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Famous Mathematicians
Part 1
Directions: Answer the following questions about seven different mathematicians.
1. Where did Rene Descartes spend most of his life?
2. What was Descartes’ famous declaration?
3. What kind of philosopher is Descartes regarded as?
4. What were Descartes’ contributions to mathematics?
5. Why do you think the Pope prohibited Descartes’ books (think about the time period that Descartes lived in)?
6. What were the famous awards that Albert Einstein earned?
7. Describe Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
8. What did Einstein contribute to mathematics?
9. From which two countries did Einstein acquire citizenship?
10. Why do you think Einstein immigrated to the United States?
11. What is Archimedes most famous for?
12. What was his job under King Hiero II?
13. What did Archimedes use to measure the area of a circle that was similar to calculus?
14. What formulas did Archimedes create that we still use?
15. How did Archimedes die?
16. What did Pythagoras associate numbers with?
17. Who used a form of the Pythagorean Theorem before Pythagoras?
18. Which mathematician helped prove the Pythagorean Theorem?
19. What did Pythagoras found in 529 BC?
20. What happened to Pythagoras’s followers?
21. What is Isaac Newton known for?
22. Where did Newton go to college?
23. Which mathematician/philosopher study?
24. What did Newton study on his own?
25. What was Newton’s book, The Principia, about?
26. Alan Turing was the father of what modern advance?
27. Where did Turing earn his PhD from, and what was it in?
28. Why did Turing receive the Order of the British Empire?
29. When did Turing die?
30. What was his cause of death?
31. What did Gottfried Leibniz master without help?
32. At what age did Leibniz enter university?
33. What was one of Leibniz’s earliest inventions?
34. Which math is Leibniz credited with developing?
35. How old was Leibniz when he died?