Specific Math Topics Trivia

1. A curious pattern emerges when you plot all non-negative numbers in a spiral formation. Circling all the prime numbers on this spiral creates what kind of pattern?

From Quiz The Mysterious World of Numbers

Answer: Ulam Spiral

The interesting thing about the Ulam Spiral is that all the prime numbers tend to line up on diagonal lines. The number you start with doesn't even have to be 1; it can be as large as you want and the primes will still line up in diagonal clusters. Nobody knows why prime numbers do this. It's odd that something as orderly as this can be graphed on something as chaotic as a spiral.

From Quiz Infinity Affinities

Answer: Greece

The ancient Greeks knew about infinity: for example the philosopher Aristotle discussed very large groups of numbers that could not be practically counted. However, they were not able to define it as a mathematical concept and had trouble visualising something that never ended.

From Quiz I Prefer Something Odd

Answer: always an odd number

An odd number multiplied by an odd number will always result in an odd number, regardless of the number or how many times it is being multiplied. Therefore, an odd number raised to any integer power (whether odd or even) will always result in an odd number.

From Quiz The Number 28

Answer: 2x2x7

The prime factorization of a number tells what prime numbers multiply to that number. 2x2x5 is 20, 2x3x5 is 30, and 2x3x7 is 42.

From Quiz Complex Numbers: Real and Imaginary!

Answer: a

The best way to look at a complex number ('a + bi') is in two parts, the first part is 'a' and you'll notice it is not multiplied by the imaginary unit, 'i'. It, 'a', is therefore not imaginary and is thus real, however, 'b' is multiplied by the imaginary unit and so 'b' is the imaginary part of the complex number. a = Real part b = Imaginary part i = Imaginary unit

From Quiz Basics of Graph Theory

Answer: Q and K are "adjacent."

Vertices Q and K are adjacent. The edge connecting Q and K would be considered "incident" to both Q and K. A vertex that is not incident to any edges at all is "isolated." The term "insecure," on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to do with graph theory!

From Quiz Prove it! Mathematically, of course.

Answer: Inductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning is generally not accepted as a form of proof; it is usually used to find an original conclusion to further prove. Many ideas that have come out of inductive reasoning have been proved incorrect by counter-examples.

From Quiz Graph Theory

Answer: Leonhard Euler

Apart from graph theory, Euler also made great contribution in the field of calculus. The irrational number, e (2.71828...) is named after him.

From Quiz Tower of Hanoi

Answer: Édouard Lucas

Apart from the Tower of Hanoi, Lucas was also known for his work on the famous Fibonacci sequence. Another version of the sequence, namely the Lucas sequence was named after him.

From Quiz Triangular Numbers

Answer: n + (n-1) + (n-2) + ... + 2 + 1

The general formula for triangular numbers is n + (n-1) + (n-2) + ... + 2 + 1. Let say we want to find the 5th triangular number. So we just need to substitute n with 5 to get our answer, which is 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 15.

From Quiz Odd or Even?

Answer: Parity

In layman's term, we often say a number is either odd or even. However, in the field of mathematics, this is referred as the parity of a number.

From Quiz Finite Sums

Answer: 2775

Here n = 74, so the sum is given by 74*75/2 = 2775.

From Quiz Exponentiation

Answer: The base

The operation x^y (x to the power of y) means that we multiply 'x' for 'y' times. For example, 3^4 means that we multiply the number 3 for 4 times, as in 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 81.

From Quiz A Quiz about Nothing

Answer: even

One common test to determine if a number is odd or even is to divide it by two. If nothing is left over, it's an even number. Zero meets the definition of an even number using this test. A second test is that an odd number is defined as an even number plus one. Adding one to zero results in a sum of 1, which is an odd number because it can't be evenly divided by 2. It is also true that numbers generally alternate in sequence--odd, even, odd, even. Zero would fall into an even place in sequence with the numbers on either side of it. There are people who feel that zero cannot be put into either category, but my research indicated that the prevailing consensus among mathematicians is that zero is even.

From Quiz Pi - The Beauty of Mathematics

Answer: Perimeter

Perimeter corresponds to a circle's circumference.

From Quiz Factorial!

Answer: Christian Kramp

Kramp was born in Strasbourg, France in 1760. He used the notation n! in 1808 in one of his books, "Elements d'arithmétique Universelle".

From Quiz Fractions

Answer: Broken

The Latin word "fractus" is also the root for the English word "fracture". Many mathematical terms are originated from Latin and Greek words.

From Quiz Square Roots - The Basics

Answer: 2

Every nonzero real number has two square roots.

From Quiz Fibonacci Numbers

Answer: Leonardo da Pisa

Leonardo was born in Pisa, Italy, the place that houses the famous Leaning Tower. His Italian name was Leonardo Pisano.

From Quiz Phi - The Golden Ratio

Answer: An irrational number

The value 1.61803... can also be derived mathematically from the famous Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...), by dividing a successive Fibonacci number by its previous one. The accuracy of the value obtained increases when greater Fibonacci numbers are used. For example, 1597/987 = 1.618034448.

From Quiz Calculator Words!

