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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology founded?
(a) 1895.
(b) 1877.
(c) 1861.
(d) 1823.

2. Where is the National Weather Service headquartered?
(a) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
(b) Silver Spring, Maryland.
(c) Huntsville, Alabama.
(d) Hot Springs, Arkansas.

3. What refers to a supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington, and founded in 1972?
(a) Ting.
(b) More.
(c) Cray.
(d) Bend.

4. 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) Psuedoscience.
(b) Bland science.
(c) Normal science.
(d) Science of commonality.

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

6. What is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force?
(a) Thermodynamics.
(b) Physiology.
(c) Fluid dynamics.
(d) Physics.

7. 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) Corn prices.
(c) Wheat prices.
(d) Almond prices.

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

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

10. What can be formed by taking a finite Cartesian product of the Cantor set with itself, making it a Cantor space?
(a) Euclidean space.
(b) Helium in a Box.
(c) Cantor dust.
(d) Fractal.

11. Although James Yorke was a brilliant mathematician, he often referred to himself as what?
(a) A rebel.
(b) A martyr.
(c) A monk.
(d) A philosopher.

12. What is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena?
(a) Bifurcation theory.
(b) Fluid dynamics.
(c) Theoretical physics.
(d) Thermodynamics.

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

14. 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) It requires a new language.
(c) All the work is yet to be done.
(d) There are no rules.

15. What did Foucault use as a way to demonstrate the earth's rotation, according to the author in Chapter 2, "Revolution"?
(a) A twenty-story high pendulum.
(b) A six-foot wide magnifying glass.
(c) A turkey baster.
(d) A softball.

Short Answer Questions

1. What studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions?

2. 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?

3. James Yorke realized that one of the largest problems with his work was that mathematicians and physicists were often worlds apart because they did not what?

4. Who is attributed with the following quote in the beginning of Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs": "The result of a mathematical development should be continuously checked against one's own intuition about what constitutes reasonable biological behavior"?

5. The National Weather Service is one of the six scientific agencies that make up what division of the U.S. Government?

(see the answer keys)

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