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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 does the Schrodinger equation specify?

2. What kind of rotating Einstein universe does Hawking consider?

3. What kind of evolution is described as random?

4. What are the size of biological brains limited by?

5. What can Penrose and Hawking's machinery help them study?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the main question concerning space-time, if one avoids philosophical discussion and focuses on the laws of physics?

2. What is a time travel "horizon"?

3. What did the physicist John Wheeler mean when he said, "a black hole has no hair"?

4. What partially restores determinism and why?

5. What does much of the possibility of time travel depend upon?

6. What are three of the things Hawking declares have increased exponentially, doubling every forty years of less?

7. How does Hawking begin Chapter Four?

8. What might happen if we do not destroy ourselves?

9. What does Hawking think about the possible technological level of extraterrestrials?

10. What might p-branes be able to predict?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is popular culture so enthralled by the relationship between mechanical devices and humans? Write an essay that seeks to explore the similarities and differences between computers and humans and why this either concerns or excites us.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that answers the following questions: What is M-theory? What is its relationship to various string models? What does Hawking believe about M-theory? The essay must include at least two supporting evidences from the book, and one example from an outside text.

Essay Topic 3

Chapter Five provides a complex picture of the interconnections between space-time, the multiple history idea, and quantum theory. Write an essay that analyzes the relationship between these three concepts, and use at least two examples from Chapter Five that support your argument.

(see the answer keys)

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