Date: _ Tessellating Emus

MATH INTERNET SCAVENGER HUNT

~ For each question, write a brief answer and copy the website you found it on. Thebolded words give you some key words. Most questions are worth two marks. The names atthe end are worth one mark each. * Indicates questions that are quite challenging to findand are-worth 3 marks. The object of this scavenger hunt is to find as many as you can,not to answer every question. You will receive a mark based on how much you completeand attempt. You may wish to explore University of St. Andrew's Math History website(from Scotland) at http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/ ~ history I.

1. \\'hat is Ahmes Papyrus and why is it famous? Who owns it currently?

2. *What mathematician, responsible for the first mathematical textbooks with questionsand answers, is considered the creator of the modern alphabet?

3. \\'hat is the Witch of Agnesi? You may wish to give a diagram to help your answer.

4. \'</hat is al-jabr and who is credited with the introduction of this word?

5. Why are the Alexandrians important in the development of mathematics?

6. What is Archimedes' constant?

7. What does the phrase squaring the circle mean?

8. What Hindu author is credited with developing of the decimal system (base ten)?

9. The Babylonians used base 60 in their number system. Give one example in real lifewhere base 60 might be useful.

10. Find one person (alive or dead) who was born on Franciscus Barocius' birthday.

11. *Which mathematician/scientist was a member of the 1908 Danish Olympic soccerteam?

12. When did Donald Coxeter die? Where did he work in the few years before his death?

13. You may know Da Vinci as Cl famous artist, but his main love, according to his ownwords, was geometry. Indicate one of his discoveries

14. What is the Descartes Math Contest and when will it be written this year?

15. Find a picture of Descartes (the guy with the perpetual bad h.iirl).

16. * Explain brietly the difference between Cartesian geometry and Euclideangeometry.

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Tessellating Lrnus Date: _

17. * \Vhose: f,unous conjecture: is paraphrased as, "space, time, and matter"?

lR. * In which century was the modern = sign adopted?

19. \\'h<lt does the Sieve of Erathosthenes drain out?

20. *\\'hat is the connection between mathematician Paul Erdos .md baseball player HankAaron?

21. \\oat is Eudoxes' formula for circumference of a circle?

22. *\',;hich mathematician's collected works are by far the largest?

23. Who solved Fermat's Last Theorem and how long did it take to solve?

24. State the first fifteen terms of Fibonacci's sequence.

25. What is the relationship between a tetrahedron and a Fuller (geodesic) dome?

26. \'\l1at was Gauss's first mathematical discovery?

27. *Since you love your textbooks, dunk Daniel Hecht who developed the earliest ones.What were the subjects in?

28. Caroline Heschel's mom denied her an education, so that Caroline could take care ofher brothers. She was successful in math, anyway! For what is she famous?

29. *\\'ho said, "One must be able to say at all times, instead of points, lines andplanes - tables, chairs, and beer mugs"?

30. \X'hich famous female mathematician was brutally murdered by a Christian sect?

31. \\110 said, "God ever arithmetizes"?

32. Find a ]ulia fractal. Isn't she beautiful?

33. Find ,\ snowflake with an infinite perimeter, yet would fit in your shirt pocket. Hint:think of a type of fractal. '

3~L \'\110 said, "God made integers - all the rest is the work of man"? (Let's hope hemeant hurnansl)

35. \'Vl1ich famous American mathematician had artificial hands?

%. Mahavira wrote in detail about the idea of zero. \X/hat special characteristic did he sharewith Paul ~rcCartney (and i\Is. Ziniuk and Lisa Simpson, for that matter!)?

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Date: _ Tessellating Emus

37. *\'\/ho is responsible for the atlas? Hint: his work was primarily linking mathematics, and geography (especially, map making).

38. What are the three symbols for 1,2, and 3 in me Mayan number system?

39. \y11en was the 35lh Mersenne prime found? How long is it?

40. \'(That country is responsible for the development of me Metric system?

41. Make a Mobius strip and attach it to your assignment.

42. How did Nicomachus link music and numbers?

43. \v110 is quoted as looking like, "a near-sighted washerwoman"?

44. *William Oughtred is most famous not for his mathematical discoveries, but ratherfor introducing two mathematical symbols. What are they?

45. State three discoveries/theorems named after Blaise Pascal.

46. Louis Poinsot established the patterns for the icosahedron and medodecahedron in 1809. Besides really long words, what are they?

·n. \Vhere was Pythagoras from?

48. *Adam Riese developed the signs -Y, +, and - as mathematicaloperations. What is me title of the work that introduced them?

49. Who invented the term cybernetics?

For one mark each, give the first name of the following mathematicians:D'Alernbert Hardy Lie

Atiyah Hilbert Milnor

Brouwer Klein Monge

Cauchy Kolmorogov Napier

Chebyshev Lagrange Newton

Donaldson Laplace Poincare

Faltings Legendre Riemann

Fibonacci Leibniz \Vedderbum

Fourier Leray

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