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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 12.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why wasn't Shannon able to teach his computer to play a game?
(a) It would take to long to teach the machine the game.
(b) He thought he would be seen as non-serious.
(c) His boss nixed the idea.
(d) He found it wasn't possible.

2. What comment did IBM researcher Charles Bennet make about the amount of information in a message?
(a) Is not a good measure of its ability for computation.
(b) Is not a good measurement of its importance.
(c) Is not a good measurement of its capacity.
(d) Is not a good measurement of its meaningfulness.

3. How did Gregory Chaitin define random numbers?
(a) As numbers that could not be computed.
(b) As numbers that could not be calculated.
(c) As numbers that could not be defined.
(d) As numbers that could not be identified.

4. Each square of Turing's imaginary machine would have what coding?
(a) A 0 or a 1.
(b) Programming.
(c) Relay switches.
(d) Circuitry.

5. Who was the sixth editor of the Oxford English Dictionary?
(a) Mark Twain.
(b) John Simpson.
(c) Lord Byron.
(d) Thomas Edison.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the main form of communication in the late 1940s?

2. What does the word "entropy" describe in relationship to thermodynamics?

3. What was used in the earliest known method of writing language?

4. Gleick presents his intention to trace the growth of both the concept of information and information itself by identifying what key elements?

5. What was difficult for people to accept about telegraph communications?

(see the answer key)

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