Scientists Trivia

1. Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) was a self-taught mathematical genius from India, who died at age 32. Which famous English mathematician nurtured Ramanujan and collaborated with him when he moved to England?

From Quiz What If: Scientists Who Died Too Young

Answer: G. H. Hardy

Ramanujan showed an early aptitude in mathematics, but failed to achieve a university degree in India due to his disinterest in other subjects. He was employed as a clerk in Madras, but gained a reputation in Indian mathematical circles. At their suggestion he sent drafts of his work to famous British mathematicians. Most rejected the papers as typical amateur mistakes, but G.H Hardy recognized the genius in these papers and invited him to England. Ramanujan left for England at age 26 and worked with Hardy for five years. He struggled with many of the aspects of his new home, cultural differences, weather, and food. He returned to India and died shortly thereafter from a disease thought to be related to earlier bouts of dysentery. Though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable. Many of his ideas have generated avenues of research for nearly a century. One of his famous results was his answer to Hardy, who rode in a taxicab numbered 1729, and commented what a boring number that 1729 was. Ramanujan replied that it was not, and 1729 was the smallest number that was the sum of two different pairs of cubes (1 cubed + 12 cubed and 9 cubed + 10 cubed).

From Quiz I Am Not Insane

Answer: Earth's circumference

Eratosthenes was the chief librarian at one of the greatest libraries in the world, the Library of Alexandria, who lived between 276 BC and c194 BC. He was a fine mathematician and astronomer, who is considered to be one of the inventors of the discipline of geography. Eratosthenes made a measurement of the Earth's circumference using local knowledge of Egypt and some simple tools. He knew that, at noon on the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, the sun was directly overhead in the city of Syene (which is now Aswan). He put a rod vertically in the ground at that time in Alexandria, which is north of Syene, measured its shadow and hence the angle of the sun's rays. He calculated that the angle was 7.2 degrees, and that the distance between Syene and Alexandria was therefore about a fiftieth of the earth's circumference (360 divided by 7.2). His estimate was within 15% of the actual value.

From Quiz Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry

Answer: Jacobus van't Hoff

The Dutch chemist van't Hoff (1852-1911) won in 1901 for his work in chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions. A professor at the University of Amsterdam and later Berlin, Van't Hoff was also known for his work in stereo-chemistry, chemical kinetics, and chemical equilibrium.

From Quiz It Doesn't Take a Rocket Scientist...

Answer: Parachutes for space vehicles

Dr. Anita Sengupta is a familiar face to the North American Space Agency Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She works as a Senior System Engineer. Her work put her front and center in the planet exploration missions. Besides working at the North American Space Agency Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Sengupta taught Aeronautics at the University of Southern California.

From Quiz The Nerd Herd

Answer: Francis Beaufort

Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857) developed the "Beaufort wind force scale" around 1830. As Britain became the preeminent sea power in the world it became desirable to have as much standardization as possible in several key areas. One such area was the description of weather conditions: upon entering a new geographic area one sea captain might describe the wind as 'a strong breeze' where another captain might call it 'a driving gale'. Beaufort, building on the work of others, devised a 13-class scale (0 to 12) of wind and sea conditions. It has been tinkered with over the years but retains the basic elements Beaufort set forth.

From Quiz The Miracle Of Mind

Answer: Galileo

Galilei Galileo is widely noted for his discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter. Galileo also provided the groundwork for a modern theory of classical mechanics. The story of Galileo and the Leaning Tower of Pisa "falling objects" experiment is widely recounted.

From Quiz Scientists are Human Too

Answer: Pythagoras

Pythagoras also believed in a form of reincarnation and the transmigration of souls. Along with his work with triangles and other aspects of geometry, he also discovered the mathematical relationship between the length of a piece string and musical pitch.

From Quiz Scientists Who Changed the World

Answer: Pythagoras

Pythagoras' Theorem was probably known to the Babylonians but Pythagoras (581-497 BC) may well have been the first to prove it. It is perhaps ironic that Pythagoras is remembered today for this theorem, the principles of which had previously been known for over a thousand years, and yet his more original discoveries are obscure. As the discoverer of the musical scale, in effect creating a rule book for the musical harmonies that we take for granted, it is arguable that this has had a much more profound impact on the history of the world than a simple, largely borrowed mathematical formula.

From Quiz Have You Heard of This Lesser-Known Chemist?

Answer: Pierre Curie

Curie headed the École de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle in Paris, and it was there that he met his future wife, Marie. Together they won the Nobel Prize for physics, along with Henri Becquerel, as the result of their study of radiation. Other discoveries of Pierre's include a law which explains magnetic susceptibility of paramagnetic materials and the critical temperature above which magnetic properties disappear.

From Quiz Chemists Through the Ages

Answer: Joseph Priestley

Priestley traveled to Europe and met a number of scientists and published an account of his work called "Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air" which appeared in six volume from 1774 to 1786.

From Quiz Roman Scientists

Answer: Lucretius

Lucretius, a follower of the Epicurians, established his belief in the atomic theory of matter, the indestructibility of matter, and of evolutionary theory. Unfortunately, Lucretius did not have a deep knowledge of the sciences and hence did not make true investigations into these topics. Thus the theories of Lucretius are clouded with fantastical ideas regarding the sizes and shapes of atoms and the idea of spontaneous generation, among others.

From Quiz Later Alexandrian Scientists

Answer: Trigonometry

Hipparchus was the first to observe and record the precession of the equinoxes, and also developed a system by which eclipses of the moon and sun could be predicted.

