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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapters 3-4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature," Houthakker explained to Mandelbrot the diagram in his office represented eight years of what?
(a) Wheat prices.
(b) Almond prices.
(c) Corn prices.
(d) Cotton prices.

2. Who is attributed with the following quote in the beginning of Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs": "The result of a mathematical development should be continuously checked against one's own intuition about what constitutes reasonable biological behavior"?
(a) Benoit Mandelbrot.
(b) Steven Smale.
(c) Stanislaw Ulam.
(d) Harvey J. Gold.

3. James Yorke realized that one of the largest problems with his work was that mathematicians and physicists were often worlds apart because they did not what?
(a) Follow the same rules.
(b) Use the same equipment.
(c) Speak the same language.
(d) Report to work at the same time.

4. In statistics, what refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data?
(a) Diversity.
(b) Commonality.
(c) Prediction.
(d) Dependence.

5. In mathematics, what is a system which does not satisfy the superposition principle, or whose output is not directly proportional to its input?
(a) Linear system.
(b) Hyperlinear system.
(c) Thermolinear system.
(d) Nonlinear system.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena?

2. According to Gleick in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs," what will lead to an increased, steady state in the idealized population?

3. Who said that calling the study of chaos a nonlinear science was akin to calling zoology "the study of nonelephant animals" in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?

4. What refers to a computer program or network of computers that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system?

5. Who is attributed with the following quote in Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature": "And yet relation appears, a small relation expanding like the shade of a cloud on sand, a shape on the side of the hill"?

(see the answer key)

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