Name: Date:

Questions related to the history regarding people's ideas/understanding about Earth

and its relationship with other members of the Solar System

1. True or False? People used to believe that the Earth was flat. _______________

2. A Greek astronomer named Eudoxus created the first model of a

_________________________ universe around 380 BC.

3. A Greek philosopher named Aristotle (384-322 BCE) said that the sun and stars are

moving in ( circles / ovals / squares ) and that the heaven (sky) is moving.

4. Please write down the names of three people who had a geocentric belief and

believed that Earth was at the center of the universe and that the stars, sun, and

moon moved around it.

1.

2.

3.

5. Ptolemy’s ideas about space/universe were well-trusted for over

________________ years, until ____________________________________.

6. A Greek astronomer and mathematician named Aristarchus of Samos (310 - about

230 BCE) presented the first known _________________________ model that

placed the Sun at the center of the known universe, with the Earth revolving around

the Sun once a year and rotating about its axis once a day.

7. Around 1515 CE, a Polish astronomer named _____________________________

tried to convince people that the Earth goes around the Sun in a circular motion and

spread a heliocentric (the Sun-centred) idea/belief.

8. A famous book which titled De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the

Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), which was written by Nicolaus Copernicus

was published on May 24th, 1543, which is the day ________________________.

9. In 1609 CE, an Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician named

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642 CE) found out that the Earth orbited the Sun, rather than

the other way around, after creating and using

______________________________________________________________.

10. ___________________________ was born almost a year after the death of

___________________________.

11. Why do you think that people thought that the Earth was flat?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

12. When Aristarchus presented his heliocentric idea/theory between 310 and about

230 BCE, unfortunately, it was NOT well accepted by others. Why do you think that

his idea/theory was NOT accepted?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Questions/Comments about the history regarding people's ideas/understanding

about Earth and its relationship with other members of the Solar System