Why Planets Orbit — Questions and answers
Read the full story
According to Pavel, what is Jake's idea about throwing a baseball fast enough the key to?
Choices
- A. How to throw a frisbee better.
- B. Everything we call an orbit. ✓
- C. Winning a baseball game.
- D. Getting a new notebook.
Answer: B. Everything we call an orbit.
From page 2
Where did Pavel say they needed to go back to in time to understand orbits?
Choices
- A. A different beach.
- B. France in the 1700s.
- C. England in the 1660s. ✓
- D. The Golden Gate Bridge.
Answer: C. England in the 1660s.
From page 3
How did Pavel describe Isaac Newton?
Choices
- A. A brilliant, difficult, and incredibly focused scientist. ✓
- B. An old man who sat under a tree.
- C. A gardener who worked in his study.
- D. A character who loved the beach.
Answer: A. A brilliant, difficult, and incredibly focused scientist.
From page 4
What did Isaac Newton mean when he said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants"?
Choices
- A. He was literally standing on very tall people.
- B. His discoveries were possible because of the work of scientists before him. ✓
- C. He was taller than Galileo and Kepler.
- D. He liked playing team sports with giants.
Answer: B. His discoveries were possible because of the work of scientists before him.
From page 5
According to Pavel, what happens when a cannonball is fired fast enough to orbit?
Choices
- A. It flies straight up into space.
- B. It falls back to the ground immediately.
- C. It is constantly falling but keeps missing the Earth. ✓
- D. It stops moving completely.
Answer: C. It is constantly falling but keeps missing the Earth.
From page 7
How fast would Jake need to throw a baseball for it to orbit the Earth?
Choices
- A. As fast as a frisbee.
- B. Seventeen thousand miles per hour. ✓
- C. As fast as a cannonball.
- D. Slower than a curveball.
Answer: B. Seventeen thousand miles per hour.
From page 8
What does Sophie realize is also "falling" in an orbit?
Choices
- A. The frisbee.
- B. Jake's baseball.
- C. The moon. ✓
- D. The Golden Gate Bridge.
Answer: C. The moon.
From page 9