mathopolis15 prelims (answers)

MATHOPOLIS

PRELIMS

QUESTION 1

The earliest known official or large-scale celebration of X was organized by Larry Shaw in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where Shaw worked as a physicist, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, then consuming _____.The Exploratorium continues to hold X celebrations.I don't want X. I want something close to X, observed in July.What am I talking about?

ANSWER

Pi Approximation Day (22/7)

QUESTION 2

X was German polymath and philosopher . It was only in the 20th century that Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law of Homogeneity given by X found mathematical implementation. X is one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators, and was the first to invent the pinwheel calculator in 1685. X proposed an optimist metaphysical theory that included the notion that we live in "the best of all possible worlds". ID X.You would know X for a dispute that occurred around the same time.

ANSWER

Gottfried Leibniz

QUESTION 3

X's theorem is a special case of the inscribed angle theorem. X is said to have offered an ox in sacrifice as thanks for the discovery to Apollo.In fact this theorem is only one of two theorems to be called X's Theorem.X is regarded by many, including Aristotle, to be the first philosopher of the Greek tradition. X hypothesised that the originating principle of nature was a single element: water.X was a businessman as well, and is said to have profited from the olive trade in his region.ID X.

Thales of Miletus

QUESTION 4

X was invented independently by the Babylonians, Mayans and Indians(although some researchers say the Indian number system was influenced by Babylonians). The Babylonians got their number system from Sumerians, the first people in the world to develop counting system.Robert Kaplan suggests that an ancestor to the placeholder of X may have been a pair of angled wedges used to represent an empty number column.What is X?

ANSWER

Zero

QUESTION 5*

X is a sequence of six 9s that begins at the 762nd decimal place of the decimal representation of π. It is named after physicist Y, who once stated during a lecture he would like to memorize the digits of π until that point, so he could recite them and quip "nine nine nine nine nine nine and so on", suggesting, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, that π is rational. Y had won the Nobel prize for physics. Y also worked in the challenger incident investigation. Y is regarded as one of the most famous scientists of his time.ID X&Y.

ANSWER

X- Feynman PointY- Richard Feynman

QUESTION 6

X is a well-known Indian mathematician. He has studied at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Rajasthan, with gold medals at the bachelor's and master's levels.X is vice principal of an educational institution. You would probably know him for his works as an author.ID X.

ANSWER

RD Sharma

QUESTION 7

X is a number which is derived from a word in old Norse that actually means a value 20 more than that of X.X is also an English word used to refer to an administrative division which is part of a larger region.Further, X is the record number of points scored in one NBA game by a single player, set by Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962.Identify X.

ANSWER

Hundred

QUESTION 8*X was born in England in the 17th century.X added to mathematics a new branch now called the "calculus of finite differences" and invented integration by parts.Between 1712 and 1724 X published thirteen articles on topics as diverse as describing experiments in capillary action, magnetism and thermometers. X gave an account of an experiment to discover the law of magnetic attraction and an improved method for approximating the roots of an equation by giving a new method for computing logarithms. ID X.You might know X for a series. Or in fact, many series following the same pattern.

ANSWER

Brook Taylor

QUESTION 9

X was an Indian Mathematician who was the first to write numbers in the Hindu decimal system, with a circle for zero. X also gave a unique approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhatta's work, Aryabhatiyabhasya, which is the oldest known prose work in Sanskrit on mathematics and astronomy. There is also a low-orbit satellite named after him.ID X.

ANSWER

Bhaskara-I

QUESTION 10X was born on 1 April 1776, in Paris, France, in a house on Rue Saint-Denis. When she was 13, the Bastille fell and she was forced to say indoors. Thus she turned to her father's library, and was intrigued by geometry. Thus began her affair with mathematics. She was known to hide candlesticks in her shoes to enable her to study at night.She adopted a male pseudonym, Monsieur Le Blanc, to enable her to send notes to Lagrange. Upon meeting her, Lagrange did not shun her, but supported her openly. She won a prize for her work in elasticity. However, she did her best work in number theory, where a theorem is named after her. This theorem is based on solutions to Fermat's Last Theorem.ID X.

