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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What was Euler's contribution to understanding partitions?
(a) A theorem about series.
(b) A functional approximation.
(c) Notes on the performance of nested square roots.
(d) An algorithm, but without values.

3. Who was Leonard Euler?
(a) A brilliant mathematician to whom Hardy compared Ramanujan.
(b) Ramanujan's tutor.
(c) A teacher at Cambridge.
(d) Hardy's protégé.

4. What did Ramanujan and Hardy develop for working with partitions?
(a) A precise method for determining partitions for prime numbers.
(b) Nested square roots.
(c) The circle method.
(d) A refinement of Euler's suggestion.

5. Where did Ramanujan move to?
(a) Cambridge.
(b) London.
(c) Oxford.
(d) Bristol.

Short Answer Questions

1. What society was Ramanujan elected to?

2. Based on his letter, what was Hardy trying to determine about Ramanujan?

3. What does Kanigel say Ramanujan distrusted in English society?

4. When do mathematicians believe Ramanujan did his best work?

5. What was the doctor's diagnosis of Ramanujan's illness?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way was Ramanujan's experience of England similar to Ghandi's?

2. What problems did Ramanujan have on account of his Indian cultural practices?

3. Describe Ramanujan's trip to England.

4. What problem kept Ramanujan from coming to England, as Hardy hoped he would?

5. What is a formalist in mathematical thinking?

6. How was Ramanujan treated on his return to India?

7. What was the conflict between Ramanujan's family and his wife?

8. What accolades did Ramanujan receive for his work?

9. Describe the decline of Ramanujan's health.

10. What was Ramanujan's Master Theorem intended to do?

(see the answer keys)

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