Answer: Hello

One of the classic 'words' you can make on a calculator. Answer to sum is 0.1134 - rotate - Hello.

From Quiz Divisibility Rules? Divisibility Rules!

Answer: The last digit is even and the sum of digits is divisible by 3

An easy one to start with, building on the divisibility rules for 2 (last digit is even) and 3 (sum of digits is divisible by 3). Divisibility by 6 means divisibility by both 2 and 3 (prime factors of 6), so both rules have to be applied.

From Quiz Mathematics History II

Answer: Gauss

German mathematician Carl Friederich Gauss said this famous quote. A number of other prominent mathematicians believe so, too. Gauss is widely regarded as the greatest mathematician to have lived. Many top mathematicians enjoy working on ideas like Number Theory that seem to have no relevance to our daily life.

From Quiz Mathematics History

Answer: A Mathematician's Apology

'My Life As A Mathematician' is a name I made up. 'Elements' was written by Euclid. 'Disquisitiones Arithemticae' was written by Gauss. 'A Mathematician's Apology' is a famous work dating from 1940.

From Quiz Who is Afraid of Big Bad "i"?

Answer: Real

In the beginning we were just counting 1, 2, 3, and were happy. We called them counting or natural numbers. Then the Indians invented chess and the zero and people soon found out that you could actually count backward from zero thus inventing negative numbers. We called the whole bunch Integers and we were happy. Then someone had to divide three apple pies between eleven children and had to invent fractions (you know... numerator, denominator).These numbers still made sense, right? So we called them Rational. Then mathematicians started to emerge and he was not satisfied, he invented pi and e and sqrt2 : stuff you can't write as a fraction. In the true spirit of their predecessors mathematicians called these numbers irrational, put his arms around all numbers known and called them "real". And we were happy. (Actually the historical order of invention is: rational, irrational, zero, negative... I told you I was cutting corners).

From Quiz Ratios

Answer: 16

The correct answer is 16. Here is how to solve word problem: 24 x 3 = 72 (total number of beads) 72-24 = 48 1 - 2/3 = 1/3 1/3 x 48 = 16 (answer)

From Quiz Operations in That Scary Binary System!

Answer: 1100

I find the easiest way to add binary numbers is to convert them into base ten and add them together then. You can then change the number back into the binary system. Keep in mind that the last slot in a binary number is 2^0, not 2^1, which means when there are, say, 5 digits in a binary number, the first number is in the 2^4 slot, not the 2^5 slot. The binary system is based on powers of two, so 101 is equal to (2^2 * 1) + (2^1 * 0) + (2^0 * 1). Simplify that into 4 + 0 + 1, or 5. Do the same with 111, your other binary number. (2^2 * 1) + (2^1 * 1) + (2^0 * 1), which can be simplified to 4 + 2 + 1, which is equal to 7. Take your two numbers that are in base ten, 5 and 7, and add them together to get 12. Change that into a binary number by determining which powers of two add up to twelve. If you try 2^4 (which is 16) first, you will see that 16 is larger than 12, and a 1 cannot be in the 2^4 spot. Try 2^3, which is 8. You will see that it is smaller than 12 and therefore can have a 1 put in its place. Progress on to 2^2, which is 4. You have 4 left over with your 12, so stick a 1 in that place. Place zeros in the 2^1 and 2^0 place value slots, because you have your number. Your binary number for 12 is 1100.

From Quiz That Scary Binary System!

Answer: 0, 1

Only zero and one are used because they are the only numbers that, when placed in a binary number, will not multiply out to a higher place value. Example: 20 in binary system would equal (2^2 * 1) + (2^0 * 0) which is equal to 4. Four is a power of two, so it needs a new place value spot for itself.

From Quiz The Imaginary Unit, i

Answer: A solution of the equation x^2 = -1

Solving the equation x^2 = -1, one gets the values of "x" to be sqrt[-1] and -sqrt[-1] (i.e. the positive and negative square roots of -1 respectively). We denote either of the two solutions by the symbol "i", and thus get the two solutions of the equation to be i and -i. So now that we've found that the equation x^2 = -1 has two solutions (i and -i), which is the real "i"? The definition itself of the imaginary unit ("a solution of the equation x^2 = -1") is ambiguous, because the equation has two solutions. However, all ambiguity can be removed if you just choose one of the two solutions and forever call it "the positive i". Summing things up, - The square root of -1 is an imaginary number denoted by the symbol "i". - i squared equals -1.

From Quiz Excited About "e"

Answer: Euler

In mathematics, the letter e stands for "Euler's number". Leonard Euler (1707-1783) is generally considered one of the greatest and most influential mathematicians in history. He is responsible: for introducing the letter pi to represent the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter; for using the letter i to represent the square root of -1; the geometric labeling of angles in polygons with upper case letters, and the sides in lowercase letters; many of the notations used in calculus; establishment of the field of graph theory as he solved the Konigsberg bridge problem; and, relevant for this quiz, developing the current definition of the value of e. He was not the first to encounter e, but he was the first to use e to represent the number.

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Last Updated Dec 21 2024 5:47 AM

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