E)The foundation of alchemical principles

Question 78

What was Newton's contribution to astronomy?

A)To prove that the planets obey the same laws as do objects on earth
B)To posit that accurate observation is the foundation of sound theory
C)To prove that the earth is at the center of the solar system
D)To argue that nothing can ever really be proven
E)To show that the moon is was at the center of the universe

Question 79

Eighteenth-century anatomical studies generally concluded that

A)men were capable of giving birth.
B)women were not fully human.
C)men were superior to women.
D)men and women were biologically indistinguishable.
E)women were superior to men.

Question 80

In the Principia , Newton described his

A)understanding of God and salvation.
B)three laws of motion.
C)views on Galileo and Kepler.
D)fascination with mystical visions.
E)theory of gasses and liquids.