Chapter 4: Key Words

You should be familiar with the following terms as well as terms from previous chapters:
  • European Renaissance
  • trivium
  • quadrivium
  • Johannes Gutenberg
  • inductive reasoning
  • Nicolaus Copernicus
  • Ptolemaic astronomy
  • Aristotelian physics
  • De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
  • Copernican revolution
  • Sir Isaac Newton
  • umbra
  • penumbra
  • penumbral eclipse
  • partial eclipse
  • total eclipse
  • line of nodes
  • lunar sidereal month
  • lunar synodic month
  • lunar draconic month
  • synodic month
  • inclination
  • Occam’s razor
  • Gregorian calendar
  • Giordano Bruno
  • Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Roman Inquisition)
  • Tycho Brahe
  • De nova stella
  • Johannes Kepler
  • Copernican
  • William Gilbert
  • astronomical unit
  • ellipse
  • Astronomia Nova
  • Harmonices Mundi (The Harmony of the World)
  • Kepler’s laws
  • law of ellipses
  • law of equal areas
  • harmonic law
  • focus
  • principal focus
  • semimajor axis
  • semiminor axis
  • eccentricity
  • perihelion
  • aphelion
  • Galileo Galilei
  • Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger)
  • acceleration due to gravity
  • inertia
  • Galilean relativity
  • Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican
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