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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Fluid dynamics.
(b) Physiology.
(c) Thermodynamics.
(d) Physics.

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

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

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

5. 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.

6. What was the profession of Benoit Mandelbrot's father?
(a) Butcher.
(b) Carpenter.
(c) Clothing wholesaler.
(d) Math teacher.

7. 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"?
(a) Stanislaw Ulam.
(b) Benoit Mandelbrot.
(c) Steven Smale.
(d) Harvey J. Gold.

8. When was Steven Smale born?
(a) 1930.
(b) 1943.
(c) 1932.
(d) 1938.

9. What work by Edward Lorenz greatly impacted the thinking of James Yorke, as described in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?
(a) "Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow".
(b) "Fractals Everywhere".
(c) "Physical Review Letters".
(d) "Period Three Implies Chaos".

10. What is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services?
(a) Information theory.
(b) Economics.
(c) Chaos theory.
(d) Physiology.

11. 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 softball.
(c) A six-foot wide magnifying glass.
(d) A turkey baster.

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

13. What paper did James Yorke publish in 1975 concerning chaos?
(a) "Physical Review Letters."
(b) "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions."
(c) "Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow."
(d) "Period Three Implies Chaos."

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

15. When was Thomas S. Kuhn born?
(a) 1922.
(b) 1915.
(c) 1907.
(d) 1912.

Short Answer Questions

1. In statistics, what refers to any statistical relationship between two random variables or two sets of data?

2. Where was James Yorke born?

3. Where is the National Weather Service headquartered?

4. In Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect," the author writes, "The Butterfly Effect acquired a technical name: sensitive dependence on _____________"?

5. Where was Robert May born?

(see the answer keys)

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