The Earliest Models of the Solar System Employed What Aristotle

question 193

Multiple Choice

The earliest models of the solar system employed what Aristotle, and Plato before him, had taught was the perfect form: the circle. The simplest possible arrangement-uniform motion around a circle having Earth as its center-provided a fairly good approximation to the orbits of the Sun and the Moon. But it could not account for the observed variations in planetary brightness or their retrograde motion. Thus, a more complex model was needed to describe the motion of the planets. Eric Chaison and Steve McMillan, Astronomy Today, 3^rd ed.

• A) Argument; conclusion: A more complex model ... motion of the planets.
• B) Argument; conclusion: But it could not account ... their retrograde motion.
• C) Nonargument.
• D) Argument; conclusion: The simplest possible arrangement ... Sun and Moon.
• E) Argument; conclusion: The earliest models of the solar system ... the circle.

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Definitions:

Instinctive Drift

The tendency of an animal to revert to instinctual behaviors that interfere with learned behavior from conditioning.

Negative Reinforcement

A process in behaviorism where a response increases because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the response.

Salient

Being most noticeable or important; prominently standing out.

Stimuli

Environmental factors or changes that elicit a response from an organism or part of the body.