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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 question does Hawking ask about extraterrestrials?

2. What paradox does time travel generate?

3. What characteristic of black holes has been stated as never having been observed?

4. How does Hawking describe exploring the galaxy?

5. For nearly all of history, what has moved forward?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What final thought does Hawking have about Star Trek and humanity, in the closing of Chapter 6?

3. What will happen as brains increase in size?

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

5. What does Hawking believe black holes radiate?

6. What is the grandfather paradox?

7. What does Hawking think he can prove about space-time paths?

8. What are wormholes?

9. What partially restores determinism and why?

10. What did Strominger and Vafa postulate in 1996?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hawking states that the human race must be able to better itself since it will be dealing with an "increasingly complex world." Write an essay that supports or negates this argument. Be sure to include data from Chapters Five, Six, or Seven and at least two other supporting examples from your own research.

Essay Topic 2

Describe the history of the theory of curved spaces. What is this theory's relationship to the idea of space-time? Cite two examples from Chapter One that identify key participants, events, or ideas related to this topic.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the interpretation of General Relativity according to Penrose and Hawking and how this differed from Lifshitz and Khalatnikov. Cite two examples from Chapter Two that expound on Penrose and Hawking's dissimilar interpretation.

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