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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Ramanujan's Spring.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the significance of Erode in Ramanujan's family?
(a) Ramanujan's hometown.
(b) Where Ramanujan was buried.
(c) Ramanujan's mother's ancestral home.
(d) Where Ramanujan went to school.

2. How does Kanigel describe the trip to England?
(a) Perilous.
(b) Petrifying.
(c) Arduous.
(d) Sublimely beautiful.

3. What did Ramanujan practice as part of his religion?
(a) Animal sacrifice.
(b) Community service.
(c) A year as a monk.
(d) Vegetarianism.

4. What did the divergent series 1+2+3+4+5... add up to in Ramanujan's notebooks?
(a) Infinity.
(b) 7.
(c) -1/12.
(d) 39.

5. In his letter to Hardy, what was the importance of the thing Ramanujan claimed to have discovered?
(a) It was already common knowledge.
(b) It had been a mystery for years.
(c) It was just being discovered simultaneously at other math departments.
(d) No one under thirty had even tried it.

Short Answer Questions

1. What practice does Kanigel say Ramanujan had difficulty adjusting to in England?

2. How long did the trip from India to England take?

3. What does Kanigel say people appreciated about Hardy?

4. What did Ramanujan's parents do in response to their impatience?

5. Who were the Senior Wranglers?

(see the answer key)

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