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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What word did the Indians use for zero during Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi’s time?
(a) Siro.
(b) Zeno.
(c) Sunya.
(d) Nil.

2. During what years did Georg Cantor live?
(a) 1811-1878.
(b) 1777-1836.
(c) 1689-1759.
(d) 1845-1918.

3. How was Giordano Bruno executed?
(a) He was burned at the stake.
(b) He was hung.
(c) He was shot by firing squad.
(d) He was given lethal injection.

4. According to the author in Chapter 6, “Infinity's Twin,” “i” appears whenever one takes the square root of what?
(a) Infinity.
(b) Zero.
(c) A fraction.
(d) A negative number.

5. Ptolemy wrote what mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths?
(a) The Almagest.
(b) Physics.
(c) The Golden Ratio.
(d) The Epicurean.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. 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”?

3. When did René Descartes live?

4. The result of combining an absorbing element with any element of a set is what?

5. René Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician who spent most of his adult life where?

(see the answer key)

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