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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 2, "Revolution," the author writes, "Professional scientists, given brief, uncertain glimpses of nature's workings, are no less vulnerable to anguish and confusion when they come face to face with" _______________?
(a) "Turbulence".
(b) "Cantor dust".
(c) "Incongruity".
(d) "Fractals".

2. What refers to a computer program or network of computers that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system?
(a) Computer virus.
(b) Computer hardware.
(c) Computer army.
(d) Computer model.

3. In what year did Benoit Mandelbrot recognize the ghost of an idea when he spotted a diagram charted out on the blackboard in Hendrik Houthakker's office?
(a) 1950.
(b) 1960.
(c) 1954.
(d) 1957.

4. What is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services?
(a) Chaos theory.
(b) Information theory.
(c) Physiology.
(d) Economics.

5. What is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena?
(a) Bifurcation theory.
(b) Theoretical physics.
(c) Thermodynamics.
(d) Fluid dynamics.

6. What is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy?
(a) Physics.
(b) The Navier-Stokes equation.
(c) Butterfly effect.
(d) Biology.

7. James Yorke is credited with creating what term in reference to science?
(a) Chaos.
(b) Rambling.
(c) Frantic.
(d) Pandamonium.

8. In Chapter 4, "A Geometry of Nature," Houthakker explained to Mandelbrot the diagram in his office represented eight years of what?
(a) Cotton prices.
(b) Corn prices.
(c) Almond prices.
(d) Wheat prices.

9. When was James Yorke born?
(a) 1949.
(b) 1937.
(c) 1932.
(d) 1941.

10. What is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language?
(a) Biology.
(b) Information theory.
(c) Philosophy.
(d) Meteorology.

11. What is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language?
(a) Algorithm model.
(b) Fraction model.
(c) Mathematical model.
(d) Computer model.

12. Who is attributed with the following quote in the beginning of Chapter 3, "Life's Ups and Downs": "The result of a mathematical development should be continuously checked against one's own intuition about what constitutes reasonable biological behavior"?
(a) Stanislaw Ulam.
(b) Steven Smale.
(c) Benoit Mandelbrot.
(d) Harvey J. Gold.

13. Where is the European Center for Medium Range Forecasts headquartered?
(a) Paris, France.
(b) Berlin, Germany.
(c) Dublin, Ireland.
(d) Reading, England.

14. In the 1950s and 1960s what two technologies were maturing together, according to the author in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect"?
(a) The automobile and space stellite.
(b) The television and automobile.
(c) The space satellite and digital computer.
(d) The digital computer and television.

15. What is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force?
(a) Physiology.
(b) Thermodynamics.
(c) Fluid dynamics.
(d) Physics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 2, "Revolution," Gleick writes that the only problem with studying and experimenting with a new science is what?

2. Where was Benoit Mandelbrot born?

3. Who is quoted in Chapter 1, "The Butterfly Effect" as saying "Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, these are the conditions, now what happens next?"

4. What studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions?

5. One of the implications of what theorem is that if a continuous discrete dynamical system on the real line has a periodic point of period 3, then it must have periodic points of every other period?

(see the answer keys)

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