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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. When did Nicholas of Cusa live?
2. The Renaissance roughly spanned the period of what centuries?
3. The ancient Egyptians are credited with creating what numerical system?
4. 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”?
5. The USS Yorktown was used as the test-bed for what Navy program beginning in 1996?
Short Essay Questions
1. What mathematical developments was Pythagoras credited with in ancient Greece?
2. How did mathematics and the concept of zero evolve in India through the 5th Century AD?
3. How did the Protestant Reformation influence the Aristotelian philosophy in the West?
4. What caused the USS Yorktown to have a computer meltdown in 1997, according to the author in Chapter 0, “Null and Void”? How is the ship described?
5. Where does the author claim zero was “born” in Chapter 1, “Nothing Doing”? How was zero involved in early mathematics?
6. What mathematical advancements were made by the ancient Egyptians?
7. What results came about when Indian mathematicians began separating numbers from shapes, according to the author in Chapter 3, “Nothing Ventured”?
8. What were Blaise Pascal’s theological beliefs? How was zero viewed in his beliefs?
9. What reason does the author give for why the Greeks and Romans resisted using zero in their mathematical systems in Chapter 1, “Nothing Doing”?
10. What advancements in mathematics were made by René Descartes?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Describe and discuss the work and discoveries of René Descartes, and the development of the Cartesian coordinate system. How did the Cartesian coordinate system affect geometry and algebra? How did Descartes relate his mathematical discoveries to his philosophies and theological beliefs?
Essay Topic 2
Describe and discuss the origins and developments of mathematics in Mayan culture. What was the base of the Mayan numeral system? How did this system compare with that of the Egyptians and the Babylonians? How did it deal with zero?
Essay Topic 3
Discuss the biography and the mathematical and philosophical contributions of Archimedes of Syracuse. How did Archimedes first encounter the infinite? How did this discovery influence his work and the work of mathematicians after him?
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This section contains 851 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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