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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs," Gleick writes, "In the emergence of chaos as a new science in the 1970s, _____ were destined to play a special role."
(a) Paleontologists.
(b) Geologists.
(c) Ecologists.
(d) Botanists.

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

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

4. What is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language?
(a) Algorithm model.
(b) Mathematical model.
(c) Fraction model.
(d) Computer model.

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

6. Who does Gleick quote as saying "It does not say in the Bible that all laws of nature are expressible linearily!" in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?
(a) Stanislaw Ulam.
(b) Enrico Fermi.
(c) James Yorke.
(d) Wallace Stevens.

7. 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) Incommensurable.
(b) Incorrigible.
(c) Indistinguishable.
(d) Incomprehensible.

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

9. What were the subjects allowed to glance at one at a time in the experiment from the 1940s described by Gleick in Chapter 2, "Revolution"?
(a) Playing cards.
(b) Ink blots.
(c) Postage stamps.
(d) Nature photographs.

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

11. What is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language?
(a) Meteorology.
(b) Information theory.
(c) Philosophy.
(d) Biology.

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

13. 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?
(a) IBM.
(b) Xerox.
(c) ProtoLife.
(d) Iterated Systems Incorporated.

14. The National Weather Service is one of the six scientific agencies that make up what division of the U.S. Government?
(a) The Interior Department.
(b) The U.S. Coast Guard.
(c) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(d) The U.S. Navy.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. 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" _______________?

2. In what year did Edward Lorenz create a weather simulator as described in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"?

3. 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?

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. What mathematical theorem states that every simply connected, closed 3-manifold is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere?

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