HISTORY: World War I
What world superpower didn't get involved in World War I until near the end of the war?
The United States!
This mathematician who lived from 570-495 BCE was critical to our understanding of triangle geometry, specifically that of right triangles. In fact, we still hear his name today in a popular Geometry formula to find the side lengths of right triangles...
Pythagoras
President Woodrow Wilson hoped that World War I would be "the war to end ___ ____" (two words)
"the war to end all wars"! The war was so terrible that he (and many others) believed that no one would ever fight a war again.
This mathematician (1777-1855) is responsible for our understanding of errors in collected data and invented what is now known as the "bell-curve". In mathematics, his name is still buried in the technical term for this "bell-curve" distribution.
Carl Gauss.
Name two of the three pieces of technology introduced in World War I that forever changed the way that wars were fought. (Hint: Doesn't include airplanes)
Machine Guns, Poison Gas, Tanks
This mathematician (1707-1783) was responsible for the derivation of the "e" mathematical constant that is critical to the concept of exponential growth. Ironically, his last name also started with the letter "e"...
Leonhard Euler.
In the span of six months, over 1 million British soldiers died in a trench warfare battle that would become a symbol for the futility of World War I. What was the name of this battle?
The Battle of the Somme.
This mathematician invented the concept of the decimal system.
Archimedes
Germany was punished heavily by the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. What was the major long term consequence of this punishment in terms of future conflict?
These punishments were a direct cause of World War II! Adolf Hitler came to power with the promise of making the Allies pay for punishing Germany so severely. Without the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler's extremist ideologies would likely have never become popular...
This mathematician was responsible for the theory of relativity.
Albert Einstein