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Mathematicians
| Q | A |
|---|---|
| When and where was Fermat born? | 1601 in Beaumont de Lomagne near Toulouse |
| When and where did Fermat die? | 1665 in Castres |
| Fermat's family was in the ----- profession. | legal |
| Fermat's main occupation was a -----. | lawyer |
| Fermat's hobby was -----. | math |
| Fermat refused to -----. | publish his work |
| Fermat refused to publish his work, so it was collected by whom? | his son |
| Fermat married and had ----- children. | five |
| Fermat attended a Franciscan ------. | monastery |
| In 1653, Fermat was mistakenly reported killed by what? | a plague that swept through the city |
| Fermat is considered one of the fathers of ------. | Analytic Geometry |
| What did Fermat lay the foundation for? | Calculus |
| What did Fermat and Pascal invent? | The theory of probability |
| Fermat's father was a wealthy what? | leather merchant |
| Where did Fermat practice law and study math? | Toulouse |
| Fermat's last theorem stated what? | X^n+Y^n=Z^n |
| Whose theories did Fermat base his ideas on calculus on? | Newton |
| What was Fermat famous for? | his extension of the Pythagorean theorem |
| Fermat was from what country? | France |
| What was Fermat the founder of? | modern number theory |
| How many siblings did Fermat have? | a brother and two sisters |
| When was Fermat promoted to the highest level of the criminal court? | 1652 |
| Fermat changed his name from ---- to -----. | Pierre Fermat, Pierre de Fermat |
| Where was Fermat's education as a child? | at home |
| What was Fermat's first recorded achievement? | The restoration of Apollonius's Plane Loci |
| Why did Fermat keep some proofs and theorems to himself? | Out of sheer joy that he could stump the other "geniuses" |
| Where did Fermat move in the second half of the 1620's? | Bordeaux |
| Fermat's work was so ingenious that Descarte was jealous and wanted to ----- Fermat's reputation | damage |
| Fermat's interest in ------ helped him prove geometrical theorems. | physics |
| Fermat's last theorem was unsolved for ----- centuries. | three |
| Fermat was given credit for the development of ----- with his work regarding tangents and stationary points. | calculus |
| Fermat found mistakes in ----- description of free fall. | Galileo's |
| Where/when did Descartes die? | February 11, 1650 in Stockholm, Sweden |
| What was Descartes' last important work published during his lifetime? | Passions of the Soul |
| What is Descartes most famous quote? | I think therefore I am (cogito ergo sum) |
| What caused Descartes' death? | the queen made him get up and 5 in the morning, causing his death of pneumonia |
| Where did Descartes attend school as a boy? | La Fleche (Jesuit School) at age 8 |
| What were Descartes chief contributions to math? | analytic geometry and the theory of vortices |
| What was the name of the family estate Descartes lived on? | Les Cartes |
| In 1617, Descartes joined -----. | the army |
| Where/when was Rene Descartes born? | March31, 1596 in La Haye, Touraine, France |
| Who were Descartes parents? | Joachim Descartes, Jeanne Brochard |
| Does Descartes have any descendants? | No, his illegitimate daughter died at a young age |
| Which of his works was Descartes afraid to publish and why? | "La Monde" (The World), he was afraid of punishment |
| Descartes first work ----- dealt with the science of -----? | The Discourse, philosophy |
| Which of Descartes works inculdes 6 meditations and is designed for philosophers and theologians? | Meditations |
| What is Descartes called the father of? | Modern philosophy |
| Descartes was tutoring which important person at the time of his death? | Queen Christine of Sweden |
| What religion was Descartes? | Roman Catholic |
| In what city are Descartes remains? | Paris, France |
| Descarte contributed to so many scientific fields that his nickname became -----. | Jack of all Trades |
| Descartes claimed the world was made of two basic substances, ----- and -----. | matter, spirit |
| What are the Cartesian coordinates Decartes discovered? | X, Y, Z |
| Descartes had ----- health as a child. | poor |
| Did Descartes marry? | No |
| Descartes believed ----- and the mind resembled each other b/c both think but have no physical being. | God |
| Did Descarte have any disabilities? | B/c of his unhealthiness, he could only wake up at a time when he felt ready or he would become sick |
| Where did Descartes attend college? | Obtained a law degree at University of Poitiers |
| What did Descartes do for a living? | became a gentle man officer in the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau |
| What did Descartes do after he was finished with the army? | retired from the army in Holland to perform scientific/mathematical research and philosophical reflection. |
| What discoveries did Descartes make in math? | Founder of analytic geometry |
| did Descartes discover anythin outside of math? | researched optics in the case of reflection and refraction of light |
