Short Answer Exam Questions

Short answer questions reveal what the student knows and are easy to grade objectively.
  1. What is the golden section?
  2. State one of Zeno's paradoxes.
  3. Explain the duplication problem to a non-mathematician.
  4. What motivated the invention of the conics? Extra credit for giving the main dissenting view.
  5. What is a "double mean proportion" and why is it important?
  6. Why are the Arabs important to the history of mathematics?
  7. Why is the term "quadratic" equation used? Doesn't "quad" mean 4?
  8. State two of Kepler's laws.
  9. What is a subtangent?
  10. State Cavalieri's Principle.
  11. Distinguish between Johann and Jakob Bernoulli by mentioning some things about them and what they did.
  12. What is a fluxion?
  13. If you were introducing analytic geometry in a class, what would you say about who, when, and why it was invented?