Famous mathematicians quiz (50 questions)
Zero, algebra, calculus, codes and computers all began with someone curious about numbers. Match the mathematician to the discovery and the story.
About this quiz: the people, prizes and dates were checked against official and reference sources, and the stories are retold in makekite's own words with the help of AI. If you spot a mistake, please tell us on the contact page.
50 multiple-choice questions, with the answer explained after each one.
Answer each question, see why, and beat your best score.
All 50 questions and answers
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- Which Greek mathematician from Alexandria wrote the Elements, a textbook of geometry used for over two thousand years?
- Euclid
- Ptolemy
- Pythagoras
- Archimedes
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Euclid. The Elements is made of thirteen books and builds geometry up from a few simple starting rules.
- Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse, is credited with inventing a screw for lifting what?
- Ships
- Water
- Stones
- Grain only
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Water. He died during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. The word 'Eureka' is linked to a story about him discovering how to test a crown.
- Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using shadows at two places in Egypt. One was Alexandria. What was the other?
- Memphis
- Giza
- Syene (Aswan)
- Thebes
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Syene (Aswan). He worked in the great Library of Alexandria and made one of the first reasonable estimates of the size of the Earth.
- Aryabhata wrote the Aryabhatiya in India in the 5th century. What honour did India give his name in 1975?
- A national airline
- A new calendar
- Its first satellite
- Its first university
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Its first satellite. He was a mathematician and astronomer who worked at Kusumapura, near modern Patna.
- Brahmagupta, a 7th-century Indian mathematician, wrote down rules for working with what number?
- Zero
- Pi
- One million
- Negative infinity
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Zero. His book Brahmasphutasiddhanta set out how to add, subtract and multiply with zero and with negative numbers.
- Madhava of Sangamagrama founded the Kerala school of mathematics. What kind of series did he work out?
- Infinite series
- Fraction tables
- Magic squares
- Roman numerals
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Infinite series. His methods for expressing quantities such as pi as infinite series came centuries before similar work in Europe.
- Srinivasa Ramanujan grew up in Kumbakonam. To which Cambridge mathematician did he send his work in 1913?
- Isaac Newton
- G. H. Hardy
- Bertrand Russell
- Alan Turing
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G. H. Hardy. Hardy invited him to England, and Ramanujan became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
- When Hardy visited Ramanujan in hospital and said his taxi was number 1729, Ramanujan replied that it was special. Why?
- It is a prime number
- It is the largest known number
- It is a perfect square
- It is the smallest number that is the sum of two cubes in two different ways
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It is the smallest number that is the sum of two cubes in two different ways. 1729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³.
- India celebrates National Mathematics Day on 22 December. Whose birthday is it?
- Bhaskara II
- Srinivasa Ramanujan
- Brahmagupta
- Aryabhata
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Srinivasa Ramanujan. He was born in 1887 and died in 1920, having left thousands of results.
- Al-Khwarizmi, who worked in Baghdad's House of Wisdom, gave his name to which common word?
- Almanac
- Algorithm
- Alchemy
- Algebra
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Algorithm. The word 'algebra' comes from the title of one of his books, al-jabr.
- Omar Khayyam, from Persia, studied equations of what kind and also helped to reform a calendar?
- Circles only
- Cubic equations
- Trigonometric tables
- Linear equations only
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Cubic equations. He is remembered both as a mathematician and as a poet.
- Fibonacci, born in Pisa, wrote Liber Abaci in 1202 to help Europeans learn which number system?
- Egyptian numerals
- Binary
- Roman numerals
- The Hindu–Arabic numerals
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The Hindu–Arabic numerals. The numerals that we use today came from India through the Arab world.
- Which Swiss mathematician from Basel spent much of his life in Saint Petersburg and kept working after losing his sight?
- Gottfried Leibniz
- Leonhard Euler
- Carl Gauss
- Blaise Pascal
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Leonhard Euler. Euler wrote on almost every area of mathematics.
- A story says the young Carl Friedrich Gauss quickly found the sum of the numbers from 1 to 100 in class. What is the answer?
