A Ton of Crap (117 page)

Navier-Stokes Equations
The Navier-Stokes equations describe the motion of fluids (which are gases and liquids) in space. Though these equations are crucial in fluid mechanics, understanding of the solutions is not complete. It is believed that to explain and predict turbulence (another problem in physics that remains unsolved despite its importance and significance in engineering and science) and breeze, one can use the Navier-Stokes Equations, but relatively little is understood about the equations.

ANTHROPOLOGY

Archaeology
Archaeology studies the ancestors of humans, along with their cultures and ways of life, through analyzing fossil remains and artifacts. Evidence like animal bones, pottery, and stone tools are used to learn about the culture of early humans, and their interactions with each other and their environment. In archaeology, one assumes that there are basic continuities with humans over a specific time and place; however, it is also understood that each society is living in that particular time, and is thus, a product of that time period.

CHEROKEE

Creating New Words
Because the Cherokee language is polysynthetic, the ability to create new words can be easily done. For example, the word
policeman
is
didaniyisgi
(written as
), which actually means “he catches them finally and conclusively.” The word for
attorney
is
ditiyohihi
(written as
), literally meaning “he argues repeatedly and on purpose with a purpose.” Words have also been taken from the English language and have been adopted into Cherokee (for example,
kawi
means “coffee,” and the word
gasoline
is the same in Cherokee and in English).

KOREAN WAR

The End of the War
Dwight Eisenhower became president in 1953, and no real progress had been made in the negotiations. On June 8, both sides came to an agreement with a document known as the Terms of Reference, which dealt with prisoners of war. Once the POW issue was resolved, the sides focused on a peace treaty. On July 27, 1953, China, North Korea, and the UN signed an armistice (South Korea refused). Along the 38th Parallel, a buffer zone was created between the North and South. North Korea and South Korea remained separate, and because the treaty was never signed by the South, they are technically still at war with one another.

EXISTENTIALISM

Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre was a French existentialist who lived from 1905 to 1980. Among other things, Sartre wrote novels, screenplays, and plays. One of his most famous works was his book
Being and Nothingness
, which focused on the consciousness of being. Sartre suggests that appearance is the only reality, and that there are two kinds of being: in-itself and for-itself. In-itself refers to inanimate objects that just exist without any active or passive consciousness, while for-itself refers to something that is cognizant of its awareness. When a person gazes at another person, the person goes from a being-for-itself to a being-in-itself.

UNSOLVED MATH PROBLEMS

Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture
The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture deals with number theory. The conjecture deals with arithmetic data, the elliptic curve, the number field, and the Hasse-Weil L-function. The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture was deemed one of the seven most important open problems by the Clay Mathematics Institute. The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture states that if ζ(1) is 0, then the number of rational points is infinite. If ζ(1) does not equal 0, then the number of solutions is finite.

ANTHROPOLOGY

Applied Anthropology
Applied anthropology uses the ideas and concepts of anthropology and relates them to current problems and issues of the present-day in an effort to help solve them. Applied anthropology can be used on a large scale, such as impacting the study of economic development patterns or public health methods, and it can be used on a smaller scale, for example, helping in the design of airplane seats or work stations. Essentially, what applied anthropology does is it takes anthropology, something that is mostly thought of as scholarly and academic, and applies it to the real world.

CHEROKEE

Useful Cherokee Phrases
Here are some helpful phrases to use when speaking with a Cherokee person. Note that these are written phonetically.

Hello.
O-si-yo.

Good morning.
O-s-da sunalei.

Good evening.
O-s-da sv-hi-ye-yi.

Good night.
O-s-da sv-no-i.

How are you?
(T)do-`hi-tsu
?

Thank you.
Wa-do.

What is your name?
Ga-do-de-tsa do
?

What is this?
Do-i-s-di-hi-na
?

I don’t understand.
Tla-i-go-li-ga.

Is this where you live?
Hi `yas-di `ste nv `sv?

What are they doing?
Ga-do-a-na-du-ne
?

Goodbye.
Do-na-da-`go-v-I
(to one person).
Do-`da-ga-g`hv-i
(to a group of people).

1. The 38th parallel divided Korea into, North Korea and South Korea. Which of the following is true?
   

   1. North Korea was controlled by the United States and South Korea was controlled by the Soviet Union.
      
   2. South Korea was controlled by the United States and North Korea was controlled by the Soviet Union.
      
   3. South Korea was controlled by China and North Korea was controlled by the Soviet Union.
      
   4. North Korea was controlled by China and South Korea was controlled by the Soviet Union.
      

2. At the beginning of the war, South Korea had very little weaponry because:
   

   1. South Korea had lost them all to China.
      
   2. The Soviet Union refused to provide too many weapons, fearing they would use them to attack the North.
      
   3. America refused to provide too many weapons, fearing they would use them to attack the North.
      
   4. South Korea had lost them all to Japan.
      

3. Existentialism is:
   

   1. The philosophical study of human reason
      
   2. The philosophical study of mental activity
      
   3. The philosophical attitude that questions whether one could obtain knowledge
      
   4. The philosophical study of what it means to exist
      

4. Kierkegaard’s Knight of Faith proves:
   

   1. There is no God.
      
   2. Faith is a reason to rise above ethics.
      
   3. Acts are committed based on ethical and social codes.
      
   4. God did not want Abraham to really kill his son.
      

5. Which of the following asks the question: “If a problem’s solutions can be verified rapidly, then can the solutions be computed rapidly”?
   

   1. Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
      
   2. P
      versus
      NP
      problem
      
   3. Yang-Mills existence and mass gap
      
   4. Riemann hypothesis
      

6. Which of the following suggests that all nontrivial zeros are at ½ + bi?
   

   1. Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
      
   2. Riemann hypothesis
      
   3. Yang-Mills existence and mass gap
      
   4. P
      versus
      NP
      problem
      

7. Which of the following examines the similarities and differences among societies with topics such as race, class, sexuality, and nationality?
   

   1. Applied anthropology
      
   2. Archaeology
      
   3. Cultural anthropology
      
   4. Linguistic anthropology
      

8. To study the ancestors of humans, archaeology uses:
   

   1. Pottery
      
   2. Fossil remains
      
   3. Stone tools
      
   4. All of the above
      

9. Sequoyah is responsible for:
   

   1. Creating a polysynthetic language
      
   2. Creating Kituhwa
      
   3. Creating Otali
      
   4. Creating the written Cherokee language
      

10. Because the Cherokee language is polysynthetic:
    

    1. It is impossible for new words to be created.
       
    2. The letters used from the Latin alphabet do not feature the same sounds.
       
    3. New words can easily be created.
       
    4. There are only two dialects to the language.