A Ton of Crap (74 page)

ANSWER KEY: b, d, a, c, a, c, b, d, d, b

HISTORY:
World War I
The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, The First Battle at the Marne, The Battle of Tannenburg, The Battle of Cambrai, The United States Enters the War, The Treaty of Versailles

LANGUAGE ARTS:
Mystery
Edgar Allan Poe, Sherlock Holmes, The Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Louise Penny

MATH:
Logic
What Is Logic?, Shorthand Sentences, Connectives, Use of Parentheses, The Rules of Logic, Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, and Hypothetical Syllogism

SCIENCE:
The Copenhagen Interpretation
Quantum Suicide, The Many-Worlds Theory, What Is the Copenhagen Interpretation?, Wave Function,
The Nature of Collapse, Criticism

FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
Vietnamese
The Origins, Role of the Chinese, Qu´ôc Ngữ, Dialects, Speech Patterns, Useful Vietnamese Phrases

WORLD WAR I

The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated by a member of the Serbian terrorist group known as the Black Hand. This event would lead to the beginning of the Great War. Following the murder, the government of
Austria-Hungary had to impose their authority on Serbia, and they called on Germany for support. On July 23, an ultimatum was delivered to Serbia to wipe out terrorist groups and anti-Austrian sentiment or encounter military action. Serbia called on Russia for support, and on July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. On August 1, Russian forces began mobilizing in support of Serbia, and Germany declared war on Russia. Russia’s allies Great Britain and France then joined in.

MYSTERY

Edgar Allan Poe
Perhaps more widely known for his dark poetry such as “The Raven,” or his horror stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allan Poe is actually considered the father of the mystery genre. His story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” published in 1841, is considered the very first mystery story. It focuses on detective
C. Auguste Dupin, as he tries to solve the murders of two women by gathering and analyzing clues. Many elements of modern mysteries can be found in such works of Edgar Allan Poe as “The Purloined Letter” and “The Gold Bug.”

LOGIC

What Is Logic?
Logic is the study of correct reasoning, or inference. The origins of logic can be traced back to Aristotle, who viewed logic as a tool to be used, rather than an actual philosophy. This is still the view mathematicians and philosophers take. In order to establish something, such as a philosophy, as true, one needs logic to demonstrate a proof and to have it accepted. And that is exactly what logic is used for.

THE COPENHAGEN INTERPRETATION

Quantum Suicide
Similar to how the cat from Schrödinger’s experiment was both dead and alive, the quantum suicide theory poses this hypothesis: a man sits with a gun to his head. The gun measures the spin of a particle and every time the man pulls the trigger, the particle’s spin, or quark, is measured. Based on this measurement, the gun will go off or won’t go off. If the quark spins clockwise, the gun will go off, and if it is spinning counterclockwise, there will only be a click, but no firing of the gun. As the man pulls the trigger, he hears click after click, meaning the quark is spinning counterclockwise, and the gun will never go off. However, if you start from the beginning and the quark is clockwise, the man will die. Because we can have both situations, the man is both dead and alive. The universe is split in two every time he pulls the trigger.

VIETNAMESE

The Origins
Vietnamese is an Austro-Asiatic language, belonging to the Mon-Khmer branch. The political history of Vietnam greatly impacted the formation of the language. Prior to the second century b.c., two communities along the Red River came together to become the Viet-Muong. In the second century b.c., the Chinese came to power, importing their language and grammar rules (even today, 60 percent of the language has Chinese roots). From 1884 to 1946, Vietnam was colonized by the French, which also influenced the language.

WORLD WAR I