COMPREHENSION TEST/HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT ON
THE MOVEMENT OF IDEAS ACROSS SPACE AND TIME
Unless the answer consists of only one term, it must be in complete
sentences. Use proper English grammar and spelling. Penmanship, grammar,
and spelling will count in your grade.
1. What is the great advantage of place-value numbers?
2. Describe in your own words the concept of place-value numbers. After giving
your description, demonstrate it by describing what the numerals 5 and 8 mean
in the number 545,680.
3. Why was it so hard for people to come up with the concept of nothing as a
number? When did the concept of the zero come to Europe?
4. Name the first two civilizations that used both the concept of zero as a
number in computation and place-value numbers. Give the approximate dates of
the development.
5. Name two advanced civilizations in Europe that flourished after the concept
of place-value numbers was created in Babylon but which did not know this
concept.
6. Describe the movement of the concept of zero and place-value numbers to
the Americas after the Mayan civilization declined.
7. Name four advanced characteristics of culture developed by the Maya.
8. Trace the movement of the insult of giving someone "the finger" from the
earliest evidence that it was used to 20th century United States.
9. Extra Credit: Explain how Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician,
found the area of a circle and how that relates to calculus. Draw diagrams if it
would help in your explanation. (The answer to this question counts for two
points.)
Comprehension Test/Homework on Movement of Ideas and a Taste of Calculus
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