History of Math: Exam Two

The French diver Jaques Cousteau found a trove of coins at the Antikythera site in 1976.Where were they struck?

Rome

The Antikythera machine is the world’s first what?

Computer

What dates were given to the amphorae pottery jars?

65-50 BC

Radiographs revealed how many gears in the device?

27

The number 235 was crucial to computing the cycles of which object?

the moon

How much did the x-ray machine weigh that would be used to image the Antikythera device?

8 tons

How many gears were probably in the original?

50 or 60

Newly revealed inscriptions led to the confirmation of what number of teeth on the back wheel?

223

Based on Babylonian observations, what was the function of the big wheel on the back of the device?

Forecasting eclipses

Not only was the device able to predict when the eclipses would occur, but what else about them?

The hour they would happen, what direction the shadow would cross, and the color

The variable motion of the pin and slot plots what exactly?

The variable motion of the moon

Which gear did the 53 tooth gear turn?

The large 223 gear

Who do they conjecture designed the Antikythera mechanism?

Archimedes

Which famous Roman orator seems to describe the device as being in possession of Marcellus’ grandson?

Cicero

Greek ideas may have influenced Islamic scientists as they devised what observing instrument?

Astrolabes

Who wrote the book in which the “flat earth woodcut” first appeared and when was it published?

Camille Flammarion in 1888

What constellation of the night sky can be used to tell time in the northern hemisphere?

The Big Dipper

The change in the number of stars which are circumpolar proves what kind of curvature for the earth?

Curved from north to south

What kind of curvature is proved by simultaneous events occurring at different hours in local time in different places on earth?

East to west curvature

Both Plato and Aristotle agreed with Pythagoras that the earth was of what shape?

Sphere

Which sixth century Greek writer thought the universe was a huge rectangular vault above a flat earth laying on its floor?

Cosmas Indicopleustes

Which Catholic Church father believed that the earth was spherical, but that there was an inhabitable zone along the equator that you could not cross?

Augustine

Who assumed that the earth was round when he wrote “Sciences are distinguished by the different methods they use”?

Aquinas

Where did Dante place the center of the earth?

Satan’s belly button

What western feudal symbol proclaimed the divine right of king to rule Christendom?

Globe with a cross on the top

What kind of thought experiments did Nicole Oresme delight in proposing?

Paradoxes

What belief about the western hemisphere caused Columbus to have difficulty finding support for his voyage?

It was just a giant ocean

Who estimated the circumference of the earth before 200 BC?

Eratosthenes

Which early American writer fooled a lot of readers with his life of Christopher Colombus?

Washington Irvine

Which president of Cornell was a proponent of the myth that the medieval people believed that the earth was flat?

Andrew Dickson White

Where did the science of mathematical astronomy begin 4000 years ago?

Mesopotamia

Seneca reported that Mesopotamian scribes visited Athens to offer sacrifices after who’s death?

Plato

Many of which objects of the night sky have Sumerian origins?

Constellations

What did the Babylonians realize about the evening and morning stars?

They were the same star

Around 1700 BC, what did Babylonian scribes realize about the motions of Venus?

It repeats on an 8 year cycle

What Babylonian tablet contains Pythagorean triples?

Plimpton 322

What was the most important incentive to develop mathematical astronomy?

Atrology

Why did the scribes of Enuma Anu Enlil record a wide variety of astronomical phenomena?

To look for omens

On average, how quickly does the moon travel per day along the ecliptic?

10 degrees

In the late 8th century BC, what did the scribes of Babylon make a special effort to record down to the 1st century BC?

Lunar eclipes

Which tablets around 650 BC contain the names of stars and constellations as well as a star calander?

Mul Apin

How many days are the Babylonian lunar and solar calendars out of sync?

11 days

Which tablets record the motions of planets in the past?

Goal year text

The scribes of Enuma Anu Enlil continued to make diaries of astronomical events well into which century BC?

First

In which era did Babylonian astronomy become fully mathematical, no longer dependent on constant empirical input?

Seleukid

The Babylonians captured the non-uniform motion of planets by applying a technique of arithmetical progression which we now call…?

Zig-zag function