Some Mathematics History Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Mathematician's Apology

'My Life as a Mathematician' is a name I made up.

'Elements' was written by Euclid.

'Disquisitiones Arithmeticae' was written by Gauss.

'A Mathematician's Apology' is a famous work dating from 1940.

Answer: Gauss

Gauss proposed the very famous theorem as a conjecture, but it was proven later. It is a very powerful theorem as it approximates the Riemann Zeta Function for primes. Riemann's Hypothesis is closely connected to Gauss's Theorem.

Answer: Fibonacci

This is one of the most powerful sequences. The nth term is found by adding the two previous terms. The number of applications of this sequence is majestic. A periodical named The 'Fibonacci Quarterly' began publishing in 1963 and is still ongoing in the twenty-first century. Still not all properties of this deceivingly simple sequence have been found!

Answer: Euler

This is another powerful equation - so powerful that it completely revolutionalized mathematics after Euler's discovery of it in the 1700s. The concept of the imaginary number and its relationship with sinusoidal functions still amazes many!

Answer: Hilbert

Several problems were posed by David Hilbert. Solving any one of the 23 would immortalize your name although most have now been solved.

For the geniuses doing this boring quiz: Give a go at number 8. You might find it a tad challenging! Search for his problem list on some search engine!

Answer: Ramanujan

Check this out:
How many ways can you partition 1 stone? 1 way, obviously!
How many ways can you partition 2 stones? 2 ways ((1,1),(2)).
How many ways can you partition 3 stones? You do the permutations.

Try finding out a formula for the nth term of the sequence. Just try, if you get it, you are Ramanujan's equal. Now that is a huge deal!

Answer: Gottingen

Bernhard Riemann was a student at Gottingen University which was, at one time, the hub for mathematical activity. It is still around (in Germany), although Princeton is considered to have taken its place as the world leader in mathematics.

Incidentally, Gottingen once boasted a great faculty: Gauss, Hilbert, Landau, and many others were part of the Gottingen tradition!

Answer: Riemann's Hypothesis

It has to be Riemann's Hypothesis.

While interest is there for Goldbach's Conjecture and the Twin Prime Problem, these are mere trifles when compared to the giant problem first proposed by Bernhard Riemann. Fermat's Last Theorem once received a large amount of international attention, but it was solved by Wiles.

Despite Hardy's continual efforts to solve the problem, Riemann's initial work, Ramanujan's raw genius, Selberg's persistence, the list goes on and on and no one has solved Riemann's Hypothesis (at the time of writing this quiz).

Go ahead and give this beautiful theorem a try but, beware, you need a high level of mathematical understanding to even get the gist of the problem's significance and implications.

Answer: Wiles

Wiles solved it in 1995, coming up with the proof centuries after Fermat's proud claim: "I have the most magnificent proof to this theorem, but this margin is too small to contain it!".

But Wiles had a lot of help from previous mathematicians ranging from Gauss to Taniyama (and Shimura) and others. Great problem indeed. Like several other greats, it is easily worded, but not so easily solved.

Answer: Goldbach

Once again, a very simple problem to state and understand. Solving it is another matter, though.