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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What symbol in the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 70?
(a) Upsilon.
(b) Omicron.
(c) Omega.
(d) Xi.

2. Filippo Brunelleschi was born in approximately what year?
(a) 1377.
(b) 1414.
(c) 1601.
(d) 1520.

3. When the Indians adopted a Babylonian style number system, its base was what, according to the author in Chapter 3, “Nothing Ventured”?
(a) 20.
(b) 10.
(c) 5.
(d) 60.

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

5. The ancient Egyptians used math to create what type of calendar?
(a) A lunar calendar.
(b) A solar calendar.
(c) A geocentric calendar.
(d) A plexus calendar.

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

7. What name refers to sutra texts belonging to the Śrauta ritual and containing geometry related to fire-altar construction?
(a) Shavi Sutras.
(b) The Kartikeya.
(c) Yogi Sutras.
(d) Shulba Sutras.

8. Pythagoreanism was a cult that greatly influenced what philosophical system?
(a) Athenism.
(b) Buddhism.
(c) Hinduism.
(d) Platonism.

9. How is zero represented in Roman numerals?
(a) I.
(b) It is not represented.
(c) X.
(d) C.

10. Who founded the House of Wisdom that was established in Abbasid-era Baghdad, Iraq?
(a) Sahl ibn Harun.
(b) Hunayn ibn Ishaq.
(c) Caliph Harun al-Rashid.
(d) Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī.

11. In September of 1997, a crewmember entered a zero into the database field on the computers of the USS Yorktown, leading to what type of error?
(a) A divide by zero error.
(b) A subtraction by zero error.
(c) A multiply by zero error.
(d) An addition by zero error.

12. Where was Giordano Bruno from?
(a) Great Britain.
(b) Italy.
(c) France.
(d) Spain.

13. The USS Yorktown was located off the coast of what location when the computer systems malfunctioned in September of 1997?
(a) Cape Charles, Virginia.
(b) Del Norte, California.
(c) New York, New York.
(d) Havana, Cuba.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did the Renaissance begin?

2. According to the author in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing,” the ratio of zero to any number is what?

3. Zeno of Elea followed what Eleatic school founder in believing that the nature of the universe was changeless and immobile?

4. The author notes in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing” that the West resisted the concept of zero for how many years?

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

(see the answer keys)

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