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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The man who was convicted of trying to murder Einstein was fined how much?
(a) He was thrown in jail, not fined.
(b) He wasn't fined at all.
(c) One hundred dollars.
(d) Six dollars.

2. A possible solution to combining general relativity and the uncertainty principle is what?
(a) Elimination of the cosmological constant.
(b) Creating a new particle.
(c) Supergravity.
(d) Cancelation of infinities.

3. What are the basic building blocks of string theory?
(a) Strings that exist only in outer space.
(b) Strings of matter.
(c) Strings connecting everything with gravitational forces.
(d) Strings of vibrating energy.

4. What book did Galileo publish, with the backing of the church's censors?
(a) Dialogue Concerning Humanity and the Universe.
(b) Dialogue Concerning the Relation of the World.
(c) Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.
(d) Dialogue Concerning God and Science.

5. Einstein proposed who should have control over nuclear weaponry?
(a) Only states with democracies.
(b) The military of each state.
(c) The civilians in each state.
(d) There should be international control.

6. A closed string is defined as what?
(a) A string that has ends.
(b) A string joined up with itself in a closed loop.
(c) A string that connects two objects and no other.
(d) A string that closes off an area of space.

7. What might escape from a black hole?
(a) Gamma rays.
(b) Photons.
(c) Something with more gravitational force than a black hole.
(d) Nothing.

8. There are at least how many different arrows of time?
(a) One.
(b) Four.
(c) Two.
(d) Three.

9. What is one question we ask to make sense of the world around us?
(a) What do I do on earth?
(b) Why do I think the way I do?
(c) Why is the world the way it is?
(d) Why am I here?

10. Galileo argued, to the church, that when the Bible conflicted with common sense what happened?
(a) The Bible was allegorical.
(b) The Bible was the truth.
(c) Common sense was the truth.
(d) That science should seek to know the truth.

11. If something can escape the event horizon of a black hole, it would be explained by thinking about the behavior of what?
(a) Light.
(b) Waves.
(c) Gravity.
(d) Particles.

12. Einstein said that politics are for the present but equations are for how long?
(a) Forever.
(b) Eternity.
(c) Infinity.
(d) Longer than politics.

13. If Hawking's model of the universe is used, black holes do what with their matter?
(a) Nothing.
(b) Collapse on it.
(c) Make it dense and start a new big bang.
(d) Release it back into space.

14. Which of the following is not an arrow of time recognized by Hawking's book?
(a) Psychological.
(b) Cosmological.
(c) Physiological.
(d) Thermodynamic.

15. What is another name for combination of operations?
(a) Equations.
(b) Factors.
(c) Symmetries.
(d) Differentials.

Short Answer Questions

1. What theory says that the universe has always existed and always will?

2. In string theory, the strings have what dimension and no other?

3. What does the P stand for in combinations of operations?

4. What was the name of Galileo's book that had to be smuggled to a publisher?

5. Hawking used what kind of space-time to reach the conclusion that the universe is similar to a sphere?

(see the answer keys)

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