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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Science of commonality.
(c) Psuedoscience.
(d) Bland science.

2. 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.

3. 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) Steven Smale.
(b) Harvey J. Gold.
(c) Stanislaw Ulam.
(d) Benoit Mandelbrot.

4. What controversial book did Thomas S. Kuhn publish in 1962?
(a) Physical Review Letters.
(b) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
(c) Fractals Everywhere.
(d) Period Three Implies Chaos.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature," Houthakker explained to Mandelbrot the diagram in his office represented eight years of what?

2. Although James Yorke was a brilliant mathematician, he often referred to himself as what?

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. What was the profession of Benoit Mandelbrot's mother?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What led to Benoit Mandelbrot's epiphany in Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature"? Where was Benoit Mandelbrot working at the time?

2. How is James Yorke described in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"? What term did he coin?

3. Who is quoted discussing nonlinear problems in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?

4. What impact did The Structure of Scientific Revolutions have on the scientific community? What did Kuhn assert in the book?

5. What did Benoit Mandelbrot and Hendrik Houthakker agree on about the chart in Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature"?

6. How is a Cantor set described in Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature"?

7. What did Edward Lorenz develop in order to assist in working with computer technology in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"? How did he feel about the future of forecasting?

8. How is the relationship between meteorologists and computers described in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"?

9. How did the role of chaos theory affect ecologists in the 1970s as described in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?

10. How did Lorenz's work influence James Yorke in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?

(see the answer keys)

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