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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. From what location was the Introduction written?

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

3. As a consequence of quantum mechanics, waves sometimes behave like what?

4. Galileo found the moons of what planet using his telescope?

5. The general theory of relativity best describes what world?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are quanta?

2. What could cause the expansion of the universe to go on forever?

3. What happens at the event horizon of a black hole?

4. When looking at the sky on a clear night what do you see and how far away is it?

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

6. What is one way that scientists determine that subatomic particles exist?

7. According to Carl Sagan, what prompts children to ask seemingly unanswerable questions?

8. What determines whether a star can become a black hole?

9. What are the six varieties of quarks?

10. What is one implication of the theory of relativity?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Pick a scientist (Einstein, Galileo or Newton) and discuss, using examples from the book, that scientist's contributions to the view of the universe we hold today.

Essay Topic 2

Black holes exist in math, but not in observational reality. What does this mean for the evolution of ideas that scientists accept the idea of a new creation purely by seeing the math work? What does Hawking say about the evolution of ideas without observational proof? Please use the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

A thesis is a main point, or argument, that an essay or book is intended to support. If there was a thesis for this book, what would it be and why? Please cite examples from the book.

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This section contains 476 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample