The Scientific Revolution: observing, testing and new tools
Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
A new picture of the heavens
With cards in time order: [1] 1543: ?; [2] 1609–1621: Kepler's laws: each planet's orbit is an ellipse (an oval), with the Sun at one focus; the laws use Tycho Brahe's accurate data; [3] 1610: with a telescope, Galileo sees four moons circling Jupiter; [4] 1687: Newton's Principia sets out his laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. Arrows (this made the next one possible): 1 → 2, 2 → 4. The card marked ? is blank. Below the strip: the Galileo card has no arrow, because this strip does not show what it led to.
Jun's strip has a blank card: what did Copernicus's 1543 book place at the center?
- Jupiter
- The Moon
- The Sun
- The Earth
What shape did Kepler find for each planet's orbit, Kira asks?
- A straight line
- A perfect circle around the Sun
- An ellipse, an oval
- A square
Which card on the strip comes last, Luz asks?
Use the picture in question 2.
- Newton's Principia, 1687
- Copernicus's book, 1543
- Galileo's moons, 1610
- Kepler's laws, from 1609 to 1621
Milo reads the word orbit. What is an orbit?
Use the picture in question 2.
- The center of the universe
- A kind of telescope
- A moon's surface
- The path of a planet around the Sun
Noah reads that gravitation is universal. What does universal mean here?
Use the picture in question 2.
- It works everywhere, for all bodies
- It is a kind of telescope
- It works on Earth alone
- It was found in 1543
What does the arrow from Copernicus's card point to, Ren asks?
Use the picture in question 2.
- No card
- Kepler's laws
- Newton's Principia, directly
- Galileo's moons
Why does the Galileo card have no arrow, Zee asks?
Use the picture in question 2.
- Arrows join books to books
- Galileo came after Newton
- The strip does not show what it led to
- Galileo had no telescope
Why did Kepler need accurate data, Ari asks?
Use the picture in question 2.
- To test the exact shape of each orbit
- Data were not needed
- To make the orbits circles
- To find the four moons that circle Jupiter
Four moons circling Jupiter showed something new. What was it, Bo asks?
Use the picture in question 2.
- Jupiter circles the Moon
- Moons cannot move
- The Earth has four moons of its own
- Not everything circles the Earth
Esme's friend says Newton worked it all out alone. Which reply fits the strip?
Use the picture in question 2.
- Disagree: Galileo wrote the Principia
- Agree: no arrow on the strip points to Newton
- Not quite: Kepler's laws led to his work
- Agree: Newton came first
