A Ton of Crap (101 page)

Faltings’s Theorem
Gerd Faltings was born in 1954, and in 1983, his work with the Mordell conjecture (created in 1922 by Louis Mordell) became very important in understanding Fermat’s last theorem. The Faltings theorem actually paved the way for the solution to the problem. Faltings proved that if the value of
n
is greater than 2, there is a limited number of coprime integers that can be
x
,
y
, and
z
in Fermat’s last theorem.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Dark Reaction
The light-independent process (or dark reaction) occurs in the stromata of chloroplasts and takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turns it into glucose with the ATP and NADPH2 from the light-dependent process. For this process to occur, light is not necessary and no matter how much light is available, the process can continue. A 5-carbon sugar is combined with carbon dioxide, creating a 6-carbon sugar. This sugar is then broken into fructose and glucose, which sucrose is made of.

FILIPINO

Filipino Today
The Philippines consists of 7,107 islands, with a population of around 70 million, and there are over 100 different native languages that each have their own dialects. Some of these dialects and languages are mutually intelligible, while others are not. Tagalog was chosen to be the base for the official language because it is the native language for around 25 percent of the population, the largest percentage of speakers in the Philippines. Today, Filipino and English are the languages taught in schools.

THE BABY BOOMERS AND THE SIXTIES

Hippies
The hippie movement emerged from the Beat Generation of the 1950s, which was a group of writers (such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac) who had a bohemian lifestyle involving sexual liberation and the use of drugs. The Beat Generation was centered in New York, and several of the people associated with the movement moved to San Francisco, starting the hippie movement. Music, art, drugs, expressing love, political commentary, and protesting were critical elements to the hippie lifestyle. One of the most famous events to come out of the hippie movement was the Woodstock music festival in 1969.

NONFICTION

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
John Berendt’s
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
is the true story of a murder trial in Savannah, Georgia, in 1981. Similar to Capote’s
In Cold Blood
,
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
is more like a novel than just an account of events. The crime, however, only sets the scene for what the book’s true focus is. The book is the story of a town, Savannah, and its rich history and the quirky and colorful residents that live there.

FERMAT’S LAST THEOREM

Andrew Wiles
Fermat’s last theorem was finally proved in 1994 by English mathematician Andrew Wiles, who worked at Princeton. Wiles worked in private for seven years, without ever informing any of his colleagues of the work he was doing on Fermat’s last theorem. In 1993, Wiles gave three lectures at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, England. On the last day, Wiles wrote out his work on the chalkboard and ended with Fermat’s last theorem. He was met with great applause. Under a peer review, some errors were found in his work, but after a year, Wiles, with the help of Richard Taylor, was able to fix the errors and prove Fermat’s last theorem.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

The Carbon Cycle
As animals produce carbon dioxide from breathing, plants take in the carbon dioxide and use it to make organic nutrients. The plants are then eaten by an animal (transferring the carbon), and then that animal is eaten by another animal (once again transferring the carbon). When plants and animals die and their bodies start to decay, carbon enters the ground. Some of that carbon will be buried and eventually turn into fossil fuel. As humans use fossil fuels, carbon is released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide gas. The carbon then travels from the atmosphere into the oceans and other bodies of water.

FILIPINO

Useful Filipino Phrases
Here are some helpful phrases to use when traveling to the Philippines:

Hello.
Mabuhay.

Good morning.
Magandang umaga.

Good afternoon.
Magandang hapon.

Good night.
Magandang gabii.

How are you?
Kumasta?

Yes.
Oo.
No.
Hindi.

Thank you.
Salamat.

Excuse me.
Mawaláng-galang na nga hô.

I don’t understand.
Naiintindihan ko hô.

Do you speak English?
Marunong ba kayong mag-Ingglés?

How much?
Magkano?

Where is the bathroom?
Nasaan ang banyo?

Do you understand?
Naiintindihan ba ninyo?

What’s your name?
Anóng pangalan ninyó?

Goodbye.
Paalam na hô.

1. The work of the National Organization for Women paved the way for:
   

   1. The Beat Generation
      
   2. The Jim Crow laws
      
   3. Brown v. Board of Education
      
   4. Roe v. Wade
      

2. Levittown was the first example of:
   

   1. A women’s organization advocating equal opportunities in the workplace
      
   2. A suburb
      
   3. A civil rights protest
      
   4. A civil rights march
      

3. Who wrote
   A People’s History of the United States
   ?
   

   1. John Berendt
      
   2. Howard Zinn
      
   3. Truman Capote
      
   4. Henry Adams
      

4. In Cold Blood
   is notable for being the first:
   

   1. Book about a crime
      
   2. Nonfiction book
      
   3. Nonfiction crime novel
      
   4. Book that proved the innocence of the suspects
      

5. Who first showed that for exponents that were prime numbers and less than 100, there were no solutions that were prime to the exponent?
   

   1. Sophie Germain
      
   2. Andrew Wiles
      
   3. Louis Mordell
      
   4. Gerd Faltings
      

6. Ernst Kummer’s most significant contribution was the notion of:
   

   1. Prime numbers
      
   2. Ideal numbers
      
   3. Coprime integers
      
   4. Exponents
      

7. In the formula 6CO
   ₂
   + 6H
   ₂
   O → 6(CH
   ₂
   O) + 6O
   ₂
   , what does 6(CH
   ₂
   O) represent?
   

   1. Sugar and oxygen
      
   2. Carbon monoxide
      
   3. Carbon dioxide
      
   4. Sucrose
      

8. What are the two products that come out of light reactions?
   

   1. ATP and carbon monoxide
      
   2. ATP and carbon dioxide
      
   3. Carbon dioxide and NADPH2
      
   4. ATP and NADPH2
      

9. Prior to the Spanish conquest, Tagalog was written in:
   

   1. Abakada
      
   2. Baybayin
      
   3. Paalam
      
   4. The Latin alphabet
      

10. What percentage of the Filipino language is either Spanish words or words derived from Spanish?
    

    1. 30 percent
       
    2. 40 percent
       
    3. 50 percent
       
    4. 60 percent