Loaded Questions 3/14/23 - Math
Is this adding up to you?
Happy π Day! Since 3/14 is the best time to do a math set, here are 11 questions all about math. Granted, many of these math questions might not come up in a trivia game near you, but I’ve seen some trivia formats where this doesn’t feel out of line. ↔
1. The golden ratio is equal to (1+x)/2. What value does x equal?
2. For 2893, 2+8+9+3=22, 2+2=4, so for 4 is what function for 2893?
3. Name the first five Catalan numbers.
4. What axiom, named for a Scottish mathematician, states that in a plane, given a line and point not on it, at most one line parallel to the given line can be drawn through the point, which essentially replaced Euclid's fifth postulate?
5. In a triangle, what type of line connects the centroid and the circumcenter?
6. The icosian game, a thought exercise of trying to find a path of visiting a dodecahedron's vertices just one, was created by what Irish mathematician/physicist who revised Lagrangian mechanics, and also developed tensors and quaternions?
7. A function that is equal to 0 at all values except for x=0, where it equals infinity is named for what Greek letter?
8. Wiktionary defines what calculus concept as “A formula for computing the derivative of the functional composition of two or more functions”? I assure you any AP Calc student knows what this is (high school was a long time ago, huh?)
9. What type of vehicle names the branch of non-Euclidian geometry where distances between two points are measured using the sum of their absolute differences between corresponding coordinates, rather than straight lines?
10. The coordinate point (5, -2) is in which quadrant?
11. What’s the 762nd digit of pi? The 763rd? The 767th?
ANSWERS BELOW
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
ANSWERS
1. The golden ratio is equal to (1+x)/2. What value does x equal?
Square root of 5
2. For 2893, 2+8+9+3=22, 2+2=4, so for 4 is what function for 2893?
Digital root
3. Name the first five Catalan numbers.
1, 1, 2, 5, 14
4. What axiom, named for a Scottish mathematician, states that in a plane, given a line and point not on it, at most one line parallel to the given line can be drawn through the point, which essentially replaced Euclid's fifth postulate?
Playfair's axiom
5. In a triangle, what type of line connects the centroid and the circumcenter?
Euler line
6. The icosian game, a thought exercise of trying to find a path of visiting a dodecahedron's vertices just one, was created by what Irish mathematician/physicist who revised Lagrangian mechanics, and also developed tensors and quaternions?
William Rowan Hamilton
7. A function that is equal to 0 at all values except for x=0, where it equals infinity is named for what Greek letter?
Delta function
8. Wiktionary defines what calculus concept as “A formula for computing the derivative of the functional composition of two or more functions”? I assure you any AP Calc student knows what this is (high school was a long time ago, huh?)
Chain rule
9. What type of vehicle names the branch of non-Euclidian geometry where distances between two points are measured using the sum of their absolute differences between corresponding coordinates, rather than straight lines?
Taxicab geometry
10. The coordinate point (5, -2) is in which quadrant?
Quadrant IV
11. What’s the 762nd digit of pi? The 763rd? The 767th?
All 9, in fact, 762-767 are six consecutive 9s.