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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through In Somewhat Indifferent Health.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Ramanujan say he was willing to do in order to come to England?
(a) Be cast out of his Brahmin class.
(b) Borrow money.
(c) Work for Hardy.
(d) Abandon his wife.

2. What was it that offended Ramanujan when he invited some friends to dinner?
(a) The friends criticized his cooking.
(b) The women declined a third helping.
(c) The friends wanted to use silverware.
(d) The men used salt.

3. What did Hardy decide after conferring with John Littlewood?
(a) That Ramanujan was dangerous.
(b) That Ramanujan was a genius.
(c) That Ramanujan was a small thinker.
(d) That Ramanujan was unstable.

4. How does Kanigel describe English society from Ramanujan's point-of-view?
(a) Malicious.
(b) Effete.
(c) Homogenous.
(d) Rarefied.

5. How does Kanigel characterize Ramanujan's developing approach to math?
(a) Irreverent.
(b) Materialistic.
(c) Pragmatic.
(d) Semi-religious.

Short Answer Questions

1. What practice does Kanigel say Ramanujan had difficulty adjusting to in England?

2. What were Ramanujan and Hardy looking for in their work on partitions?

3. What did Ramanujan petition Cambridge for?

4. Where did graduates from Hardy's secondary school typically go to college?

5. What did the divergent series 1+2+3+4+5... add up to in Ramanujan's notebooks?

(see the answer key)

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