From Quiz The Peripatetics

Answer: Botany

From Quiz Later Ionian Scientists

Answer: Democedes

From Quiz Ancient Ionian Scientists

Answer: Thales

Thales may have been the world's first geometer, and is certainly considered by most Westerners to be the first philosopher, in the modern sense of the word. This Meletan scholar posited that water was the basis of all things, and that the Earth floated upon a giant bed of water.

From Quiz Famous Scientists

Answer: Dmitri Mendeleyev

Dmitri Mendeleyev was Russian and lived from 1834-1907. Mendeleyev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia.

From Quiz Random Questions About Scientists

Answer: Jenner & Edward Jenner

Vaccination was derived from the Latin word for cowpox 'vacinna'. Jenner created the smallpox vaccine using the cowpox virus.

From Quiz Fascinating Facts about Scientists

Answer: Heisenberg

Einstein was reacting to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. This idea has remained controversial, yet highly influential, up to the modern day.

From Quiz Interesting Facts about Famous Scientists

Answer: bamboo

Cai Lun was an official in the imperial court of the Han, and is credited with inventing paper around 105 A.D. He was not the actual inventor of paper, though...but rather improved the paper-making process greatly.

From Quiz Famous Scientists

Answer: Albert Einstein

From Quiz What If: Scientists Who Died Too Young

Answer: Spectroscopy work leading to updates to the Periodic Table of Elements

In 1913, Moseley observed and measured the X-ray spectra of various chemical elements (mostly metals) that were found by the method of diffraction through crystals. Mendeleev's Periodic Table was based on atomic weight, the mass of the number of protons of an element plus the weighted average of the number of neutrons across its isotopes. Some elements would be placed in the wrong location, based strictly on atomic weight, and gaps in the table were not identified correctly. The modern periodic table is based on the number of protons, made possible by Moseley's methods. Isaac Asimov wrote that Moseley's death may have been the most costly one of World War I to mankind generally.  Moseley's mentor and compatriot, Ernest Rutherford, believed that Moseley's work would have earned him the Nobel Prize (which is never awarded posthumously).

From Quiz I Am Not Insane

Answer: Washing hands

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) was a Hungarian doctor was an early adopter of antiseptic principles. His work at the Vienna General Hospital identified unexplained differences in mortality of women after childbirth in the two clinics at the hospital. One of the clinics had a mortality rate of 10%, and women begged to be allowed to go to the second, where mortality was less than half that rate, or even give birth in the street. Semmelweis methodically looked at any factors that might account for the difference. The methods and practices all seemed the same - the only difference was the staff working at the two clinics. He concluded that the issues with the first clinic were due to medical students having conducted autopsies and then looking after maternity patients without having washed their hands. They must have "cadaverous particles" on their hands, which infected the mothers. Semmelweis brought in a regime where doctors washed their hands with chlorinated lime after autopsies, and brought the mortality rate down by 90%. Despite his results, the medical establishment were highly reluctant to believe his conclusions. Some doctors were offended that gentlemen would need to clean their hands, others believed "puerpal fever" was infectious and passed between the women. It was only later, when the germ theory of disease was clearly defined by Pasteur and others, that Semmelweis's contribution was fully appreciated.

From Quiz Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry

Answer: 1914

Theodore Richards (1868-1928) won for determining the accurate atomic weight of elements. In the days before electronic analysis, Richards was instrumental in discovering isotopes of elements, proving the same element can have different atomic weights. He was a professor at Harvard.

From Quiz It Doesn't Take a Rocket Scientist...

Answer: Bonny Schumaker

Bonny loved animals so much she was going to be a veterinarian, but her math grades got her a physics scholarship from California Polytechnic. Bonny joined NASA and created the LISA program (Laser Inferometer Space Antenna). This program helped NASA locate black holes by using lasers connected to three spaceships placed in a triangular pattern to send out "waves" to locate black holes and other phenomenon. After leaving NASA, Bonny used her plane to transport animals away from danger zones and relocate abandoned animals to new homes. Bonny became known as the rocket scientist who became an animal airliner.

From Quiz The Nerd Herd

Answer: Stephen Hawking

Theoretical physics involves predictions of physical events which we are, at least currently, unable to see or measure, such as a black hole. Stephen Hawking was a leading theoretical physicist and in many of his books tried to explain some of these fantastic ideas in layman's terms. Hawking had a progressive motor neuron disease, was almost completely paralyzed and communicated through a speech-generating device. He died in 2018 at the age of 76.

From Quiz The Miracle Of Mind

Answer: Faraday

Michael Faraday is quoted as saying, "Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it be consistent with the laws of nature." Born in 1791, Faraday was heavily influenced by Humphry Davy and made significant contributions to the theory of electromagnetism.

From Quiz Scientists and Their Discoveries

Answer: Law of gravitation

In 1677, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, i.e. gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets. This contained the beginnings of the laws of motion.

From Quiz Scientists are Human Too

Answer: Archimedes

Archimedes is often described as the greatest scientist and mathematician of all time. He discovered the principles of pulley systems, the principles of displacement and flotation; and calculated an accurate figure for Pi among many, many other achievements. Did he actually run naked through the streets or not? We will never know for sure.

From Quiz Scientists Who Changed the World

Answer: Archimedes

Archimedes (287-212 BC) was responsible for the science of hydrostatics, the study of displacement of bodies in water. He discovered the principles of static mechanics and pycnometry (the measurement of the volume or density of an object). Known as the 'father of integral calculus', Archimedes' reckonings were later used by, among others, Kepler, Fermat, Leibniz and Newton.

From Quiz Famous Scientific Pioneers

Answer: Aristotle

Although not primarily a mathematician, Aristotle also made contributions by systematising deductive logic.

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