Quiz 1

Quiz 1: Sections 2-4

Welcome to the first quiz! You'll be seeing one of these quizzes after every two new sections. They all have a mix of multiple-choice questions, numeric answers - in which you have to input a number - and "checkbox" questions, in which more than one option might be correct. You can take these a number of times, until you feel that you have the material down; just make sure you get it done before the close date! If you're having trouble understanding any concepts (or if you encounter technical problems), let us know about it in the discussion forum. And for those of you who feel like the quizzes are a breeze, check out the forum anyway, especially if you feel like helping out your peers!
The 12 questions on this quiz will cover sections 2, 3, and 4 (we're ignoring Section 1 for now). Here's what we learned:
Section 2: Segregation and Peer Effects
Section 3: Aggregation
Section 4: Decision Models
Questions on all quizzes will be both conceptual and technical; you'll be asked to think both broadly and precisely.
There are more questions on this quiz than on the rest you will take because we're covering 3 sections here instead of the usual 2. But don't worry, there's nothing here that we didn't talk about in the videos.
Good luck!

Question 1

Who developed the racial and income segregation model that we covered in section 2?

Answer for Question 1

Question 2

Recall that the index of dissimilarity is a way to categorize, numerically, how segregated a city is. Imagine a city comprised of four equal sized blocks. One block contains all rich people; one block contains all poor people; and two blocks contain equal numbers of poor and rich people. What is the index of dissimilarity? Answer using decimal notation.

Answer for Question 2

Question 3

Recall the standing ovation model. Suppose that in this case, perceptions of show quality are uniformly distributed between 0 and 100. Also suppose that individuals stand if they perceive the quality of the show to exceed 60 out of 100. Approximately what percentage of people will stand initially?

50

40

60

Question 4

In the Standing Ovation model, does increasing the variation in perceptions of quality always increase the number of people initially standing?

No

Yes

Question 5

Imagine a street on which there exist two sub shops: Big Mike's and Little John's. Each Saturday, Big Mike's draws an average of 500 people with a standard deviation of 20. Also on Saturdays, Little John's draws an average of only 400 people with a standard deviation of 50. If both distributions are normal, which shop is more likely to attract more than 600 people on a given Saturday?

Big Mike's

Little John's

Question 6

In the game of life, a world begins with 4 cells in a row in the alive state, and no other cells alive. After 20 updates, what state is the world in? (In other words, which cells are alive at this point?)

No cells are alive

The cells blink on and off

The same four cells are alive

There are six live cells in three rows

Question 7

Recall Wolfram's one dimensional cellular automata model. Which of the following classes of outcomes can this model produce? (Hint: pick more than one).

Randomness

Equilibrium

Complexity

Periodic Orbits/ Patterns

Question 8

Suppose that there exist three voters, each of whom is given three alternatives: A, B and C. There exist six possible strict preference orderings for these three alternatives: A>B>C, A>C>B, B>C>A, B>A>C, C>A>B, and C>B>A. The first voter has preferences A>B>C. The second voter has preferences B>C>A. Preferences of the third voter are unknown. How many of the six possible preference orderings, if selected by the third voter, would produce a voting cycle? (In a voting cycle, A defeats B, B defeats C, and C defeats A).

4

2

1

Question 9

Sarah is shopping for a computer. She researches different aspects of the computers for sale: screen size, processing speed, battery life, and special keys on the keyboard. For which of these attributes would Sarah likely have spatial  preferences?

Battery Life

Processing Speed

Screen Size

Special Keys on Keyboard

Question 10

You want to go to a concert in Detroit, but you have only $80. The cost of driving will be $30. When you get to the concert, there's a 40% chance you'll be able to get a ticket for $50, and a 60% chance that tickets will cost more than $50. If it's worth $130 to you to go to the concert, what's your expected value of driving to Detroit and trying to buy a ticket?

Answer for Question 10

Question 11

How many possible preference orderings exist for four alternatives? These orderings must satisfy transitivity.

Answer for Question 11

Question 12

Suppose that each of 400 people is equally likely to vote "yes" or "no" in an election. What's the size of the standard deviation for the total number of "yes" votes?