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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Gleick in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs," what will cause the idealized population to end up at the lower level?
(a) A lower parameter.
(b) A fraction parameter.
(c) A multiplier parameter.
(d) A higher parameter.

2. 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"?
(a) Wallace Stevens.
(b) James Yorke.
(c) Robert May.
(d) Enrico Fermi.

3. In his paper, Kuhn argues that rival paradigms are ______, meaning that it is not possible to understand one paradigm through the conceptual framework and terminology of another rival paradigm.
(a) Incomprehensible.
(b) Incorrigible.
(c) Incommensurable.
(d) Indistinguishable.

4. What is the mathematical study of changes in the qualitative or topological structure of a given family, such as the integral curves of a family of vector fields, and the solutions of a family of differential equations?
(a) Bifurcation theory.
(b) Fluid dynamics.
(c) Theoretical physics.
(d) Thermodynamics.

5. In Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect," the author writes, "The Butterfly Effect acquired a technical name: sensitive dependence on _____________"?
(a) "Random conditions."
(b) "Ideal conditions."
(c) "Initial conditions."
(d) "Controlled conditions."

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature," Houthakker explained to Mandelbrot the diagram in his office represented eight years of what?

2. What concept originated by Thomas S. Kuhn refers to the routine work of scientists experimenting within a paradigm, slowly accumulating detail in accord with established broad theory and not actually challenging or attempting to test the underlying assumptions of that theory?

3. In Chapter 2, "Revolution," Gleick writes that the only problem with studying and experimenting with a new science is what?

4. In what year did Benoit Mandelbrot recognize the ghost of an idea when he spotted a diagram charted out on the blackboard in Hendrik Houthakker's office?

5. What is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language?

(see the answer key)

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