SAMPLE: History

Film Science: Questions for Newton - Tale of Two Isaacs

Background: Who is the best scientist in the world? This honor often goes to Isaac Newton for both the volume and the significance of his work. This video focuses on two of his grandest ideas: gravitation and the laws of motion. But, beyond that, it gives us a glimpse at his difficult struggle to balance the demands of his professional and personal lives.

1. What was significant about the appearance of a comet marking the birth of Isaac Newton?

2. a) How did changes in the structure of young Isaac's family affect his attitudes toward society?

b) And in turn, how did these affect his development as a scientist?

3. Of the things he built as a youngster, which was his favorite?

4. What event seemed to open Isaac's eyes to a future as a scientist?

5. How does Newton summarize Kepler's ideas about the orbital motions of planets around the sun?

6. Find the centripetal acceleration needed to keep an object moving at 2 800 m/s in a 5.3 * 10 ⁴ km orbit above the Earth.

7. a) Newton compares the motions of the heavens to what device?

b) Find the period of an object moving at 4 500 m/s in a 6.7 * 10 ² km orbit.

8. What particular feature of planetary motion interests him?

9. What centripetal acceleration holds an object in a 9.2 * 10 ³ km radius orbit with a period of 1.8 days?

10. How might Newton have made a sentence of these? moon, Earth, apple, attraction, gravity

11. What centripetal force will keep a 550 g object orbiting at 1 200 m/s in a 6 200 km orbit?

12. In the Age of Reason people began to recognize the importance and need for what type of effort?

13. Why was Newton able to surmise the time by looking at the shadows in his study?

14. Find the centripetal force needed to hold a 4 000 g object in a 3 500 m orbit with a 0.8 day period.

15. How did Newton deal with motion situations lacking mathematical descriptions?

16. What was Hooke's objection to Newton's methodology?

17. Numbers, theories and equations are a key part of science but Newton sees beyond these to what?

18. What type of math did Newton invent to describe situations where objects are in motion?

19. Summarize his ideas about:

a) a body experiencing no force b) a force on a body c) pairs of opposing forces

20. What is the name of Newton's book containing his ideas about planetary motion and gravity?

21. Newton suggests that achieving scientific comprehension can sometimes be like what act?

22. What metaphor did Newton use to put the importance of his scientific efforts in perspective?

23. How did Newton express his intellectual debt to Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus and Galileo?