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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 about DNA allows it to split and replicate?

2. 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.

3. The existence of what entity as a basic element of genetics had been theorized before the mechanics of genetic reproduction was fully understood?

4. What does the word "cybernetics" mean?

5. Entropy is the physical equivalent of what state?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the "Library of Babel" that was described in a story by Jorge Luis Borges?

2. What was Claude Shannon referring to by the term "entropy" and what was its importance?

3. What was mathematician Gregory Chatin's concept on entropy?

4. What was zoologist's Richard Dawkins' theory on DNA?

5. What was Erwin Schrodinger's theory about "genes"?

6. What are major differences between Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Brittanica?

7. Norbert Weiner based his theory on what system of the human body?

8. What did IBM research Charle Bennet write about "information" in the 1980s?

9. How did Erwin Schrodinger used the concept of "entropy"?

10. What was the original meaning of the term "entropy"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is the year 1948 considered a huge turning point in information theory and technology? What advances were made by researchers at Bell Laboratories during this time frame?

Essay Topic 2

What vision for the future did Alan Turing and Claude Shannon share? What was the purpose and functionality of Turing's "imaginary machine?"

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the various theories on entropy. How was entropy important to information theory?

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This section contains 634 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample