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

2. What is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy?
(a) Physics.
(b) Biology.
(c) The Navier-Stokes equation.
(d) Butterfly effect.

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

4. 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?
(a) Pufferfish effect.
(b) Kangaroo effect.
(c) Hummingbird effect.
(d) Butterfly effect.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language?

2. When was Robert May born?

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. What work by Edward Lorenz greatly impacted the thinking of James Yorke, as described in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?

5. 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"?

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

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

4. How did Benoit Mandelbrot describe the ideal data source in Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature"?

5. What variable changed the outcome in the experiment described by Thomas S. Kuhn in Chapter 2, "Revolution"?

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

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 did Lorenz develop ways to reproduce complex behavior in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"?

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

10. What were the biggest issues with weather forecasting during Lorenz's time as described in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"? How is the Butterfly Effect defined?

(see the answer keys)

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