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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How close is the closest star, other than the sun, to earth?

2. In what year did Stephen Hawking enter the Royal Society of London?

3. What theory best describes the singularities of black holes and big bangs?

4. Aristotle and who believed that time is not absolute?

5. Scientists start their understanding of the universe with what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Light behaves in which two manners?

2. Why do scientists think that there is a black hole in the star system Cygnus X-1?

3. What is the uncertainty principle?

4. In 1687 Newton published mathematical formulas that do what?

5. Scientists start with observations and mathematics to answer the fundamental questions and then do what?

6. What is the difference between the Aristotelian approach to science and Galileo's approach?

7. What stops quantum mechanics from explaining everything in the universe?

8. The mathematical formulas that result from a scientific model of the universe must do what?

9. What are the six varieties of quarks?

10. What model of the atom persisted until the 1960's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hawking states that without science there can be no prediction and without predictive ability time is meaningless (Chapter 1). What does Hawking mean by this statement? Use examples from the text to support your position.

Essay Topic 2

What principle introduced in Hawking's book is the most influential on our view of the world and universe today? Why? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Hawking says there are three possibilities for the unification of physics theory. What are they? Which one will prevail? Support your answer with examples from the text.

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