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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where is the European Center for Medium Range Forecasts headquartered?
(a) Dublin, Ireland.
(b) Reading, England.
(c) Paris, France.
(d) Berlin, Germany.

2. According to Gleick in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs," what will lead to an increased, steady state in the idealized population?
(a) A fraction parameter.
(b) A higher parameter.
(c) A multiplier parameter.
(d) A lower parameter.

3. What, according to the author, are created out of things that have come to an end?
(a) Cantor dust.
(b) Fractal basin boundaries.
(c) Revolutions.
(d) Cosmic arrhythmias.

4. What mathematical theorem states that every simply connected, closed 3-manifold is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere?
(a) Information theory.
(b) Fractal compression.
(c) No-slip condition.
(d) Poincare conjecture.

5. Where was Hendrik Houthakker born?
(a) Prague.
(b) Amsterdam.
(c) Moscow.
(d) London.

6. 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) "Incongruity".
(b) "Turbulence".
(c) "Cantor dust".
(d) "Fractals".

7. In statistics, what refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data?
(a) Diversity.
(b) Commonality.
(c) Prediction.
(d) Dependence.

8. When was James Yorke born?
(a) 1932.
(b) 1937.
(c) 1941.
(d) 1949.

9. In Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature," Houthakker explained to Mandelbrot the diagram in his office represented eight years of what?
(a) Cotton prices.
(b) Almond prices.
(c) Wheat prices.
(d) Corn prices.

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

11. 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) James Yorke.
(c) Enrico Fermi.
(d) Wallace Stevens.

12. 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.
(a) Fraction.
(b) Paradigm.
(c) Parameter.
(d) Divisor.

13. Who said that calling the study of chaos a nonlinear science was akin to calling zoology "the study of nonelephant animals" in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?
(a) Stanislaw Ulam.
(b) Harvey J. Gold.
(c) Enrico Fermi.
(d) Wallace Stevens.

14. 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?
(a) Normal science.
(b) Bland science.
(c) Psuedoscience.
(d) Science of commonality.

15. Where was Thomas S. Kuhn born?
(a) Cincinnati, Ohio.
(b) Omaha, Nebraska.
(c) Spearfish, South Dakota.
(d) Anchorage, Alaska.

Short Answer Questions

1. Robert May, like many before him, was confused by the changes when what was increased?

2. 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?

3. From what institution did Thomas S. Kuhn earn his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics?

4. For what company had Benoit Mandelbrot been working in economics, studying distribution of various incomes in the economy when he was invited by Houthakker to speak at Harvard?

5. What does Gleick assert was the inspiration for Archimedes in Chapter 2, "Revolution"?

(see the answer keys)

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