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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. How many days did Hafez spend in silence when he traced a circle in the sand and sat there?

2. How old was Hafez when he traced a circle in the sand and swore not to rise until he touched the mind of Allah?

3. What sound could send Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond into a panic?

4. When did Erwin Schrodinger travel to Munich to present one of the strangest and most powerful equations ever created?

5. When did Niels Bohr receive the Nobel Prize?

Short Essay Questions

1. What analogy is used to describe Heisenberg's discovery?

2. What was Grothendieck's lifelong obsession, and what was one of his greatest discoveries?

3. How did de Broglie become interested in science?

4. How did Labutut describe how Schrodinger created wave mechanics?

5. What deprivations did Erwin Schrodinger suffer during the interwar period?

6. Why did Heisenberg go to Heligoland in June 1925?

7. How did a professor from the University of California at Santa Cruz describe Grothendieck?

8. What system did Heisenberg create using only direct observation?

9. Who was Alexander Grothendieck?

10. What happened after Grothendieck resigned from the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies in 1970?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Schrodinger used metaphors to describe subatomic particles. How did he use metaphors to describe subatomic particles? Why did Werner Heisenberg hate using metaphors for subatomic particles and what did he believe should be used instead?

Essay Topic 2

Mochizuki and Grothendieck’s research had to do with pure mathematics. What is the difference between pure and applied mathematics? Why are they both important?

Essay Topic 3

An analogy is the comparison of an unfamiliar object or idea to a familiar one in an attempt to explain the unfamiliar or to help readers understand characters, events, or concepts. What are some analogies Labutut uses in When We Cease to Understand the World? How do these analogies help readers comprehend characters, events, or concepts?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 941 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample