History of Math

1. The Mathematics that is persistent in identifiable cultural groups.

a. conventional mathematics
b. ethnomathematics
c. cultural mathematics
d. socio-mathematics
CA: B. ethnomathematics
2. To whom the Greeks inherited their mathematical basis?
a. Babylonian
b. Chinese
c. Egyptian
d. Indian
CA: A. Babylonian
3. An extinct Mesoamerican culture with surviving treatise on astronomy called Dresden Codex and
used vigesimal numeral system.
a. Incans
b. Africans
c. Native Americans
d. Mayans
CA: D. Mayans
4. It is the most famous Chinese mathematics book of all time which is also called Nine Chapters on
the Mathematical Art.
a. Jiuzhang Suanshou
b. Suan Chu
c. Arithmetic Classic of the Gnomon
d. Chou Pei Suan Ching
CA: A. Jiuzhang Suanshou
5. This century came to be known as the Age of Scientific Revolution which saw an uprecendented
explosion of mathematical and scientific ideas across Europe.
a. 16th
b. 17th
c. 18th
d. 19th
CA: B. 17th
6. An 18th century mathematician who invented an analytical machine that can tabulate values of
any function and print the results.
a. Jean Fourier
b. Charles Babbage
c. Pierre Simon Laplace
d. Jean-le-Rond D’Alembert
CA: B. Charles Babbage
7. Began the algebra of logic by approaching logic in a new way, reducing to a simple algebra and
incorporating logic into mathematics.
a. Carl Gauss
b. Evariste Galois
c. George Boole
d. Abraham de Moivre
CA: C. George Boole
8. His greatest contributions include such groundbreaking texts in invention of divining rods used as
multiplication tables.
a. Francois Viete
b. Marin Mersenne
c. Johannes Kepler
d. John Napier
CA: D. John Napier
9. He wrote De Triangulis Omnimodis, a systematic account of methods for solving triangles, and
made important contributions to trigonometry and astronomy.
a. Regiomontanus
b. Girolamo Cardano
c. Scipione del Ferro
d. Niccolo Tartaglia
CA: A. Regiomontanus
10. Known as the father of modern analysis during 19th century who also devised tests for the
convergence of series and contributed to the theory of periodic function, Abellian functions, elliptic
functions etc.
a. Johann Direchlet
b. Karl Weierstrass
c. Evariste Galois
d. Johann Carl Gauss
CA: B. Karl Weierstrass
11. A rich mathematician in France who invented a new, non-Greek way of doing geometry, now
called “projective” or “modern geometry”.
a. Leonhard Euler
b. Francois Viete
c. Gerard Desargues
d. John Napier
CA: C. Gerard Desargues. Also known for his famous Perspective Theorem “when two triangles are
in perspective, the meets of corresponding sides are collinear.”
12. A “grand” Russian mathematician who gave the basis for applying the theory of probability to
statistical data, worked on number of prime numbers not exceeding a given number, and proved
Bertrand’s conjecture in 1850.
a. August Cauchy
b. Pafnuty Chebyshev
c. Francois Viete
d. Nicolai Lobachevsky
CA: B. Pafnuty Chebyshev. He also worked on construction of maps, the calculation of geometric
volumes, and the construction of calculating machines in 1870s.
13. A mathematician of the Medieval Ages who invented a type of coordinate geometry by finding
the logical equivalence between tabulating values and graphing them.
a. Nicole Oresme
b. Leonardo Fibonacci
c. Roger Bacon
d. Rene Descartes
CA: A. Nicole Oresme. One of his works contain the first use of a fractional exponent, although not in
modern notation.
14. A Greek mathematician who is remembered for his prime number Sieve.
a. Anaxagoras
b. Eratosthenes
c. Pythagoras
d. Thales
CA: B. Erastothenes. He invented a mechanical device to find line segments x and y so that, for
given segments a and b, a:x = x:y = y:b
15. An 18th century mathematician who enunciated the principles of the Calculus of variations and
became a lecturer in the Royal Artillery School at the age of 19.
a. Jean Baptiste Fourier
b. Jean D’ Alembert
c. Pierre Simon Laplace
d. Louis Lagrange
CA: D. Louis Lagrange. He worked on number theory proving in 1770 that every positive integer is
the sum of four squares. He studied the integration of differential equations and made various
applications to topics such as fluid mechanics (where he introduced the Lagrangian function).