Interdisciplinary Studies Final Exam

Instructions: This is your comprehensive final exam. Read each question carefully. Answer all questions. Time limit: 4 hours. Begin immediately.

COMPUTER SCIENCE:

Write a fifth-generation computer language. Using that language, write a program that could complete the rest of this examination. Complete the examination manually as a check of your program results.

HISTORY:

Describe the history of the papacy from its origins to the present, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. Be brief, concise, and specific.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING:

You will be placed in a nuclear reactor and given a wiring diagram. The electrical system has been tampered with. You have seventeen minutes to find the problem and correct it before a meltdown begins.

MEDICINE:

You will be provided with a razor blade, some gauze, a needle and thread, and a bottle of Scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until your work has been inspected. You have 15 minutes.

PUBLIC SPEAKING:

2500 riot-crazed, torch-bearing aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek.

BIOLOGY:

Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to it probable effect, if any, on the English parliamentary system and the Snail Darter. Prove your thesis.

CIVIL ENGINEERING:

By inter-weaving toothpicks, build a platform that will support your weight when suspended over a vat of concentrated sulfuric acid. Field-test the platform under the conditions for which it was designed. (pass/fail only)

MUSIC:

Write a piano concerto blending the styles of early J. S. Bach and late Igor Stravinsky that could win a competition judged by Josef Stalin and John Cage. Orchestrate it as Ravel might have. Perform the solo part. You will find a piano under your seat.

PSYCHOLOGY:

Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Rameses II, Gregory of Nicia, and Hammurabi. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man’s work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate.

CHEMISTRY:

A poison is in one beaker on your laboratory table; its antidote is in an identical one. Analyze them, determine which is which, and drink them. Note: if the wrong beaker is drunk first, you will die.

SOCIOLOGY:

Estimate the sociological problems which might be accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your answer using double-blind methodology.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING:

The disassembled parts of a high-powered rifle have been placed in a box on your desk. You will also find an instruction manual, printed in Swahili. In 10 minutes a hungry Bengal tiger will be admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel appropriate. Be prepared to justify your decision, citing provisions of the National Building Code and the Endangered Species Act to support your action.

ECONOMICS:

1) Describe and contrast the effects of interlocking directorates (be specific) and child-labor laws on the causes of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

2) Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist controversy, the wave theory of light. Outline a method from all possible points of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question.

MATHEMATICS:

Derive the Euler-Cauchy equations using a straightedge, a compass, and a pencil. Discuss in detail the role these equations had on mathematical analysis in 1920, 1960, and this year.

POLITICAL SCIENCE:

There is a red telephone on your desk. Start and end World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects on Burma, if any.

EPISTEMOLOGY:

Take a position for or against truth. Prove the validity of your stand.

RELIGION:

Using only rational discourse and three diagrams, convert the Muslim Palestinian provided you to Judaism.

ART:

Given crayons and a ream of paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with particular regard for color accuracy.

PHYSICS:

Choose one:

1. Explain the nature of matter
2. evaluate in depth the impact of mathematics on science
3. derive the equations for anti-gravity
4. invent, build and demonstrate a magnet that attracts wood

METAPHYSICS:

Describe in detail the probable nature of life before conception and after death. Test your hypothesis.

PHILOSOPHY:

1) Trace the development of the major and minor western and eastern moral theories and discuss the impact on free will each has had. Discuss it a second time from a contrary viewpoint. Discuss it a third time from a contradictory viewpoint. Using Aristotelian logic, prove each viewpoint to be unassailable.

2) Sketch the development of human thought, estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE:

Write a critique on the sum total of general knowledge point by point. Be objective and specific.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Define a universe, then give 2 examples.

If you finish early turn your paper in at the table at the front of the room.