| What was Descartes family life? | wealthy, well-to-do family |
| What was Euclid also known as? | the father of geometry |
| When was Euclid born? | c. 325 B.C. |
| What country was Euclid born in? | Greece |
| Where did Euclid teach and live? | Alexandria, Egypt |
| What three geometrical definitions did Euclid create? | oblong, rhombus, rhomboid |
| What was Euclid's most famous work, and how many books are in it? | The Elements, 13 |
| When was the first printed copy of The Elements published? | 1482 |
| What does Euclid's first postulate state? | a line can be drawn from any two points |
| What does Euclid's fourth postulate state? | All right angles are equal |
| What is Euclid's famous fifth postulate known as? | the parallel postulate |
| Which of Euclid's books is an introduction to mathematical astronomy? | Phaenomena |
| Which of Euclid's books was one of the first works on perspective? | Optics |
| In what year did Euclid die? | c. 265 B.C. |
| What is Elements? | a 13 volume work of Greek math and geometry |
| Why was Elements so special? | it is often considered the greatest mathematical book of all time |
| Where was Euclid educated? | Plato's academy in Athens, Greece |
| What was Euclid's profession? | teacher and mathematician |
| What made Euclid so influential? | he was one of the first to attempt to standardize mathematics |
| How many postulates did Euclid have? | 5 |
| How did the community react to Euclid's findings? | They accepted his ideas |
| Who were the first people to write about Euclid after his death? | Proclus and Pappus of Alexandria |
| Which king encouraged Euclid to teach in Alexandria? | Ptolemy I |
| Who did historians often confuse Euclid the Mathematician with? | the philosopher Euclid of Megara |
| What was the method of math that Euclid inspired? | Axiomatic method of modern mathmatics |
| About how many copies of Euclid's The Elements have been published wince 1482? | more than 1,000 |
| What was Euclid's personality like? | kind, patient, fair, but sarcastic |
| How was Euclid viewed by his peers? | godlike, overly thorough |
| What happened with King Ptolemy? | when the king asked if there was an easier way to learn geometry, Euclid sent him home |
| What did Euclid do to one of his students? | When his student asked what he would gain out of learning geometry, Euclid said, "Give him a nickel, since he must make gain by what he learns" |
| What was Gauss's birthday? | April 30, 1777 |
| Where was Gauss born? | Brunswick, Germany |
| How many siblings did Gauss have? | 0 |
| What university did Gauss attend? | University of Gottingen |
| What was the name of the asteroid whose orbit Gauss claculated? | Ceres - the first asteroid discovered |
| When did Gauss die? | February 23, 1855 |
| What did Gauss realize at age 10? | How to mentally add the numbers 1-100 |
| What did Gauss discover about all regular polygons? | They can be constructed with just a ruler and a compass |
| What did Gauss receive from the Duke of Brunswick at the age of 14? | A stipend which allowed him to devote his time to his studies |
| Gauss was the first to prove the ----- | Fundamental theorem of algebra |
| What was the name of Gauss | (blank) |
| What was the name of Gauss's book on the theory of numbers? | Disquisitiones Arithmeticae |
| What was the name of the new algebra Gauss introduced? | Algebra of Congruence |
| Gauss came of with a standard symbol of -----? | Congruence |
| Name what Gauss established that states when any group, called a population, having one or more common characteristics, is measured and graphed it would most often form a particular pattern? | Gaussian Curve, Normal Curve |
| Gauss was a professor of what at Gottingen observatory? | astronomy |
| What is Gauss the founder of? | differential geometry |
| How many children did Gauss have? | 6 |
| What does Gauss have inscribed on his tombstone? | a regular 17-gon |
| From 1989 until the end of 2001, where was Gauss's portrait and a normal distribution curve shown? | the German Ten-mark banknote |
| While performing a math problem, Gauss was informed his wife was dying. What was his response? | "Tell her to wait a moment 'til I'm through" |
| What polygon did Gauss construct using only a ruler and a compass and what was its significance? | heptadecagon, it was the most major advance since the Greeks |
| To what did Gauss bring acceptance by graphing complex numbers? | imaginary numbers |
| What theorem did Gauss prove which states that natural numbers can only be shown as the product of prime numbers one way? | fundamental theorem of arithmetic |
| What does a gauss measure? | strength of a magnetic field |
| Gauss completed a geodesic survey of what region of Germany? | the state of Hanover |
| What did Gauss invent as a result of the geodesic survey? | heliotrope |
| Gauss used what equation to specify the location of the magnetic South Pole? | Laplace Equation |
