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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2, Mathematics and the Exact Sciences.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the name of the problem of finding the shape of a surface of maximum area for a perimeter of given length as found in Chapter 2?
(a) Involute.
(b) Isoperimeters.
(c) Brachistachrone.
(d) Cycloid.

2. According to Chapter 1, ________, in 1747, attributed the cause of a "great revolution in physics" to Newton's "Principia."
(a) Malebranche.
(b) Maupertuis.
(c) Descartes.
(d) Alexis-Claude Clairaut.

3. What was the name of the path by which an object slides from one point to another that is not on the same vertical line in the shortest possible time?
(a) Tractrix.
(b) Catenary.
(c) Brachistachrone.
(d) Involute.

4. According to the narrator in Chapter 2, the only machine employed by rational mechanics was ________.
(a) The car.
(b) The soul.
(c) The mind.
(d) The body.

5. In Chapter 2, what was the name of the shape of a chain suspended between two fixed points?
(a) Isoperimeters.
(b) Involute.
(c) Catenary.
(d) Tractrix.

Short Answer Questions

1. Throughout the Enlightenment, reason was usually extolled in the same breath with ________, the other key word of the Enlightenment.

2. According to the narrator in Chapter 1, who was one of the originators of the mechanical philosophy who believed there were no forces or powers in matter?

3. Who was the extraordinary philosopher whose life and career exemplified many aspects of the Enlightenment, although he was not especially prominent as a natural philosopher nor was he the main protagonist in the vis viva controversy?

4. Chapter 2 reveals that Leibniz wrote the "second difference" in calculus as ________.

5. In the hands of ________, history led not to an understanding of God's will but rather to an understanding of human nature.

(see the answer key)

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