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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Hawking's model of the universe says the universe will end how?
(a) It will end because all matter will disappear.
(b) It will end in a big explosion.
(c) It will never end.
(d) It will end because black holes will suck all matter in.

2. What force is the weakest of the four categories of forces?
(a) Attraction.
(b) Energy.
(c) Gravity.
(d) Light.

3. What does Hawking say math is useful for?
(a) Communicating about our observations.
(b) Describing what we observe in the known universe.
(c) Communicating in a single language.
(d) Describing everything we know.

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

5. Hawking used what kind of space-time to reach the conclusion that the universe is similar to a sphere?
(a) Euclidean.
(b) Ptolemaic.
(c) Newtonian.
(d) Aristotelian.

6. Galileo wrote about Copernicus' theory in which language?
(a) Italian.
(b) Latin.
(c) Greek.
(d) French.

7. The laws of science that govern the behavior of matter under all normal situations say that under the combination of the two operations C and P, what happens?
(a) Situations happen with predictablity.
(b) Situations are unchanged.
(c) Situations are reversed.
(d) Situational principles must be tested.

8. How many questions are left unanswered prior to the development of math that incorporates quantum mechanics?
(a) Four.
(b) Three.
(c) Five.
(d) Six.

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

10. Galileo belied that the earth did what?
(a) Orbited the sun.
(b) Held still while everything rotated around it.
(c) Was the center of the solar system.
(d) Was the center of the universe.

11. Why do researchers want to find black holes?
(a) To explain strage gravitational orbits of planets in bianary star systems.
(b) To prevent the orbits of earth and other possible earth-like worlds from entering them.
(c) To explain gravitational forces that the mass of the universe cannot explain.
(d) To prevent space travelers from entering them.

12. What scientific feat led to the introduction of imaginary time?
(a) Trying to unify gravity with quantum mechanics.
(b) Trying to create a testable hypothesis for the big bang.
(c) Trying to unify small forces with the theory of relativity.
(d) Trying to unite the concept of black holes and the big bang.

13. Hawking calls the possibility of the universe collapsing "the big ____?"
(a) Explosion.
(b) Bang.
(c) Crunch.
(d) Smash.

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

15. Laplace, at the beginning of the 19th century, postulated what idea?
(a) Scientific experiments.
(b) Scientific determinism.
(c) Scientific knowledge.
(d) Scientific communication.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. When Einstein said he was not coming back to Germany, what was the headline in the paper?

3. If there is a grand unified theory, according to Hawking it would be the ultimate triumph of what?

4. Hawking believes that if science does discover a complete theory of the universe, then humans will have come to know what?

5. What is another name for combination of operations?

(see the answer keys)

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