| At what age did Gauss impress his teachers by adding the integers from 1 to 100 by recognizing that the sum was fifty pairs of numbers each pairing to sum 101? | 7 |
| Of what did Gauss and Wilhelm Webster construct the first successful form? | telegraph |
| Why wasn't Gauss able to have the heptadecagon on his tombstone? | The engraver thought it would look too much like a circle |
| What was Gauss's personal motto? | Pauca sed matura - few but ripe |
| What did the Minister of Geheimat Feonce von Rotenkreuz present Gauss with as a present? | a table of logarithms |
| What medal was Gauss given? | a medal to be the prince of mathematicians |
| What did Gauss do to signal the green men from Mars? | Came up with the idea to draw huge drawings in the Siberian desert |
| In what city was Euler born? | Basel, Swirtzerland |
| When was Euler born? | April 15, 1707 |
| What did Euler's father do? | Lutheran minister |
| Under which well-known mathematician did Euler study? | Johann Bernoulli |
| What job did Euler's father want him to have? | Lutheran minister, but Euler did not enjoy it |
| Which university did Euler attend at the age of 13? | University of Basel |
| What religion was Euler? | Lutheran - all his life |
| Who forced Euler to move to Berlin? | Frederick the Great |
| How many times did Euler marry? | twice |
| What did Euler have a master's degree in? | philosophy |
| Did Euler write any books? | Mechanica, Commentarii, etc. |
| Where did Euler die? | St. Petersburg, Russia |
| How did Euler die? | apoplexy (stroke) |
| Euler discovered the formula e^pi*i=0. What is it known as? | Euler's identity |
| What famous topological problem did Euler solve? | Bridge of Konigsberg |
| Name 3 mathematical notations Euler gave us. | f(x), e, i, (delta)y, (pi), (sigma) |
| Which mathematician's work did Euler make improvements on? | Fermat's |
| What was Euler's best-known text? | Introductio in Analysin Infinitorum |
| Euler developed an algorithm to chart the orbit of which celestial body? | moon |
| How many children did Euler have? | 13 |
| With what physical impairment did Euler live for 17 years? | blindness |
| What year did Euler die? | 1783 |
| Which two delestial objects are named for Euler? | asteroid, lunar crater |
| How many of Euler's children survived their infancy? | 5 |
| What did Candorcet say at Euler's death? | "He ceased to calculate and to live" |
| Which book could Euler recite word-for-word? | The Aeneid |
| Where did Euler attended college? | University of Basel and the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia |
| How did Euler become totally blind? | After a cataract operation he was restored to full sight, but he didn't take proper care of himslef and became totally blind a few weeks later. |
| What were some of Euler's formulas? | V-E+F=2 (for convex polyhedrons), e^ix=cos(x)+sin(x) |
| Did Euler serve in the military? | He served as a medical lietenant in the Russian Navy. When he was released, he became a professor of physics. |
| What did Euler study? | theology at first, but he didn't enjoy it and dropped the study |
| What happened to Euler's right eye? | he lost sight in it b/c of harsh weather in his homeland |
| Did Euler win any awards? | 2nd prize for best arrangement of masts on a ship |
| What was Euler's elementary school like? | very poor, no math department |
| What happened to Euler's house? | It was burned down in 1771, but he was able to save himself and many of his mathematics manuscipts. |
| Where did Sophie Germain live? | Paris, France |
| What scholar influence Sophie's decision to become a mathematician? | Archimedes |
| During what period, at what age, did Sophie take up an interest in math? | French revolution, 13 |
| What was Sophie's pseudonym? | M. LeBlanc |
| How many sisters did Sophi have? | 2 |
| What year was Sopie born? | 1776 |
| What languages did Sophie teach herself? | Latin, Greek |
| What social class was Sophie's family a part of? | Bourgeoisie |
| Who was Sophie's mentor and fellow mathematician? | Lagrange |
| Sophie's main works were based on whose theorem? | Fermat's |
| With what German mathematician did Sophie correspond? | Gauss |
| How did Sophie learn math? | taught herself |
| Why wasn't Sophie considered credible in her time? | She was a woman |
| What is Sophie's most important work in number theory? | steps toward solving Fermat's last theorem |
| How old was Sophie when she died? | 55 |
| What was the cause of Sophie's death? | breast cancer |
| What was Sophie's profession as listed on her death certificate? | property holder |
| Where is there a street named Rue de Sophie Germain? | Paris, France |
| What did Sophie receive after her death? | honorary degree |
| What year did Sophie die? | 1831 |
| What book inspiried Sophie to become a mathematician? | "The History of Mathematics" by Montcula |
| Which German physicist inspired Sophie with his experiments? | Chladni |
| What difficult task did Sophie take on? | establishing equations for vibrations |
