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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is modern society in information overload?
(a) Storing data on computers makes history writing easier.
(b) The expectation today is that all information should be preserved.
(c) Electronic information is easier to store than physical information.
(d) Companies and people fear litigation.

2. Why wasn't Shannon able to teach his computer to play a game?
(a) His boss nixed the idea.
(b) He found it wasn't possible.
(c) He thought he would be seen as non-serious.
(d) It would take to long to teach the machine the game.

3. What claim did Shannon make about the predictable redundancy of the English language?
(a) This this feature could not be computed.
(b) That this feature could be computed.
(c) That this feature could cause programming to be very difficult.
(d) That this feature could cause errors.

4. What happened to the library that once held all known information?
(a) It was buried during an eruption of Etna.
(b) It was burned when Alexandria was conquered.
(c) It was destroyed when Sparta burned.
(d) It was abandoned at Oxford when it was felt that there was too much information to store.

5. What was one of the innovative concepts that Dawkins proposed in "The Selfish Gene"?
(a) A meme.
(b) The extra gene.
(c) The repressive gene.
(d) The genome.

6. What type of information is contained in DNA?
(a) Information that is passed from generation to generation.
(b) Information key to survival.
(c) Information that is unique to that organism.
(d) Information that is limited to the surrounding cells.

7. How did Gregory Chaitin define random numbers?
(a) As numbers that could not be identified.
(b) As numbers that could not be defined.
(c) As numbers that could not be computed.
(d) As numbers that could not be calculated.

8. The existence of what entity as a basic element of genetics had been theorized before the mechanics of genetic reproduction was fully understood?
(a) RNA.
(b) The Genome.
(c) A gene.
(d) DNA.

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

10. What did cosmologist George Gamow immediately recognize about DNA as a code and proposed that it could be deciphered mathematically?
(a) It was a code and it could be cloned.
(b) It was a code and it could be deciphered mathematically.
(c) It was a code and it could be developed to duplicate.
(d) It was dynamic and ever-changing.

11. What did Chaitin determine about most numbers?
(a) That they are not computable.
(b) That they can be compressed to manageable entities.
(c) That they have complex alogarithms.
(d) That they are computable.

12. What is the advantage of using quantum particles in the place of bits?
(a) A quantum computer could store more information.
(b) A quantum computer that can have many states at once.
(c) A quantum computer would be more efficient.
(d) A quantum computer could process data much faster.

13. Chaotic looking numbers may have simplistic algorithms but why are many difficult to determine?
(a) The number is too difficult to compress through computation.
(b) It is impossible to work back from the number to find them.
(c) Because they are not computable.
(d) The number is too complex.

14. How does Wikipedia differ from the Encyclopedia Britannica?
(a) It contains questionable material.
(b) It is not reliable.
(c) It is collaborative and descriptive but not up to date.
(d) It is collaborative and descriptive but not authoritative.

15. What results when a closed system's temperature evens out?
(a) There is no change.
(b) More work can be accomplished.
(c) The system fails.
(d) No work could be done.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does a closed system made up of a hot part and a cold part attain as the heat passes from the hot part to the cold part?

2. What did Chaitin propose using to express a computable number into another form?

3. How do scientists categorize catchphrases like "Survival of the fittest" and "Read my lips"?

4. How much information does the universe hold?

5. What did Shannon bring to one of his meetings?

(see the answer keys)

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