Loaded Questions 1/12/23 - Math
How do you like them apples?
Hey everyone, and happy Thursday! Today I’m traveling to Cambridge, Mass to attend the 2023 MIT Mystery Hunt in person, for the first time in three years!! Ultra excited to solve some puzzles this weekend. Since I’m heading to MIT, it only seems right to have a math installment today. Enjoy to the best of your ability, and I hope you have a fun weekend ahead as well!
1. If a distribution has the mean ƛ, what is the standard deviation of the Poisson distribution?
2. What type of number (symbolized A) is any complex number that is a root of a non-zero polynomial in one variable with rational coefficients?
3. Seen in larger dimensional shapes, 0=vertex, 1=edge, 2=face, 3=what?
4. Posed by Johann Bernoulli in 1696, what name is given to the curve of fastest descent? There's a gif online explaining this, feel free to check it out afterwards.
5. Euler's constant, or the Euler-Mascheroni constant, is about 0.57721..., defined as the difference between the natural logarithm and what series?
6. A probability problem in decision theory is named after what fairy tale character, who has been disturbed either once or twice according to a coin toss?
7. The Fourier transform/series changes the ___-domain signal into a ___-domain signal. What two words fill these blanks?
8. When debugging computers, a grid of hexadecimal numbers can be displayed which is usually called a "hex" what?
9. In topology, what two-dimensional surface in 3-space that is one-sided and the continuous image of a Mobius strip that intersects itself on an interval?
10. In the "P vs NP" problem, the P stands for "polynomial" and the N stands for what adjective?
11. Simpson's rule and the trapezoid rule are examples of a form of integration estimation named for what German mathematician?
ANSWERS BELOW
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ANSWERS
1. If a distribution has the mean ƛ, what is the standard deviation of the Poisson distribution?
Square root of ƛ
2. What type of number (symbolized A) is any complex number that is a root of a non-zero polynomial in one variable with rational coefficients?
Algebraic number
3. Seen in larger dimensional shapes, 0=vertex, 1=edge, 2=face, 3=what?
Cell
4. Posed by Johann Bernoulli in 1696, what name is given to the curve of fastest descent? There's a gif online explaining this, feel free to check it out afterwards.
Brachistochrone curve
5. Euler's constant, or the Euler-Mascheroni constant, is about 0.57721..., defined as the difference between the natural logarithm and what series?
Harmonic series
6. A probability problem in decision theory is named after what fairy tale character, who has been disturbed either once or twice according to a coin toss?
Sleeping Beauty
7. The Fourier transform/series changes the ___-domain signal into a ___-domain signal. What two words fill these blanks?
Time, frequency
8. When debugging computers, a grid of hexadecimal numbers can be displayed which is usually called a "hex" what?
Dump
9. In topology, what two-dimensional surface in 3-space that is one-sided and the continuous image of a Mobius strip that intersects itself on an interval?
Cross-cap
10. In the "P vs NP" problem, the P stands for "polynomial" and the N stands for what adjective?
Nondeterministic
11. Simpson's rule and the trapezoid rule are examples of a form of integration estimation named for what German mathematician?
Bernhard Riemann