| Which two men aided Sophie in her work on vibrations? | Lagrange and Fourier |
| What prize did Sophie win in 1815? | French Institute |
| What three studies did Sophie contribute to? | acoustics, elasticity, theory of numbers |
| Where did Sophie take correspondence courses? | Ecole Polytechnique |
| Where did Sophie spend a great deal of time as a child? | her father's library |
| Where did Sophie live all her life? | her home |
| What was Sophie's husband's name? | She never married |
| How did Sophie's father discourage her learning? | He took away her clothes, candles, and any source of heat so she couldn't study. |
| What historical event began the year Sophie was born? | American Revolution |
| What was Sophie's system of primes? | If p and 2p+1 are prime, then p is a Sophie Germain prime |
| Who was Archimedes father? | Phidias |
| What was Archimedes father's occupation? | astronomer |
| When was Archimedes born? | 287 B.C. |
| Where was Archimedes born? | Syracuse, Sicily |
| When did Archimedes die? | 212 B.C. |
| Where did Archimedes die? | Syracuse, Sicily |
| What did Archimedes invent while he was in Egypt? | Archimedes Screw |
| Which mathematician was recorded to be related to King Hieron of Syracuse? | Archimedes |
| Who invented the compound pulley? | Archimedes |
| What is Archimedes most famous theorem which gives the weight of a body immersed in a liquid? | Archimedes principle |
| Archimedes Principle is contained in what work done by Archimedes? | On Floating Bodies |
| What important number used in finding the area of a circle did Archimedes give an accurate approximation of? | pi |
| What is the name of the work of Archimedes that was discovered in 1906 on a 10th century manuscript? | The Method |
| What value did Archimedes obtain by circumscribing a circle with a regular polygon having 96 sides? | pi |
| Archimedes was killed during the capture of which city by the Romans? | Syracuse |
| Which mathematician sent false proofs when he sent theorems to other mathematicians? | Archimedes |
| What form of math was Archimedes most fascinated with? | geometry |
| Which king persuaded Archimedes to build war machines? | The King of Syracuse or King Hieron II |
| Which mathematician did Plutarch wirte many stories about? | Archimedes |
| Why did Archimedes have a better reputation than other mathematicians of his time? | He invented machines used as engines of war |
| Archimedes is proclaimed as one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time. Who are the other two? | Gauss, Newton |
| What did Archimedes develop 2000 years before Newton "discovered" it? | integral calculus |
| What 3-D object did Archimedes formulate the volume of? | sphere |
| Archimedes is credited with the method of the "Powers of -----" | Ten |
| Who killed Archimedes? | Roman solidier who didn't know who he was |
| Archimedes studied under the tutelage of ____ | Euclid |
| What modern invention is Archimedes credited with discovering? | lever |
| What was one of Archimedes' nicknames? | the great geometer |
| What ancient weaponry was Archimedes known to construct? | catapult |
| Archimedes' approximation of what geometric symbol is between 3 1/2 and 3 10/71? | pi |
| Instead of pen and paper, what did Archimedes use to figure problems with? | Ashes on a blank wall and oils on his skin |
| What did Archimedes do when he discovered the principle of bouyancy? | He ran down the streets of Syracuse naked |
| What did Archimedes shout when he discovered the principal of bouyancy? | "Eureka" |
| Where was Archimedes when he discovered the principle of buoyancy? | bathtub |
| What is Archimedes' most famous quote? | "Give me a mountain to stand on, and I will move the earth" |
| Name 2 inventions of Archimedes. | many war machines, compound pulley systems, planetarium, water screw, water organ |
| Archimedes is the father of what? | integral calculus |
| What were 2 of Archimedes major writings? | On plane equilibriums, Quadrature of the parabola, On the sphere and cylinder, On spirals, On conoids and spheroids, On the floating bodies, Measurement of a circle, The Sandreckoner, On the method of mechanical problems |
| Who mostly wrote facts about Archimedes life? | Plutarch |
| Where did Archimedes study? | Alexandria, Egypt and chief center of Greek learning |
| What did Archimedes discover? | every object has a center of gravity, basic laws of hydrostatics |
| What was Archimedes nickname during his own time? | the wise one, the master, the great geometer |
| What did Archimedes want inscribed on his tomb? | a sphere containing a cylinder |
| What is another name for the Archimedes Principle? | the Law of Hydrostatics (bouyancy) |
| What was the Archimedes Screw? | An invention that allowed people to pump water upwards |
| Archimedes said, "Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth" after discovering what? | The Law of levers and pulleys |
| In what war was Archimedes killed? | 2nd Punic War |
