The Death of a Mathematician Trivia Quiz

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.

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.

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.

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!"

Answer: Neils Abel

Due to his poverty, Abel was forced to travel by sled when he wanted to visit his fiancee (See? Another Mathematician who found a love interest!). On one of those trips, he took sick and died soon after. If the job had only come a few weeks earlier...

Answer: G. H. Hardy

The avowed atheist claimed (likely jokingly) that no just God could possibly permit him to be killed with the false prestige of having solved the famous problem (which is still today unsolved).

Answer: Hypatia

The mob, which according to some stories was led by monks, assaulted her in the street and sliced off her skin with shards of broken tile. Ouch!

Answer: Alan Turing

It is believed that the apple was a successful try at suicide, orchestrated carefully so that his mother could still live out her days believing he died in a chemistry accident.
Turing's life was made miserable during his last years due to his public declaration of his homosexuality, which at that time was considered not only immoral but a crime.

Answer: Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat Condorcet

Condorcet was the first to consider and attempt to overcome the paradox (now named after him) that a group of 3 voters, voting by majority rule, can prefer A to B, B to C, and C to A simultaneously. It is unknown whether his death came from murder, suicide, or natural causes.

Answer: John Von Neumann

Among his many other achievements, Von Neumann helped in the theory and design of the first computers, advocating the adoption of the bit as a standard for measuring memory. Although it is unknown whether the radiation from the nuclear bombs caused his cancer, it certainly made it more likely.