GEN ED LET MATH

HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS

• In 1988, Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995) invented a method of beating a different rhythm with each
arm–created a new composition by identifying each note in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with a number,
and then playing the square root of each note.

• The symbol for infinity (∞) was used by the Romans to represent 1000.

• All palindromes with even number of digits are divisible by 11.

• The earliest evidence of a numerical recording device is a section of a fibula of a baboon, with 29
visible notches, dated to about 35000 BC, from a cave in the Lebombo mountains on the borders of
Swaziland in Southern Africa.

• The number 365 is equal to the sum of three consecutive squares and two consecutive squares in
which the five squares are also consecutive.

• 365 = 102 + 112 + 122 = 132 + 142

• 169 is equal to 132 and its reverse 961 is equal to 312.

• 206156734 = 26824404 + 153656394 + 187967604. This is an integer solution for the equation w4 = x4
+ y4 + z4 found by Noam Elkies.

• A tablet from Susa, dating from the period 1900-1650 BC, uses the Pythagorean theorem to find the
circumradius of a triangle whose sides are 50, 50, 60. Pythagoras himself lived in the sixth century BC.

• Perfect squares are the only numbers with an odd number of divisors.

• Saint Hubert is the patron saint of mathematicians.

• When the English mathematician Augustus de Morgan was asked for his age, he would reply, “I was x
years of age in the year x²” (He was 43 in 1849)

• Newton’s annotated copy of Barrow’s Euclid was sold at auction in 1920 for five shillings. Shortly
thereafter, it appeared in a dealer’s catalog marked as £500.

• The Chinese were the first who used negative numbers around 2200 years ago or maybe even earlier.

• Cardan (1501-1576) described negative numbers as “fictions” and their square roots as “sophistic”, and
a complex root of a quadratic, which he had calculated, as being “as subtle that it is useless”.

• In chess, there are 4897256 total possible positions after 5 moves by both players.

• The probability that the thirteenth day of the month being Friday is the highest
• Richard Recorde is credited with inventing the equal sign (=) in 1557.

• People back then believe that the number of grains of sand is limitless. However, Archimedes argued in
The Sand Reckoner that the number of grains of sand is not infinite. He then gave a method for
calculating the highest number of grains of sand that can fit into the universe, which was approximately
1063 grains of sand in his calculation.

• G. H. Hardy doesn’t like mirrors. He even covered the mirrors in any hotel rooms that he entered.

• Some mathematical celebrations: March 14 – Pi Day; June 28 – Tau Day; October 10 – Metric Day.

• The symbol for division (÷) is called obelus.

• On the other hand, the division slash (/) is called virgule.

• Negative numbers don’t have logarithms.

• The Babylonian mile is approximately equal to 11.3 km (about 7 miles).

• In which civilization dot patterns were first employed to represent numbers? Chinese

• The ancient Babylonians had their number system based on?

Answer: 60

• In which ancient civilization, numbers were for the first time represented by words? Indian

• In which ancient civilization, odd and even numbers were divided into two sets, the odd ones denoted
as males and the even females?

Chinese

• Among the numbers – Fibonacci, Kaprekar, Mersenne and Figurate numbers which one is ancient in
origin?

Figurate number

• Eudemus wrote an elaborate history of Greek geometry from its earliest origins

• Zephirum, lziphra, Cenero and Sifr are different names of Zero.

• Which ancient book contains 64 Hexagrams?

The book of changes

• Which mathematician prepared the trigonometric tables seen in a modern textbook? Claudius Ptolemy

• Ahmose wrote one of the oldest documents on mathematics, Rhind Papyrus’

• Pythagorean ancient school odd thought believed that the universe is primarily made of numbers

• Russell Maloney‘s story book gives an idea about statistics. Name this book. Inflexible logic

• Who is the author of geometry oriented science fiction Flatland?

Edwin A. Abbot

• “The world can be made intelligent in terms of right angles” This statement was made in a world
famous classic of Plato. Which is that classic? The Timaeus

• Who is the author of this book “The Law”?

Robert M. Coates

• “The senses delight in things duly proportional” who made this statement relating beauty to
mathematics? Thomas Aquinas

• Who said “music is the pleasure of the human soul experiences from counting without being aware
that it is counting”? G. W. Leibniz

• Who forwarded in his books this motto “The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers”? Richard
W. Hamming.

• An artist as well as mathematician, he wrote a book on geometrical and perspective meant for artists.
Who was he? Albrecht Durer

• Who said “the power is not in the hands of the few but information in the hands of the many”? John
Naisbitt