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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 number is used in the joke about the population of the city?

2. What does the man carry to help with the problem?

3. What is the name of the mathematician who sees everything in numbers?

4. Where do the strangers live?

5. Which staff member is mentioned?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the last principle discussed in chapter 1?

2. How was the situation in the story handled? How did it involve probability?

3. What amusing example does Paulos use to illustrate the misunderstanding of numbers?

4. What is the example used by Paulos to demonstrate the connections between people?

5. What is the example used to separate numerates from innumerates?

6. The author believes that people are often obsessed by what topics?

7. Which famous doctor does Paulos introduce first? What is the doctor's opinion?

8. Who was the mathematician responsible for discovering one of the most important discoveries?

9. How is that encounter explained?

10. Why do people tend to be fascinated by coincidences?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast causation and correlation as seen by Paulos. Give examples of correct and incorrect uses. What are the most common errors? How can the errors be corrected and the misuse resolved?

Essay Topic 2

Choose at least three famous people. Link yourself to that person through as few intermediate links as possible. Were you surprised at the results? Write out each experiment and compare results.

Essay Topic 3

The example of two drug traffickers is used to illustrate one of Paulos' theories. What was it? Do you think the example was accurate? Was it informative? Which result was most likely to happen? Could the outcome have been predicted? How? If you were to predict the outcome without knowing the value of the product, what would you predict? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 590 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample