Q 01/05

Which 1687 book by Isaac Newton set out the laws of motion and universal gravitation?

A) Opticks

B) De Motu Corporum

C) Principia Mathematica

D) Arithmetica Universalis

Answer · why

C) Principia Mathematica

Principia Mathematica reached print only because Edmond Halley paid for it himself. The Royal Society had approved the book but had no money left to p...

Q 02/05

With which German mathematician does Newton share credit for inventing calculus?

A) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

B) Carl Friedrich Gauss

C) Karl Weierstrass

D) Johannes Kepler

Answer · why

A) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz reached calculus independently. Newton's supporters accused him of plagiarism, yet the notation used today, dx and the integ...

Q 03/05

What government post did Isaac Newton hold from 1699 until his death in 1727?

A) Astronomer Royal

B) Lord Chancellor

C) Surveyor of the Navy

D) Master of the Mint

Answer · why

D) Master of the Mint

Master of the Mint could have been a comfortable reward for past work, but Newton treated it as a real job, overseeing the coinage and pursuing counte...

Q 04/05

Einstein's 1921 Nobel Prize was awarded specifically for which discovery?

A) Special relativity

B) The photoelectric effect

C) General relativity

D) Brownian motion

Answer · why

B) The photoelectric effect

The photoelectric effect was the only discovery the citation named. The committee found no 1921 nominee worthy, so the prize was held over and he rece...

Q 05/05

Where was Einstein working when he published his four groundbreaking papers of 1905?

A) The University of Zurich

B) The Swiss Patent Office in Bern

C) The Prussian Academy in Berlin

D) Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study

Answer · why

B) The Swiss Patent Office in Bern

The Swiss Patent Office in Bern took him on as a technical assistant because he could not find a teaching post. He wrote the four papers there in his ...