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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What refers to a computer program or network of computers that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system?
2. James Yorke is credited with creating what term in reference to science?
3. 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."
4. What did Foucault use as a way to demonstrate the earth's rotation, according to the author in Chapter 2, "Revolution"?
5. 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.
Short Essay Questions
1. Describe the weather simulator discussed in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect." What weather conditions did it create?
2. How did the role of chaos theory affect ecologists in the 1970s as described in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"?
3. What did Benoit Mandelbrot and Hendrik Houthakker agree on about the chart in Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature"?
4. How did Lorenz develop ways to reproduce complex behavior in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"?
5. What psychological experiment does Thomas S. Kuhn describe in Chapter 2, "Revolution"?
6. What was the early life of Benoit Mandelbrot like, as described by the author in Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature"?
7. How is Robert May described in Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs"? What did his work center on?
8. What two technologies contributed to the development of global forecasting in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"?
9. How did Benoit Mandelbrot describe the ideal data source 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?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss the lives and works of Gustav Mahler and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and analyze their influence on Mitchell Feigenbaum. What work of Goethe's is quoted in the book?
Essay Topic 2
Discuss Albert Libchaber's major contributions in experimental condensed matter physics. How did his discoveries relate to the Rayleigh-Benard systems?
Essay Topic 3
Define and discuss linear and nonlinear science, period-doublings and chaos. How did the scientists from the book contribute to these concepts?
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This section contains 925 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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