Mathematicians Trivia

1. Who was the first Indian scientist to receive a Nobel prize?

From Quiz Indian Brains Are Right Here

Answer: C.V. Raman

Chandrashekhar Venkata Raman was the first asian to get a Nobel prize in science in 1930. He received the prize for his work on scattering of light known as the Raman effect. He was also the first scientist to get Bharat Ratna (India's highest civilian award) in 1954.

From Quiz Famous Mathematicians and Scientists

Answer: Rene Descartes

The Cartesian coordinate system, in which geometric shapes can be expressed in algebraic terms is named after Descartes. The quote is taken from his philosophical classic 'Discourse on Method'.

From Quiz Math's Greatest Minds

Answer: Leonhard Euler

"Euler's Identity" is one of the most famous formulas in the world of mathematics, as it ties together the five most important constants: 0, 1, pi, and the imaginary i.

From Quiz Scientific "Fathers"

Answer: Charles Babbage

The cowcatcher, dynamometer, standard railroad gauge, uniform postal rates, occulting lights for lighthouses, Greenwich time signals, heliograph ophthalmoscope are some of Babbage's other inventions. He also has a crater in the northern hemisphere of the moon named after him.

From Quiz Famous Mathematicians

Answer: Grace Murray Hopper

She became the first woman to be elected Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society in 1973, being the first American elected to this honour. Also in 1973 she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the Legion of Merit. Hopper collected a remarkable number of honorary degrees, receiving at least 37 between 1972 and 1987.

From Quiz The Death of a Mathematician

Answer: Rene Descartes

Ever since he was young Descartes had been in poor health, and his doctor's recommendation was that he spend his mornings in bed (legend has it that he came up with the idea for Cartesian coordinates by watching a fly crawl across his ceiling one of those mornings.) Unfortunately, the Swedish princess he was tutoring had an insatiable urge to draw tangents at 5 in the morning, and Descartes soon caught pneumonia and died.

From Quiz Biographies of Mathematicians

Answer: Archimedes

From Quiz History of Mathematics

Answer: cut to pieces with shells

Although a popular lecturer at the university at Alexandria, a group of monks led by a patriarch named Cyril ordered her death because she was a pagan. A mob surrounded her carriage one afternoon after classes, cut her flesh off her bones with shells and took the remains to Cinaron to burn.

From Quiz Indian Brains Are Right Here

Answer: J.C. Bose

Jagdish Chandra Bose was a great Indian botanist and physicist. He made the cresograph to measure growth in plants and detect the sensation of plants. A lunar impact crater called Bose was named after him. He was also considered to be the first to make a radio. But, he did not patent it. Thus, he is known as one of the fathers of radio.

From Quiz Famous Mathematicians and Scientists

Answer: Euclid of Alexandria

Euclid deduced his theorems from a small basic set of axioms or postulates which were self-evident. These theorems are still the basis of Euclidian geometry today.

From Quiz Math's Greatest Minds

Answer: Pierre de Fermat

Fermat's theory came to be known as "Fermat's Last Theorem". During Fermat's life, no one had proven it, but Fermat did write: "I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain." In the past decades, however, Andrew Wiles had proven the theorem.

From Quiz Scientific "Fathers"

Answer: Diophantus

Diophantus, of Alexandria, is best known for his "Arithmetica," a work on the solution of algebraic equations and on the theory of numbers. He was born circa 200 and died around 284 AD.

From Quiz Famous Mathematicians

Answer: Pythagoras

Ever watch the "Wizard of Oz"? When the scarecrow receives his brain, he incorrectly states the Pythagorean Theorem. He must have had straw up there all the time!

From Quiz The Death of a Mathematician

Answer: Evariste Galois

The duel was fought over the attentions of Stephanie-Felice du Motel (and you thought mathematicians never got the girls). Legend has it that Galois spent the night before the duel pouring out all his mathematical knowledge onto paper so it wouldn't be forgotten (this is probably exaggerated, although he did write a manuscript that night). Regardless, it took nearly 15 years after his death before mathematicians realized the full import of young Galois's ideas.

From Quiz Biographies of Mathematicians

Answer: Pythagoras

From Quiz Indian Brains Are Right Here

Answer: Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu

Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu is known as the father of modern Indian Astronomy. He and his friend, Chaddock Wilson described an astronomical effect in 1957 which is known as the Wilson-Bappu effect. He also discovered a comet known as the Bappu-Bok-Newkirk comet with the help of his colleagues. He became the first Indian whose name was not only tagged to a comet but also to an astronomical effect.

