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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What refers to a system in which the location of a point is given by coordinates that represent its distances from perpendicular lines that intersect at a point called the origin?
(a) The Babylonian system.
(b) Cartesian coordinate system.
(c) The Golden Ratio.
(d) The Pythagorean system.

3. What 12 Century rabbi sought to reconcile Greek philosophy with the Semitic Bible?
(a) Shlomo ben Aderet.
(b) Maimonides.
(c) Robert Wexler.
(d) Nahmanides.

4. What does the author refer to as “zero’s twin” in the book?
(a) Infinity.
(b) Seven.
(c) One.
(d) Thirteen.

5. The ancient Babylonians are credited with the creation of what calculation tool?
(a) The abacus.
(b) The computer.
(c) The stick-stone.
(d) The calculator.

6. The author states in Chapter 3, “Nothing Ventured” that Indian mathematicians first learned of zero from the Babylonians by way of what?
(a) The Roman conquest.
(b) The Greek conquest.
(c) The Spanish Inquisition.
(d) The British Empire.

7. Where did the Renaissance begin?
(a) Italy.
(b) France.
(c) Great Britain.
(d) Spain.

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

9. Negative numbers first appeared where historically, according to the author in Chapter 3, “Nothing Ventured”?
(a) India and China.
(b) Europe and the Americas.
(c) In Mayan and Native American cultures.
(d) Egypt and Babylonia.

10. The Gregorian calendar replaced what calendar system in 1582?
(a) The Hipparchus’ Calendar.
(b) The Aristotelian Calendar.
(c) The Berber Calendar.
(d) The Julian Calendar.

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

12. The preclassic Maya and their neighbors supposedly developed the concept of zero by what year?
(a) 36 BC.
(b) 23 BC.
(c) 10 BC.
(d) 50 BC.

13. Approximately when did Pythagoras live?
(a) 481-412 BC.
(b) 570-495 BC.
(c) 1200-1195 BC.
(d) 684-610 BC.

14. 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?
(a) God.
(b) The Devil.
(c) Motion.
(d) Time.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Approximately when did Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi live?

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

3. When did Nicholas of Cusa live?

4. Approximately when was Giordano Bruno born?

5. Whom does the author claim the Greeks learned about astronomy from in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing”?

(see the answer keys)

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