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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.

Multiple Choice 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.
(a) An abstract measurement of the unavailability of energy.
(b) an abstract measurement of the unavailability of heat.
(c) an abstract measurement of the unavailability of cold.
(d) an abstract measurement of the unavailability of capacity.

2. Why did businessmen immediately take to the telegraph?
(a) Orders and market information could be transmitted quickly over long distances.
(b) Businesses did not have to hire as many workers.
(c) Orders no longer had to be hand written.
(d) Businessmen could save money on travel expenses.

3. A new interest in what pursuit arose following the rise of the telegraph?
(a) Writing.
(b) The telephone.
(c) Cryptography.
(d) Computer Science.

4. What is a bit?
(a) A micron of information.
(b) The average size of piece of information.
(c) The smallest amount of useful information.
(d) The size of a datum.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Shannon call the units of information that he was able to measure in a message?

2. Seventeenth numerical tables were set up so that what factor could be learned about each number?

3. How were telegraph messages priced?

4. What type of lists did Babbage create about livestock, fabric, letter combinations in various languages and other facts?

5. Why were there so many message errors with the early telegraph?

(see the answer key)

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