Ancient cultures used the sky for spirtual, religious reasons and sometimes looked at recurring patterns to time eclipses or agriculture, or for
navigation. They didn't, though, really have a scientific method, and their theories were just "stories". What is empiricism and why is it important
to the scientific method?
Which of the Ancient Greeks is considered the father of empiricism?
Did the Ancient Greeks believe the Earth was flat?
What observations led the Ancient Greeks to determine the shape of the Earth?
What was Eratosthenes method for measuring the size of the Earth?
What was Aristarchus method for measuring the size of the Sun?
Did this information lead Aristarchus to conclude that the Sun went around the Earth (geocentrism) or that the Earth went around the Sun (heliocentrism)?
If you lived on an alternate Earth, where, at Quarter Moon, the angle between the Moon and the Sun was 70.53° how much bigger would
the Sun be than the Moon?
If you lived on an alternate Earth, where, at Quarter Moon, the angle between the Moon and the Sun was 70.53°, the Moon's size
(diameter) was only one-third of the Sun's size during a solar eclipse, and the (diameter of the) Earth's shadow was 4 times bigger than the Moon
during a lunar eclipe, how much bigger (in diameter) would the Sun be than the Earth?
The experiment outlined in the previous bullet point tells you the size (diameter) of the Sun compared to that of the alternate Earth. How could you then
calculate the size of the Sun in physical units (such as miles or kilometers?)
What are the three hallmarks of the scientific method?
Why is a fourth scientific principle, prediction, perhaps the most important? How does correlation differ from cause?
The distance to the Sun is roughly 149598000km. Can you write this in
Meters?
Using scientific notation?
In Gkm (Giga-kilometers)
In Astronomical Units (AUs)?
In light years (the speed of light is about 300000 km/s)?