- 5000
- 5050
- 10100
- 5100
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5050. He noticed that 1+100, 2+99 and so on all make 101, and there are 50 pairs.
- Isaac Newton published his laws of motion in which famous book?
- Elements
- Almagest
- Origin of Species
- Principia
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Principia. He was born in Woolsthorpe and developed calculus.
- Which German mathematician, born in Leipzig, independently developed calculus alongside Newton?
- Pascal
- Euler
- Fermat
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The notation that we use for integrals today comes from Leibniz.
- Blaise Pascal built one of the first mechanical calculators as a teenager. What was it called?
- The Slide Rule
- The Pascaline
- The Astrolabe
- The Abacus
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The Pascaline. It was meant to help his father with tax calculations.
- Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, wrote notes on Charles Babbage's machine. What was it called?
- The Analytical Engine
- The Difference Engine only
- The Steam Loom
- The Telegraph
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The Analytical Engine. Her notes include what is often described as the first computer program.
- Emmy Noether, who worked at Göttingen, is known for a theorem linking symmetry to what?
- Triangle shapes
- Conservation laws in physics
- Statistics
- Prime numbers
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Conservation laws in physics. Noether's theorem is one of the most important results in modern physics.
- What pseudonym did the French mathematician Sophie Germain use when writing to Gauss?
- Monsieur Noir
- A. Square
- Lord Byron
- Monsieur Le Blanc
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Monsieur Le Blanc. She used a man's name because women were not welcome in mathematics.
- Maryam Mirzakhani, born in Tehran, won which prize in 2014?
- The Fields Medal
- The Turing Award
- The Nobel Prize in Physics
- The Pulitzer Prize
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The Fields Medal. She was the first woman to win the Fields Medal. She worked at Stanford University.
- Florence Nightingale is famous as a nurse, but she was also a pioneer of what?
- Radio
- Music theory
- Statistical charts
- Aeronautics
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Statistical charts. She used graphs, including a polar area diagram, to show how many soldiers died of preventable disease during the Crimean War.
- Alan Turing helped break which German cipher machine's codes at Bletchley Park?
- Lorenz only
- Enigma
- Colossus
- Purple
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Enigma. He also described the abstract Turing machine, a foundation of computer science.
- Katherine Johnson was a mathematician at NASA. Whose orbital flight did she help to check the calculations for?
- Buzz Aldrin's
- Yuri Gagarin's
- John Glenn's
- Neil Armstrong's
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John Glenn's. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Grace Hopper, a rear admiral in the US Navy, helped develop the first what for computers?
- Printer
- Compiler
- Keyboard
- Mouse
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Compiler. She also helped to develop COBOL.
- Terence Tao, born in Adelaide, won the Fields Medal in 2006. What was he known as when young?
- A circus performer
- A champion swimmer
- A child prodigy
- A concert pianist
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A child prodigy. He is one of Australia's best-known mathematicians.
- Manjul Bhargava won the Fields Medal in 2014. Where was he born?
- Sydney, Australia
- Hamilton, Canada
- Cambridge, England
- Mumbai, India
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Hamilton, Canada. He is of Indian descent and has taught at Princeton University.
- Shakuntala Devi, of India, was nicknamed what because of her speed at calculation?
- The human computer
- The living abacus
- The number queen
- The speed calculator
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The human computer. Her feats were recognised by the Guinness book of records.
- Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis founded which Indian institution for the study of statistics?
- The Reserve Bank
- The Planning Commission
- The Indian Statistical Institute
- The Indian Space Agency
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The Indian Statistical Institute. India celebrates National Statistics Day on 29 June, his birthday.
- Satyendra Nath Bose, born in Calcutta and later at Dhaka, gave his name to which family of particles?
- Leptons
- Quarks
- Bosons
- Neutrinos
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Bosons. He worked on the statistics that became known as Bose–Einstein statistics.
- Zu Chongzhi, a Chinese mathematician, calculated what number to seven decimal places over a thousand years before others?
- The golden ratio
- Pi (π)
- e
- The square root of 2
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Pi (π). He gave a value between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927.
- Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem in the 1990s. Which prize did he win in 2016?
