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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Johannes Kepler used calculus to determine that planets had what, according to the author in Chapter 5, “Infinite Zeros and Infidel Mathematicians”?
(a) Circular movement.
(b) Circular orbits.
(c) Movement.
(d) Elliptical orbits.

2. In what year was Albert Einstein awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his “discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”?
(a) 1911.
(b) 1945.
(c) 1921.
(d) 1927.

3. Bishop Berkeley was a philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called what?
(a) "Immaterialism."
(b) “Calculus.”
(c) “String theory.”
(d) “The Golden Ratio.”

4. The absolute value of a number may be thought of as its distance from what?
(a) Two.
(b) Itself.
(c) Zero.
(d) One.

5. According to the author in Chapter 5, “Infinite Zeros and Infidel Mathematicians,” Leibniz wanted to use infinitesimals in calculus which were termed what?
(a) “mi.”
(b) “∞.”
(c) “dx.”
(d) “ö.”

6. The antiparticle of the electron is called what?
(a) Neutron.
(b) Derivative.
(c) Positron.
(d) Proton.

7. The author asserts in Chapter 8, “Zero Hour at Ground Zero” that today astronomers estimate the universe as being how old?
(a) 4 billion years.
(b) 2 billion years.
(c) 15 billion years.
(d) 10 billion years.

8. In quantum mechanics, the concept of de Broglie waves reflects what?
(a) The emergence of black holes.
(b) The Big Bang Theory.
(c) The wave-particle duality of matter.
(d) The gravitational pull of the earth’s poles.

9. The Rayleigh–Jeans law agrees with experimental results at large wavelengths but strongly disagrees at short wavelengths. What is this inconsistency known as?
(a) The Pythagorean Theorem.
(b) A black hole.
(c) The ultraviolet catastrophe.
(d) The Golden Ratio.

10. Jean le Rond d'Alembert came up with what idea that solved the zero problem in calculus?
(a) An equation.
(b) A quanta.
(c) A derivative.
(d) A limit.

11. In Chapter 8, “Zero Hour at Ground Zero,” the author states that the Hubble telescope saw that most galaxies were flying away from one another by using red-shifting and blue-shifting effects, the cosmological equivalent of what?
(a) The differential effect.
(b) The Heisenberg effect.
(c) The radon effect.
(d) The Doppler effect.

12. What mathematical term refers to a function giving an exact pairing of the elements of two sets?
(a) Infinity.
(b) Derivation.
(c) Bijection.
(d) Injection.

13. Who coined the term “fermion” in particle physics?
(a) Paul Dirac.
(b) James Wilson.
(c) Socrates.
(d) Filippo Brunelleschi.

14. Carl Gauss referred to mathematics as what?
(a) “The end of science.”
(b) “The queen of sciences.”
(c) “Theology’s twin.”
(d) “The key to philosophy.”

15. What term in theoretical physics refers to an extension of string theory in which 11 dimensions of spacetime are identified?
(a) Space theory.
(b) Planck theory.
(c) Big Bang theory.
(d) M-theory.

Short Answer Questions

1. A primary difficulty in the creation of a “Theory of Everything” is that most attempts to apply quantum mechanics to the gravitational field in the same way as for the electromagnetic field fails due to the breakdown of what?

2. When was Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica first published?

3. The author says in Chapter 6, “Infinity’s Twin” that by employing the concept of infinity, Johannes Kepler showed that ellipses and what were the same?

4. What principle holds that there is an inverse relation between the fineness with which a particular's location can be determined and the fineness with which its velocity can be determined?

5. The author suggests in Chapter 8, “Zero Hour at Ground Zero” that zero might spawn universes through a froth of what?

(see the answer keys)

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