December 22 is celebrated every year to mark the birth anniversary of legendary Indian Mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. On this day of recognition and celebration of his work, we’ve taken a quiz for you to find out how much you know about the history of mathematics.
Take this quiz and test your knowledge of mathematicians around the globe!
Q1. Who is considered the first mathematician?
a) Archimedes
b) Thales of Miletus
c) Leonardo DaVinci
d) David Copperfield
Answer: Thales of Miletus
EXPLANATION:
Pre-Socratic Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman and philosopher
Thales of Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. One of the seven sages of Greece. He was considered by Aristotle to be the first philosopher in Greek and is often called the Father of Science.
Q2. Who defined the number 0?
a) Brad Pitt
b) Archimedes
c) Brahmagupta
d) John von Neumann
Answer: Brahmagupta
EXPLANATION: Brahmagupta was an Indian mathematician who defined the number 0.
Q3. Who discovered the right triangle?
a) Pythagorean
b) Ancient Egyptians
c) Miley Cyrus
d) Michelangelo
Answer: Pythagoras
EXPLAIN: Pythagoras was a philosopher and is credited with many of the mathematical and scientific discoveries that make up the Pythagorean theorem.
Q4. Who is considered the “father of mathematics”?
a) Carl Friedrich Gauss
b) Isaac Newton
c) Evariste Galois
d) Archimedes
Answer: Archimedes
EXPLAIN: A Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily, Archimedes of Syracuse was a leading scientist of antiquity. He is considered the greatest mathematician in ancient history and one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Q5. Who invented numbers?
a) Brahmagupta
b) Archimedes
c) Euclid
d) Fibonacci
Answer: Brahmagupta
EXPLANATION:
The Arabic numeral system is often attributed to two mathematicians from ancient India named Brahmagupta from the 6th century BC and Aryabhata from the 5th century BC.
Q6. Who invented coordinate geometry?
a) Nicole Oresme
b) Euler
c) Galileo
d) Copernicus
Answer: René Descartes
EXPLANATION:
The coordinate system we commonly use is called the Cartesian system, after the French mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650), who developed it in the 17th century.
Q7. What were some of Leonardo DaVinci’s hobbies (must apply to both)?
a) Botany, cartography
b) Art, Cars
c) Cooking, Archery
d) Engineering, Theater
Answer: Botany, Cartography
EXPLAINED: Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (born April 15, 1452) is an Italian high Renaissance scholar, painter, draftsman, engineer, scientist, and theorist. , active sculptor and architect.
Q8. Who is the only woman in history to win the Fields Medal?
a) Ada Lovelace
b) Julia Robinson
c) Maryam Mirzakhani
d) Marjorie Lee Browne
Answer: Maryam Mirzakhani
EXPLAIN: Iranian mathematician and Stanford University professor of mathematics Maryam Mirzakhani is a researcher on topics including Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and symmetrical geometry.
Q9. How many zeros are there in 1 septuagintillion?
a) 635
b) 213
c) 452
d) 157
Answer: 213
EXPLANATION: Septuagintillion is used in the short scale for 10213 and the long scale for 10420.
Q10. Who developed probability theory?
EXPLAIN: Human activities related to the theoretical quantitative analysis of probabilistic data used as the mathematical foundation for statistics.
Q11. What are the first ten digits of Pi?
The number π spelled ‘pi’ is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159. The number π appears in many mathematical and physical formulas.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: pagasa.edu.vn