ANSWER

Sophie Germain

QUESTION 11

The X is a shorthand version for a particular form of cross-multiplication. It was often taught to students in the 19th century by rote. This rule was highly useful for solving problems such as, ""If 4 Yards of Cloth cost 12 Shillings, what will 6 Yards cost at that Rate?"Charles Darwin said about X, "I have no faith in anything short of actual measurement and the X.”The term X is also used in C++, writing and in economics.ID X.

ANSWER

Rule of Three

QUESTION 12

X is a Babylonian clay tablet, notable as containing an example of Babylonian mathematics. This tablet, believed to have been written about 1800 BC, has a table of four columns and 15 rows of numbers in the cuneiform script of the period.This table lists what are now called Pythagorean triples, i.e., integers a, b, c satisfying a^2+b^2=c^2Id X.

ANSWER

Plimpton-322

QUESTION 13

X was discovered by a Polish mathematician, as he was doodling at what he described as a long and boring conference. He wrote down a rectangular grid of numbers and then spiralled out, circling the prime numbers. He noticed a pattern among the prime numbers. It seemed that the prime numbers lay on alternating diagonals. However, what was surprising was the tendency of prime numbers to lie more on some diagonals than on others.

ID X.

ANSWER

Ulam Spiral

QUESTION 14

X means a group of four things. The term X dates to the 14th century in English. The word appears in the King James Bible (Acts 12:4), which refers to "four Xs of soldiers."The term was popularised by William Rowan Hamilton, who used the word to refer to a four dimensional object with one real part and three imaginary parts.Hamilton dedicated the last twenty years of his life to Xs, and his magnum opus was called Lectures on Xs.ID X.

ANSWER

QUARTERNIONS

QUESTION 15

X is the notation commonly used in arithmetic and logical formulae and statements. It is characterised by the use of operators between operands.It is more difficult to parse, or analyse, by computers. But it is still used in programming languages due to familiarity. In fact, everyone in this room is familiar with this notation.ID X.

ANSWER

Infix Notation

QUESTION 16*Named after a Swedish Mathematician, X is one of the earliest known ______ curves. X can be constructed by starting with an equilateral triangle, then recursively altering each line segment as follows:

1. Divide the line segment into three segments of equal length.2. Draw an equilateral triangle that has the middle segment from step 1 as its base and points outward.3. Remove the line segment that is the base of the triangle from step 2.X is the limit approached as the above steps are followed again and again.It is thus a figure with infinite perimeter but finite area.ID X.The Mathematician in question has a common surname with two American brothers who are billionaires and heavy weight businessmen.

ANSWER

Koch Snowflake

QUESTION 17

X was created by the Nicolas Bourbaki group of mathematicians and appears in the margins of mathematics books written by the group. It resembles a sign that is used to mark passages tricky on a first reading or with an especially difficult argument. We see X in modern day road symbols. ID X.(Image on Next Slide)

ANSWER

Dangerous Bend Symbol

QUESTION 18X lived during a time of political turmoil in France. X was a student at the École Normale, and was incensed when his school director decided to lock all students in during the Revolution. He wrote a blistering letter criticizing the director, which he submitted to the Gazette des Écoles, signing the letter with his full name. Although the Gazette's editor omitted the signature for publication, X was expelled.Ne pleure pas, Alfred ! J'ai besoin de tout mon courage pour mourir à vingt ans!The above were the last words of X. His works in mathematics are very important to this date, even though they only amount to 60 pages.ID X.

ANSWER

Evariste Galois

QUESTION 19*

X was introduced by John Wallis, and, since its introduction, has also been used outside mathematics in modern mysticism and literary symbology. Leopold Kronecker was skeptical of the notion of X and how his fellow mathematicians were using it in the 1870s and 1880s. This skepticism was developed in the philosophy of mathematics called ________, an extreme form of the philosophical and mathematical schools of constructivism and intuitionism. ID X.

ANSWE

Infinity

QUESTION 20

X was born the same year that Galileo died. X was a politician and an alchemist. Interestingly, his works on alchemy are currently be being put online by Indiana University. Speculative fiction author Fritz Leiber said of X, "Everyone knows X as the great scientist. Few remember that he spent half his life muddling with alchemy, looking for the philosopher's stone. That was the pebble by the seashore he really wanted to find."X also took up the position of warden of the Royal Mint, and oversaw England's great recoining.ID X.

ANSWER

Sir Isaac Newton