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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. 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”?
(a) South America.
(b) Muslim Spain.
(c) Rome.
(d) Ancient Egypt.

2. What refers to the mean obtained by taking the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of a set of nonzero numbers?
(a) Mean of function.
(b) Frechet mean.
(c) Harmonic mean.
(d) Power mean.

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

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

5. Where did Copernicus live?
(a) France.
(b) Rome.
(c) Egypt.
(d) Prussia.

Short Answer Questions

1. Filippo Brunelleschi was born in approximately what year?

2. What region in the Middle East is widely considered to be the cradle of civilization?

3. The introduction of nothingness and zero into Jewish theology led in part to what offshoot Jewish mysticism?

4. What branch of mathematics are the ancient Egyptians credited with creating in order to successfully build objects to block the flooding of the Nile River each year?

5. Pythagoreanism developed into two separate schools of thought. What group was called “the listeners” in Greek?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did mathematics and the concept of zero evolve in India through the 5th Century AD?

2. How was zero dealt with in the Pythagorean view, according to the author in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing”?

3. Where does the author claim zero was “born” in Chapter 1, “Nothing Doing”? How was zero involved in early mathematics?

4. How are multiplication and division involving zero described in Chapter 1, “Nothing Doing”?

5. How are ancient Babylonian mathematics described in Chapter 1, “Nothing Doing”?

6. What discoveries did Archimedes make in the mathematical world?

7. How does the author assert zero’s existence has been responsible for mathematical progress in Chapter 1, “Nothing Doing”?

8. How did Aristotle approach the concept of zero, according to the author in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing”?

9. How does the author describe the relationship between early Christianity and zero in Chapter 2, “Nothing Comes of Nothing”?

10. How did zero enter into Indian mathematics, according to the author in Chapter 3, “Nothing Ventured”?

(see the answer keys)

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