Mathematician Maze
by Marcia Fogi Snyder
Menlo Park, California Mathematics Teacher
May 1977



Unscramble these names with the aid of the clues provided and then locate them in the mathematician maze below.   Look horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

1. CDEILU – father of geometry

2. SEDSETRAC – Frenchman who merged algebra and geometry into analytic geometry

3. AAGHOPRSTY – author of right triangle theorem: a2 + b2 = c2

4. AGSSU – prince of mathematicians

5. LACSAP – a magic triangle based on the coefficients of the terms in a binomial expansion is named after him

6. BFFIKROH – modern mathematician who worked in many areas, including dynamical systems, the four-color problem, and number theory

7. EEHNORT – woman who developed the theory of rings

8. LERUE – a slick fellow who extended the calculus and gave us the Greek symbol for pi.

9. ENNOTW – cofounder of the calculus along with #10

10. BEIILNZ – cofounder of the calculus along with #9

11. AKNT – wrote Critique of Pure Reason

12. DDDEEIKN – developed a theorem concerning the irrational numbers and their place in the real number system

13. ROCANT – developed the theory of sets

14. BELOO – logician who defined new binary operations for algebra

15. ACEINOPR – demonstrated the relationship between geometry and the physical world

16. AENNNUM – founder of the theory of games and the designer of electronic high-speed computers

17. LLIEOAG – was concerned with gravity and falling objects

18. BCCIIAFON – brought about the adoption of Arabic numerals; wrote Liber Abaci

19. DEEIMORV – interested in probability and imaginary quantities; developed the formula (cos x + I sin x)n = cos nx + I sin nx

20. SUNATHPIOD – toyed with linear equations with integral roots only

21. EIPNAR – developed rule of circular parts for spherical trigonometry; invented logarithms

22. MIESARCDHE – estimated pi by inscribing regular polygons in a circle

23- 25. Three scientists who definitely needed math in their research:
      23. PYTMELO
      24. TLPOA
      25. EERPKL

26. TTSHEEESARON – developed sieve to find prime numbers

27. RREUD – inventor of a mechanical means of drawing objects in perspective

28. BEISUMO – constructed a topological surface with only one side

29. TAEMRE -- differentiated simple algebraic functions to find their maxima and minima

30. STINEEIN – credited with E = mc2

31. SSKHNA – calculated pi to 707 decimal places in late 1800s

32. LLRROAC – pseudonym of Charles Dodgson, a mathematician who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

33. EOZN – a Greek whose mose famous paradox deals with the race between Achilles and the tortoise

34. GLDBCHAO – conjectured that every even number is the sum of two primes (e.g., 8 = 5 + 3, 24 = 19 + 5)

35. AAITYHP – an early woman astronomer and mathematician who met with a brutal death






Send any comments or questions to: David Pleacher