From Quiz Famous Mathematicians and Scientists

Answer: Diophantus of Alexandria

Diophantus wrote a textbook containing algebraic equations. Some 500 years later, a Persian mathematician, al-Kwarizmi was attributed with writing similar works.

From Quiz Math's Greatest Minds

Answer: Euclid

In his book, "The Element", Euclid of Alexandria gave five postulates that set the basis for Euclidian geometry. However, it was only by the 19th century that Euclid's last postulate was proven to be false, giving the way for non-Euclidian geometry.

From Quiz Scientific "Fathers"

Answer: al-Khwarizmi

al-Khwarizmi, 780-850, was born in Bagdad. His colleagues and he, called The Banu Musa, were scholars that worked on translation of Greek scientific manuscripts and they also studied, and wrote on, algebra, geometry and astronomy. The algebraic treatise Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala was the most famous and important of all of al-Khwarizmi's works. It is the title of this text that gives us the word "algebra."

From Quiz Famous Mathematicians

Answer: Pierre De Fermat

When Fermat wrote this theorem down, he said "I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain." No one was able to solve this for over 300 years until British Mathematician Andrew Wiles solved it in 1994.

From Quiz The Death of a Mathematician

Answer: Kurt Gödel

Near the end of his life, Gödel (who had previously been forced to flee Nazi controlled Austria just before the outbreak of the Second World War) started becoming convinced that people were attempting to poison his food, so he stopped eating. Unfortunately, this led to results as bad as any poison.

From Quiz Famous Scientists And Mathematicians

Answer: Galileo Galilei

He did what almost all the present amateur astronomers do - project the image of the sun onto a white sheet of paper. He described the phases of the moon and the sunspots in his book 'The Starry Messenger'.

From Quiz Biographies of Mathematicians

Answer: Bernoulli

From Quiz Indian Brains Are Right Here

Answer: Prafulla Chandra Ray

Prafulla Chandra Ray is also known as a master of nitrites. He discovered many compounds which contain nitrite like mercurous nitrite, nitrite of ammonia and many more. He also led the foundation of India's first pharmaceutical company. His autobiography which is known as 'Life and Experience of a Bengali Chemist' was published in the year 1932.

From Quiz Math's Greatest Minds

Answer: Bonaventura Cavalieri

Cavalieri's "method of indivisibles" states that a geometric plane contains infinitesimally small rectangles, which would allow Cavalieri to find the area of a shape quickly. The book's full name is "Geometria Indivisibilibus Continuorum Nova Quadam Ratione Promota", and was harshly criticized because mathematicians believed Cavalieri's method was absurd.

From Quiz Scientific "Fathers"

Answer: Euclid

Euclid, Greek mathematician and philosopher, was born in Alexandria around 325 BC. Very little is known of Euclid's life, other than that he came after the first pupils of Plato and was under the reign of Ptolemy I. His 13 books, collectively entitled "The Elements," were his most famous works. In the books, the theorems and constructions of plane geometry and solid geometry, along with the theory of proportions, incommensurables and commensurable, number theory, and a type of geometrical algebra are discussed. All the Greek geometry knowledge was comprised, comprehensively into these 13 books.

From Quiz Famous Mathematicians

Answer: Lewis Carroll

Also known for adding words to the English language such as 'chortle', which came from the poem "Jabberwocky".

From Quiz The Death of a Mathematician

Answer: Archimedes

Much of his work was designing ballistic systems and siege engines for use against the Romans, so these diagrams may not have been so benign. His last words may have been, "Don't disturb my circles!"

From Quiz History of Mathematics

Answer: Homosexuality

In the 1950's, homosexuality was considered a treatable psychological disorder (and was until DSM-IV, I believe, in the 80's). When he reported a burglary at his home in 1952, the police became more concerned about Turing than the thief, and he was required to either spend a year in jail or spend a year on psychoactive drugs that were thought to 'cure' homosexuality, mostly by repressing the sex drive.

From Quiz Indian Brains Are Right Here

Answer: Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai was a renowned physicist. He led the foundation of India's first rocket launching station in Thumba, Kerala. He also established Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India's first space agency. Aryabhatta, the first Indian satellite, was put into orbit in 1975 due to his efforts.

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