| When was Newton born? | Dec 25, 1642 according to the calendar in use at the time |
| When did Newton die? | March 20, 1727 |
| What branch of mathematics did Newton invent? | calculus |
| What laws did Newton formulate describing classical mechanics? | the 3 laws of motion |
| What position did Newton serve at the University of Cambridge? | Lucasion Professor of Mathematics |
| What did Newton's work Optics describe? | his theory of light as a blend of different colors |
| What college did Newton attend? | Trinity College, University of Cambridge |
| Why was Newton reluctant to share his research with other scientists? | he feared they would take credit for his studies |
| Newton represented his university in what political body? | Parliament |
| What club was Newton president of from 1703 til his death? | The Royal Society |
| Newton was made warden and master of which English organization? | the mint |
| Why was Newton knighted? | In recognition of his services at the mint and for his scientific discoveries |
| Which organization did Newton ask to look into who truly created the Theory of Calculus? | The Royal Society |
| Whose laws did Newton prove about the orbits of planets? | Kepler's |
| What did Newton name his dog? | Leibniz |
| What were Newton's interests other than mathematics? | alchemy, mysticism, and theology |
| The French writer Voltaire first recorded what story involving Newton? | that an apple fell on his head and led him to the discovery of gravity |
| Newton invented what wrestling submission move? | the Woolsthorpe Cloverleaf, of which the Texas Cloverleaf is derived. |
| Newton fathered 12 children with how many mothers? | 11 |
| Newton described his principle of universal gravitation in which book? | Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy |
| True of False: Newton supported King James in making all universities Catholic | False |
| What was Newton's greates an most known work that was published in 1687? | Principia |
| Newtons work about light and spectrum established in 1692. | Opticks |
| Newton studied the works of which famous French mathematician? | Descartes |
| On what holiday was Newton born? | Christmas |
| What event led to Newton's theory of gravity? | apple falling from a tree |
| How many books make up Newton's Principia? | 3 |
| What religion did Newton believe in? | Christianity |
| In which year was Newton born? | 1643 |
| Did Newton ever marry? | no |
| Newton wanted a degree in what subject? | law |
| Why was Cambridge closed for two years, during which Newton made great advances? | the plague |
| What was Newton's father's name? | Isaac Newton |
| What did Newton's mom want him to be when he grew up? | farmer |
| Where is Newton buried? | Westminster Abbey |
| How many total publications did Newton have? | 8 |
| Dispute with which British Mathematician over the rights to new discoveries caused prolonged acceptance of Newton's ideas? | Leibniz |
| Who was born in Lincolnshire, England on Jan 4, 1643? | Newton |
| Who was the inventor of calculus? | Newton |
| Who was knighted by Queen Ann of England? | Newton |
| Who discovered the prism and the spectrum of colors and published his discoveries in a book called Opticks? | Newton |
| Who discovered that objects in movement move in a straight line, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force? | Newton |
| Who discovered that for every action there is both an equal and opposite reaction? | Newton |
| Who, as a boy, was more interested in making mechanical devices than studying? | Newton |
| This man attended Cambridge University and taught mathematics there. | Newton |
| This man discovered the Binomial Theorem (the sum or difference of two unknowns if raised to a power greater than one, the binomial theorem describest how to represent the result.) | Newton |
| Einstein rejected _____'s explanation of universl gravitation, but not the fact of its operation. | Newton |
| ----- discovered how the Earth is held together by gravity, published as Principia at the age of 23 | Newton |
| ----- discovered the spectrum of colors | Newton |
| Newton named the 7 colors of the spectrum, even though the last, indigo, is barely distinguishable from the others b/c ----- | 7 was his favorite number |
| Who was involved with the legend of getting hit on the head by an apple while sitting under a tree pondering about the laws of physics? | Newton |
| Within his immediate family, who was Newton's subject of fixation? | his mother |
| Who invented the cat door? | Newton |
| Who found analytic ways to find area, tangents, and lengths of curves? | Newton |
| Who invented the reflecting telescope using mirrors rather than a series of lenses? | Newton |
| Who was inspired by Sir Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Galileo, and Descartes? | Newton |
| Who invented the sun dial and water clock (powered by the force of dropping water)? | Newton |
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