View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What refers to the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state?
(a) Hummingbird effect.
(b) Butterfly effect.
(c) Pufferfish effect.
(d) Kangaroo effect.

2. In Chapter 2, "Revolution," the author writes, "Professional scientists, given brief, uncertain glimpses of nature's workings, are no less vulnerable to anguish and confusion when they come face to face with" _______________?
(a) "Turbulence".
(b) "Cantor dust".
(c) "Fractals".
(d) "Incongruity".

3. When was Benoit Mandelbrot born?
(a) 1924.
(b) 1876.
(c) 1941.
(d) 1900.

4. What is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy?
(a) The Navier-Stokes equation.
(b) Butterfly effect.
(c) Physics.
(d) Biology.

5. James Yorke is credited with creating what term in reference to science?
(a) Chaos.
(b) Rambling.
(c) Frantic.
(d) Pandamonium.

6. What refers to a computer program or network of computers that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system?
(a) Computer virus.
(b) Computer model.
(c) Computer army.
(d) Computer hardware.

7. What does Gleick assert was the inspiration for Archimedes in Chapter 2, "Revolution"?
(a) A bathtub.
(b) A boulder.
(c) A tree.
(d) A snail.

8. Where was James Yorke born?
(a) Flagstaff, Arizona.
(b) Plainfield, New Jersey.
(c) Portland, Oregon.
(d) Cheyenne, Wyoming.

9. What is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere?
(a) Thermodynamics.
(b) Fractal compression.
(c) Physiology.
(d) Meteorology.

10. Where was Robert May born?
(a) Tokyo, Japan.
(b) Berlin, Germany.
(c) Sydney, Australia.
(d) Cairo, Egypt.

11. What was the profession of Benoit Mandelbrot's mother?
(a) Writer.
(b) Nurse.
(c) Housekeeper.
(d) Dentist.

12. In what year did Edward Lorenz create a weather simulator as described in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"?
(a) 1951.
(b) 1966.
(c) 1948.
(d) 1960.

13. In Chapter 2, "Revolution," Gleick writes that the only problem with studying and experimenting with a new science is what?
(a) No one will understand it.
(b) All the work is yet to be done.
(c) There are no rules.
(d) It requires a new language.

14. Where was Benoit Mandelbrot born?
(a) Lisbon, Portugal.
(b) Milan, Italy.
(c) Reykjavík, Iceland.
(d) Warsaw, Poland.

15. 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) Robert May.
(b) Wallace Stevens.
(c) Enrico Fermi.
(d) James Yorke.

Short Answer Questions

1. What controversial book did Thomas S. Kuhn publish in 1962?

2. When was Thomas S. Kuhn born?

3. What was the name of the computer manufacturing and retail division of Royal Typewriter which made the early computers RPC 4000 and RPC 9000?

4. In mathematics and statistics, a _____ is a quantity that serves to relate functions and variables using a common variable when such a relationship would be difficult to explicate with an equation.

5. Where was Edward Lorenz born?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 454 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample