View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. According to Gleick in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs," what will cause the idealized population to end up at the lower level?
(a) A multiplier parameter.
(b) A higher parameter.
(c) A lower parameter.
(d) A fraction parameter.

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

6. When was Edward Lorenz born?
(a) 1921.
(b) 1917.
(c) 1924.
(d) 1914.

7. 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?
(a) Speak the same language.
(b) Use the same equipment.
(c) Follow the same rules.
(d) Report to work at the same time.

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

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

10. 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) Divisor.
(c) Parameter.
(d) Paradigm.

11. 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 army.
(c) Computer virus.
(d) Computer hardware.

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

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

14. 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) Geologists.
(b) Ecologists.
(c) Botanists.
(d) Paleontologists.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Where is the National Weather Service headquartered?

3. Where is Stephen Smale from?

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

5. When was James Yorke born?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 494 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample