Physics 109 Midterm Review: the Midterm will be Eight of the Questions Below.

1. State in a paragraph why, according to Cromer, the Greeks “invented science” whereas the apparently equally literate and intelligent Jews did not.

2. Approximately when and where was Thales? What did he contribute to the development of science? How did he measure the height of a pyramid? How did he measure the distance away of a ship?

3. According to the historical record, who first did geometry? And why? Explain.

4. Approximately when and where was Pythagoras? Briefly, what did his followers believe? Why did they thing the stars moved across the sky daily?

5. Draw a couple of diagrams to prove Pythagoras’ Theorem, that is, reproduce two equal squares containing four identical triangles, as in the web page.

6. Reproduce the Pythagoreans proof that the square root of two is irrational, that is, it isn’t a fraction.

7. Approximately when and where was Socrates? What did he spend his time doing? How and why did he die?

8. Approximately when and where was Plato? What institution did he found? What was its purpose? What did it say above the doorway?

9. Describe with sketches Plato’s Five Regular Solids. Prove that there can only be five.

10. Plato made a specific suggestion to the astronomers as to how they should try to account for the motion of the planets. What was it?

11. Approximately when and where was Aristotle? What was his school called? What were the four elements? Why did things move? What’s the difference between what he called “natural motion” and “violent motion”? What were his quantitative rules of falling motion?

12. Approximately when and where was Strato. What two arguments did he give against Aristotle’s description of natural falling motion?

13. Approximately when and where was Eratosthenes? Describe how he figured out the size of the earth.

14. Approximately when and where was Aristarchus? Explain how he figured out the distance to the moon.

15. How did Aristarchus try to find the distance to the sun? How accurate was he? What important conclusion could he reach anyway?

16. Approximately when and where was Archimedes? How did he prove the crown was a fake?

17. The next “New Moon” will be October 14. Immediately after that, the Moon will be a thin crescent, visible just after sunset. Draw a diagram showing the relative positioning of the earth, the sun and the moon at this phase.

18. If you looked through a telescope at Venus, would you see phases? If you did, what would be the apparent size of Venus at “full” as opposed to “crescent”?

19. Venus is called the evening star sometimes. Does that mean you can never see Venus in the early morning (before sunrise, of course)? Could you ever see Venus at midnight? Explain your answer with a diagram.

20. If you looked through a telescope at Mars, would you see phases? If you did, what would be the apparent size of Mars at “full” as opposed to “crescent”?

21. If you lived on the moon and watched the earth, would you see phases? Would you ever see the earth eclipse the sun? Would you ever see the earth set?

22. At this moment in time, is there anywhere on earth where the sun is directly overhead? Is there more than one place? Can you guess, very approximately, what the latitude(s) of the place(s) might be?

23. Draw a diagram making clear how an eclipse of the moon happens, and explain why there isn’t one every month.

24. Explain why we have seasons, with diagrams. What days mark the beginning of each season? Show where the Earth is on your diagram at the beginning of each season.

25. How did Hipparchus and Ptolemy account for the difference in length of the four seasons? How is it accounted for now?

26. How did Ptolemy account for the retrograde motion of Mars? How is it accounted for now?

27. Approximately when was Baghdad built? How was the Caliph able to get hold of Hipparchus’ works on astronomy? In what way was the copy he received an improvement on the original?

28. Over approximately what period of time did mathematics and science flourish in Baghdad? Why did it end? Explain the origin and original meaning of the words algebra and algorithm.

29. Approximately when and where was al-Tusi? How did he explain back-and-forth motion in terms of combined circular motions?

30. Where is Cordoba? Over approximately what period of time did science and learning flourish in Cordoba? Why did it end? When was Averroes? What was his main contribution?

31. When was Aristotle first taught in England? Sketch the chain by which Aristotle’s works finally made it to England.

32. Approximately when and where was Roger Bacon? What did he invent? Where did he get his ideas on science?

33. Sketch Ptolemy’s picture of the motion of Venus. Does it correctly account for the observed phases of Venus? Does Copernicus’s picture predict different phases of Venus than Ptolemy’s?

34. How did Galileo estimate the height of mountains on the moon?

35. Why did the discovery of Jupiter’s moons make Copernicus’s picture more plausible?

36. Explain how a sundial like the one behind Pavilion IV works (or would if the trees weren’t there). Explain clearly how it differs from an Australian sundial.