Open book. You may use any available notes and reference material but do not consult with other people.
Completed exams must be returned by 4:00 p.m. Friday, June 12, 1964.
1. W. B. Cannon and Claude Bernard are thought of by many physiologists as the scientists who first introduced modern quantitative ideas of control and servomechanism theory in the life sciences. Using specific quotations from their work or from scientific commontary or review of their work, attempt an evaluation of this claim. Give particular attention to establishing which of the powerful principles of modern servomechanism and control theory each did actually anticipate in exact quantitative form , which they dealt with in more or less quantitative or “hand waving” terms, and which they simply did not know. A good answer to this question will obviously require selecting and stating accurately those principles of modern theory that are important as well as reviewing the older literature, so fool free to spend about half of the exam time on preparing a good answer to this question.
2. Knowing that bits per second is the conventional measure of information flow rate and that this rate can be expressed in terms of the number of meaningfully different states in which the transducer or sensory transmitting system can be at any instant and the frequency with which new configurations can be taken on, attempt to calculate roughly the rate at which information can enter human organisms via the sense of a) sight b) hearing, c) touch. State clearly your assumptions .
3. Carry out the following operations in binary arithmetic to show that you have examined this system somewhat.
10 to the second power, the square root of 1764, 3/10, 4 to the fourth power, 0.4 to the second power
4. Describe in some detail a biophysical problem which has been solved by an analog simulation procodure. Choose an example that you understand clearly so that your description will be your own, not a casual paraphrase. Quote your reference.