In what year did Isaac Newton begin his intensely productive period of mathematical work while avoiding a plague outbreak?

Math

Which mathematician developed the foundational concepts of calculus while isolated at his family home during a 1665 plague outbreak?

Isaac Newton invented calculus while hiding from plague in 1665, producing more mathematics in 18 months than most mathematicians in a lifetime.

Math

Which mathematical expression did Gottfried Leibniz once describe as 'almost an amphibian between being and non-being'?

Leibniz believed √−1 was a mystical glimpse of God, declaring it 'a beautiful monument of the human spirit' and 'almost an amphibian between being and non-being.'

Math

William Jones, who introduced the π symbol in 1706, hailed from which part of the British Isles?

The symbol π wasn't widely adopted until 1706, when William Jones used it—it only became standard after Euler championed it decades later.

Math

Which long-unsolved number theory conjecture did Sophie Germain advance a major case of while writing under the pseudonym 'Monsieur LeBlanc'?

Sophie Germain proved a major case of Fermat's Last Theorem using a fake male identity, but Gauss accidentally revealed he knew her real identity.

Math

In what year did Emmy Noether publish the theorem linking symmetries to conservation laws in physics?

Emmy Noether's groundbreaking symmetry theorem in physics was so abstract that even Einstein struggled to explain its importance to colleagues.

Math

In the Monty Hall problem, switching your choice after a door is revealed raises your odds of winning to approximately what percentage?

The Monty Hall Problem stumped mathematicians for years: switching doors after one opens increases your win odds from 33% to 67%, yet most people's brains reject this.