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Famous mathematicians

Total questions: 10

Worksheet time: 8mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

Invented much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, and made important discoveries in calculus, analysis, graph theory, physics, astronomy, and many other topics.

a)

Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)

b)

Leonhard Euler (1707 – 1783)

c)

Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662)

d)

Arthur Cayley (1821 – 1895)

2.

Was a French mathematician, lawyer, and advisor to Kings Henry III and IV of France. He made significant advances in Algebra, and first introduced the use of letters to represent variables.

a)

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736 – 1813)

b)

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)

c)

Fibonacci (1175 – 1250)

d)

François Viète (1540 – 1603)

3.

Was a Greek philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for proving Pythagoras’ Theorem, but made many other mathematical and scientific discoveries.

a)

Thales of Miletus (c. 624 – 546 BCE)

b)

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – 195 BCE)

c)

Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – 495 BCE)

d)

Heron of Alexandria (c. 10 – 70 CE)

4.

Was an Italian mathematician. He is best known for the number sequence named after him: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, …

a)

Leonardo Pisano, Fibonacci (1175 – 1250)

b)

Leonhard Euler (1707 – 1783)

c)

Johann Lambert (1728 – 1777)

d)

François Viète (1540 – 1603)

5.

Calculated the circumference of the Earth, measured the tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation, estimated the distance to the sun, and created some of the first maps of the world.

a)

Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – 495 BCE)

b)

Euclid of Alexandria (300 BCE)

c)

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – 195 BCE)

d)

Democritus (c. 460 – 370 BCE)

6.

Was a Greek mathematician and is often called the father of geometry. He book The Elements first introduced Euclidean geometry, defines its five axioms, and contains many important proofs in geometry and number theory – including that there are infinitely many prime numbers.

a)

Arhimede (c. 287 - 212 î.Hr.)

b)

Euclid of Alexandria (around 300 BCE)

c)

Aristotle (c. 384 – 322 BCE)

d)

Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – 495 BCE)

7.

He discovered many concepts of calculus and worked in geometry, analysis and mechanics.

While taking a bath, discovered a way to determine the volume of irregular objects using the amount of water they displaced when submerged. He was so excited by this discovery that he ran out on the street, still undressed, yelling “Eureka!” (Greek for “I have found it!”).

a)

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – 195 BCE)

b)

Fibonacci (1175 – 1250)

c)

Archimedes (c. 287 – 212 BCE)

d)

Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)

8.

Was arguably the greatest mathematician in history. According to legend, he corrected a mistake in his father‘s accounting at the age of 3, and found a way to quickly add up all integers from 1 to 100 at the age of 8.

a)

François Viète (1540 – 1603)

b)

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 – 1855)

c)

Fibonacci (1175 – 1250)

d)

Diophantus

9.

was a French mathematician and philosopher, and one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution. He is credited with the first use of superscripts for powers or exponents, and the cartesian coordinate system is named after him.

a)

René Descartes (1596 – 1650)

b)

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 – 1855)

c)

Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789 – 1857)

d)

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736 – 1813)

10.

Was an English physicist, mathematician, and astronomer, and one of the most influential scientists of all time. Was one of the inventors of calculus, built the first reflecting telescope, calculated the speed of sound, studied the motion of fluids, and developed a theory of colour based on how prisms split sunlight into a rainbow-coloured spectrum.

a)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 – 1716)

b)

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736 – 1813)

c)

Joseph Fourier (1768 – 1830)

d)

Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726)