1. The invention of what technology would make Shannon's theory of a computing machine practical?
(a) Network.
(b) Circuit.
(c) Grid.
(d) Transistor.

2. What society created the first numeric tables?
(a) Egyptian.
(b) Roman.
(c) Chinese.
(d) Babylonian.

3. What jobs were created to handle the increasing number of telephone calls?
(a) Secretaries.
(b) Office assistants.
(c) Switchboard operators.
(d) Call center personnel.

4. Who developed a system of logic that would not have been possible without writing?
(a) Plato.
(b) Socrates.
(c) Aristotle.
(d) Euripedes.

5. What does the word "entropy" describe in relationship to thermodynamics?
(a) The temperature of a system.
(b) The functionality of a system.
(c) The efficiency of a system.
(d) The availability of energy in a system.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the modern meaning of "entropy"? "Entropy was not a kind of energy or an amount of energy," Gleick writes (p. 271). It was instead an abstract measurement of the unavailability of energy.

2. How was the machine created by Charles Babbage received?

3. How does heat travel?

4. Prior to the electric telegraph, an invention by the same name was created by Claude Chappe and his brothers during what conflict?

5. The early telegraph had trouble functioning under what conditions?

(see the answer key)

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