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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The ancient Babylonians had a number system based on what increment?
(a) 10.
(b) 20.
(c) 60.
(d) 5.

2. The introduction of nothingness and zero into Jewish theology led in part to what offshoot Jewish mysticism?
(a) Orthodoxy.
(b) Hasidism.
(c) Sufism.
(d) Kabbalism.

3. Pythagoreanism developed into two separate schools of thought. What group was called “the learners” in Greek?
(a) The akousmatikoi.
(b) The Hippasusikoi.
(c) The mathēmatikoi.
(d) The omnimatioi.

4. The author states in Chapter 3, “Nothing Ventured” that for the Indians, numerals without geometric significance gave birth to what field of mathematics?
(a) Quantum mechanics.
(b) Physics.
(c) Algebra.
(d) Geometry.

5. Approximately when was Zeno of Elea born?
(a) 230 BC.
(b) 560 BC.
(c) 459 BC.
(d) 490 BC.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the author say early medieval Jews took up residence and discovered that Aristotle’s aversion to zero contradicted Jewish theology in Chapter 3, “Nothing Ventured”?

2. What word did the Arabs use for zero during Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi’s time?

3. What symbol in the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 70?

4. According to the author in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing,” the Pythagorean view tied numbers to what?

5. The author states in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing” that the concepts of infinity and the void frightened the ancient Greeks. They feared the infinite because it threatened the possibility of what?

(see the answer key)

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