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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Hardy and Neville nominate Ramanujan to become?
(a) A fellow at Trinity College.
(b) A graduate student at Trinity.
(c) A dean at Oriel College.
(d) A teacher at King's College.

2. Who met Ramanujan in England?
(a) Neville.
(b) Euler.
(c) John Littlewood.
(d) Hardy.

3. What cultural practice did Ramanujan insist on, in Kanigel's account?
(a) Vegetarianism.
(b) Visiting Hindu shrines.
(c) Daily prayers.
(d) Animal sacrifice.

4. How does Kanigel describe Ramanujan's relationship with his wife?
(a) Friendly.
(b) Hostile.
(c) Intimate.
(d) Almost non-existent.

5. What did Hardy decide after conferring with John Littlewood?
(a) That Ramanujan was dangerous.
(b) That Ramanujan was a genius.
(c) That Ramanujan was unstable.
(d) That Ramanujan was a small thinker.

6. What did Ramanujan and Hardy develop for working with partitions?
(a) A precise method for determining partitions for prime numbers.
(b) The circle method.
(c) A refinement of Euler's suggestion.
(d) Nested square roots.

7. What was it that offended Ramanujan when he invited some friends to dinner?
(a) The men used salt.
(b) The friends criticized his cooking.
(c) The women declined a third helping.
(d) The friends wanted to use silverware.

8. How does Kanigel characterize Ramanujan's theorems and formulas?
(a) Odd by English standards.
(b) Almost incomprehensible.
(c) Universally recognizable.
(d) Immaculate.

9. How did Ramanujan see himself socially, according to Kanigel?
(a) As a celebrity.
(b) As a mathematician.
(c) As a citizen.
(d) As a Brahmin.

10. Where did Ramanujan move to?
(a) Bristol.
(b) Cambridge.
(c) Oxford.
(d) London.

11. When did Ramanujan die?
(a) 1923.
(b) 1939.
(c) 1947.
(d) 1920.

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

13. How long did the trip from India to England take?
(a) Six weeks.
(b) Two months.
(c) Three weeks.
(d) A month.

14. What was proved incorrect in Ramanujan's work from this time?
(a) His conclusions.
(b) His theorems.
(c) His proofs.
(d) His assumptions.

15. How much of Ramanujan's work did Hardy believe was sound and original?
(a) Half to three quarters.
(b) One to two thirds.
(c) Almost all of it.
(d) Five to ten percent.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the divergent series 1+2+3+4+5... add up to in Ramanujan's notebooks?

2. Who learned of Ramanujan's arrival by the newspapers?

3. What was Ramanujan's intention when he returned home?

4. In his letter to Hardy, what did Ramanujan say he had discovered?

5. What did Ramanujan's Master Theorem attempt to do?

(see the answer keys)

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