- The Nobel Prize in Physics
- The Abel Prize
- The Fields Medal
- The Wolf Prize only
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The Abel Prize. Fermat had scribbled in a margin that he had a proof too big to fit.
- Paul Erdős, from Budapest, is famous for writing papers with an unusually large number of what?
- Awards
- Collaborators
- Pseudonyms
- Languages
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Collaborators. The 'Erdős number' counts how closely a mathematician is linked to him by joint papers.
- Sofya Kovalevskaya was the first woman to become a professor of mathematics in Northern Europe. Where?
- Stockholm
- Moscow
- Oslo
- Berlin
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Stockholm. She was born in Russia.
- Mary Somerville, a Scottish scientist, was nicknamed what?
- Countess of Numbers
- Queen of Science
- The Number Duchess
- Lady Newton
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Queen of Science. She wrote popular books explaining mathematics and astronomy.
- The Fields Medal is given every four years to mathematicians under what age?
- 50
- 30
- 40
- 60
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40. It is often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics.
- The Abel Prize for mathematics is named after a mathematician from which country?
- Sweden
- Norway
- Denmark
- Finland
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Norway. It honours Niels Henrik Abel.
- Liu Hui, a Chinese mathematician, wrote a commentary on which classic book of mathematics?
- The Almagest
- The Arithmetica
- The Elements
- The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art
Show answer
The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. He used polygons to estimate pi.
- Seki Takakazu is remembered as a pioneer of mathematics in which country?
- Korea
- Thailand
- Japan
- Vietnam
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Japan. He lived in the 17th century.
- Nalini Joshi is a professor of mathematics at which Australian university?
- University of Western Australia
- University of Sydney
- University of Adelaide
- University of Melbourne
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University of Sydney. She was born in Burma and is Australian.
- Pierre de Fermat wrote in a book margin that he had a wonderful proof for which problem?
- The Riemann hypothesis
- The Poincaré conjecture
- Fermat's Last Theorem
- The Four Colour Theorem
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Fermat's Last Theorem. It was finally proved by Andrew Wiles.
- Pingala, an ancient Indian scholar, studied poetry rhythms using a system that resembles which modern number system?
- Decimal only
- Roman
- Binary
- Base 60
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Binary. His work on the metres of poetry used short and long syllables much as binary uses 0 and 1.
- Bhaskara II, a 12th-century Indian mathematician, wrote a famous work whose name includes 'Siddhanta'. Which book includes the Lilavati?
- Siddhanta Shiromani
- Brahmasphutasiddhanta
- Surya Siddhanta
- Aryabhatiya
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Siddhanta Shiromani. Bhaskara II was one of the greatest mathematicians of medieval India.
- The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, copied by the scribe Ahmes, comes from which ancient civilisation?
- China
- Greece
- Rome
- Egypt
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Egypt. It contains arithmetic and geometry problems, such as dividing loaves between workers.
- The clay tablet Plimpton 322 comes from which ancient civilisation?
- Babylon
- Egypt
- Maya
- Greece
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Babylon. It lists number patterns related to right-angled triangles.
- Yang Hui, a Chinese mathematician of the 13th century, described a triangular arrangement of numbers that Europe later named after whom?
- Blaise Pascal
- Fibonacci
- Isaac Newton
- Leonhard Euler
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Blaise Pascal. The triangle was known in China centuries before Pascal.
- Which book of 1801 by Carl Friedrich Gauss is a landmark in number theory?
- Elements
- Almagest
- Disquisitiones Arithmeticae
- Principia
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Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. Gauss was born in Brunswick, Germany.
- Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer, is credited with beginning which branch of mathematics for measuring triangles?
- Calculus
- Probability
- Algebra
- Trigonometry
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Trigonometry. He made a table of chords to help with astronomy.
- Archimedes also worked on estimating which famous number by using polygons?
- Zero
- The golden ratio
- e
- Pi
Show answer
Pi. He placed it between two close fractions.
- Which mathematician is often called the 'father of geometry' for his book of thirteen volumes?
- Pythagoras
- Eudoxus
- Euclid
- Thales
Show answer
Euclid. The Elements was a standard textbook for about two thousand years.