SparkNotes: Galileo Galilei: Review Test

1. Where was Galileo born?

(A) Florence

(B) Rome

(C) Pisa

(D) London

2. What was Galileo's father's great hobby?

(A) Painting

(B) Music

(C) Astronomy

(D) Medicine

3. The explosion of art and culture in 15th- and 16th-century Italy was known as the...

(A) Enlightenment

(B) Renaissance

(C) Scientific Revolution

(D) Industrial Revolution

4. What was the dominant religion in 16th-century Italy?

(A) Protestantism

(B) Islam

(C) Eastern Orthodoxy

(D) Roman Catholicism

5. What was the name of the movement to reform Catholicism from within?

(A) The Inquisition

(B) The Reformation

(C) The Crusades

(D) The Counter-Reformation

6. Who was the ruling family of Tuscany?

(A) The Medici

(B) The Borgias

(C) The Galileis

(D) The Bellarmines

7. Where did Galileo enrolled at university?

(A) Florence

(B) Mantua

(C) Rome

(D) Pisa

8. What did Galileo originally study at the university?

(A) Astronomy

(B) Literature

(C) Physics

(D) Medicine

9. In what field did Galileo's true interests lie?

(A) Medicine

(B) Literature

(C) Biology

(D) Mathematics

10. Galileo's first teaching position was at the University of where?

(A) Genoa

(B) Naples

(C) Tuscany

(D) Pisa

11. There, Galileo made a famous experiment to disprove whose theory of downward motion?

(A) Ptolemy's

(B) Aristotle's

(C) Kepler's

(D) Copernicus's

12. What did Galileo's law of inertia state?

(A) An object in motion tends to stay in motion

(B) An object in motion tends to slow down

(C) An object tends to roll down an inclined plane

(D) An object at rest will stay at rest

13. Where was Galileo's second university appointment?

(A) Pisa

(B) Padua

(C) Berlin

(D) Florence

14. What was the name of Galileo's mistress?

(A) Marina Gambi

(B) Christina de Medici

(C) Giulia Ammananti

(D) Lucrezia Borgia

15. How many children did Galileo have by his mistress?

(A) 3

(B) 5

(C) 1

(D) 6

16. What was the name of the ancient astronomer who proposed a geocentric theory of the universe?

(A) Tycho Brahe

(B) Ptolemy

(C) Arminius

(D) Copernicus

17. Who was the first modern thinker to question geocentricity?

(A) Tycho Brahe

(B) Johannes Kepler

(C) Nicholas Copernicus

(D) Robert Bellarmine

18. Who invented the telescope?

(A) Nicholas Copernicus

(B) Johannes Kepler

(C) Hans Lippershey

(D) Jan Hus

19. When did Galileo develop his own telescope?

(A) 1604

(B) 1616

(C) 1609

(D) 1605

20. What was Galileo's first discovery to be made with his telescope?

(A) The phases of Venus

(B) The rings of Saturn

(C) The mountainous surface of the moon

(D) Sunspots

21. How many of Jupiter's moons did Galileo discover?

(A) 6

(B) 4

(C) 5

(D) 1

22. What did Galileo name the moons?

(A) The Jovian Moons

(B) The Medicean Stars

(C) The Red Stars

(D) The Borgian Satellites

23. Galileo's published record of his observations was called Sidereus Nuncius, meaning:

(A) "Starry Messenger"

(B) "Consideration for the Nonce"

(C) "The View Through the Telescope"

(D) "The Night Sky"

24. After the publication of Sidereus Nuncius, Galileo accepted a new appointment from the Grand Duke of which place?

(A) Tuscany

(B) Rome

(C) Naples

(D) Venice

25. Where did Galileo journey in 1611?

(A) Paris

(B) Rome

(C) Athens

(D) Arles

26. Which Catholic religious order had a strong interest in astronomy?

(A) The Dominicans

(B) The Franciscans

(C) The Lutherans

(D) The Jesuits

27. Of what notion was the Catholic Church deeply suspicious?

(A) Geocentricity

(B) Heliocentricity

(C) Inertia

(D) Relativity

28. Which of the following did Galileo NOT use as evidence for his theory of the universe?

(A) The phases of Venus

(B) The moons of Jupiter

(C) The tides

(D) The law of inertia

29. Who was Galileo's great antagonist within the Church, in the period 1610-1616?

(A) Cardinal Robert Bellarmine

(B) Father Castelli

(C) Cosimo de Medici

(D) Pope Urban VIII

30. What was the name of the Church institution responsible for dealing with heresy?

(A) The Curia

(B) The Jesuits

(C) The Inquisition

(D) The Dominicans

31. Bellarmine and others urged Galileo to teach heliocentricity as a ___, rather than a ___

(A) Possibility; probability

(B) Fact; theory

(C) Hypothesis; fact

(D) Falsehood; fact

32. In 1616, what did the Church declare regarding heliocentricity?

(A) That it was contrary to scripture, and should not be taught

(B) That it deserved further study

(C) That it was correct

(D) That it should be taught in all universities

33. Which pope approved the 1616 decision?

(A) Paul V

(B) John Paul II

(C) Urban VIII

(D) Boniface IX

34. What did Galileo's two daughters become?

(A) Heretics

(B) Nuns

(C) Nurses

(D) Astronomers

35. What was the name of Galileo's eldest daughter, with whom he was closest?

(A) Virginia

(B) Marina

(C) Christina

(D) Julia

36. In the debate over the comets, Galileo made enemies of which religious order?

(A) The Jesuits

(B) The Cistercians

(C) The Franciscans

(D) The Inquisition

37. What was the name of Galileo's treatise on the comets?

(A) De Revolutionibus

(B) The Assayer

(C) The Starry Messenger

(D) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

38. Which pope's ascension did Galileo welcome as a great opportunity for science?

(A) Paul V

(B) Urban I

(C) John XXIII

(D) Urban VIII

39. What was the name of Galileo's great attempt to prove the truth of the Copernican system?

(A) The Assayer

(B) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

(C) Novum Organum

(D) Copernicus and Ptolemy

40. What was the name of the character who defended the Ptolemaic theory in this work?

(A) Salviati

(B) Simplicio

(C) Urban

(D) Bellarmine

41. Galileo's enemies declared that Galileo's character of Simplicio was meant to resemble which real-life person?

(A) Paul V

(B) Copernicus

(C) Urban VIII

(D) Cardinal Bellarmine

42. Whither did the Inquisition summon Galileo in 1633?

(A) Florence

(B) Venice

(C) Rome

(D) Padua

43. Where was Galileo held as prisoner while being interrogated by the Inquisition?

(A) The Lateran Palace

(B) His mistress's house

(C) The Vatican

(D) Castel Sant-Angelo

44. During Galileo's interrogation, how did Urban VIII conduct himself?

(A) He kept out of it

(B) He intervened on Galileo's behalf

(C) He urged the death penalty

(D) He secretly rallied Galileo's friends to step in

45. What was the fate of Galileo after weeks of interrogation by the Inquisition?

(A) He renounced the Copernican theory

(B) He was executed

(C) He died in prison

(D) He killed himself

46. What sentence did the Church issue to Galileo?

(A) Death

(B) Life in prison

(C) Confinement in the Vatican

(D) A whipping

47. Where did Galileo lived the rest of his life?

(A) Rome

(B) Venice

(C) France

(D) Arcetri

48. When did Galileo die?

(A) 1634

(B) 1650

(C) 1642

(D) 1638