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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 was problematic about Heisenberg’s great discovery?

2. What does Heisenberg say about the years they worked together?

3. In Act 2, how does Margrethe attempt to cut the tension between the two men?

4. Where did Bohr work out complementarity?

5. What was the insult that a scientist gave of Heisenberg’s knowledge?

Short Essay Questions

1. How much more time did Heisenberg think he needed to make his reaction work?

2. How was Einstein’s theory important to Heisenberg’s work?

3. What is Heisenberg’s plan (according to him, in present day) for talking to Bohr about the atomic project?

4. What does Heisenberg claim to think about his own plan for talking to Bohr about the atomic projects in Copenhagen?

5. Where does Heisenberg spend the last months of the war, and why?

6. What extreme act does Heisenberg claim that Bohr would have been justified in doing?

7. What were the conditions under which Heisenberg was allowed to practice science after the war?

8. What does Heisenberg say about his understanding of the bomb?

9. What was the impetus for Heisenberg’s attaining the chair at Leipzig?

10. What did Einstein show about measurement?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe fission. What is the significance of this process? In what ways might this be viewed as a metaphor for the relationship between Bohr and Heisenberg?

Essay Topic 2

On its surface, the play seems to be about science. However, the title and various other elements of the content link it to other spheres, as well. Can this play hold interest for those who are not interested in science? What other areas of study does it touch upon, and in what way?

Essay Topic 3

Uncertainty permeates this play, both in its scientific and prosaic senses. What is the uncertainty at the core of the play? Can the uncertainty truly be compared to scientific uncertainty? Can the issues at stake in the play ever be determined for certain?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 566 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample