Finding Zeros Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mayan

Between 100 C.E. and 1542 C.E. in Mesoamerica, an area which extends from modern central Mexico through Costa Rica, the Mayan Civilization thrived, peaking especially 300-900 C.E. They had outstanding architecture, pottery, and astronomy, with a remarkably accurate calendar.

The Mayan people still exist in Central America, particularly in Guatemala. Mayan languages include Quiché and Yucatec.

Answer: Indian

The origin of the modern decimal-based place value notation for zero can arguably be traced to the 'Aryabhatiya', a Sanskrit mathematical treatise written around the fifth century C.E. during India's Gupta period (320-540 C.E.). The historical evidence of the use of zero is rather unequivocal by the 7th century C.E.

Answer: "Multiplication Rock!"

"Multiplication Rock" was developed to teach children their times tables in a fun and easy way. It was part of the "Schoolhouse Rock" overarching series that appeared on Saturday mornings between programs on ABC television in the USA during the 1970s-80s.

The song "My Hero Zero" was sung by Bob Dorough. The song actually focused on powers of 10, since times tables of zero are not necessary to memorize.

Answer: "Zero Hour!"

During a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning. An ex-WW2 fighter pilot must land the airliner in heavy fog. Does this plot sound familiar? That's because the more famous comedy "Airplane!" (1980), starring Leslie Nielsen, parodied the black-and-white thriller "Zero Hour!" (1957), starring Dana Andrews.

The movie was in turn an adaptation of the 1956 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) teleplay "Flight into Danger", starring James Doohan (better known as Lt. Commander Scott in "Star Trek") as Ted Stryker.

Answer: zero hour

Also called H-hour, zero hour in military usage means the time set for the start of an attack or the initial stage of an operation. Similarly, "D-Day" is really just a generic term for any start of a military operation, even though in popular culture (and even some historical texts) the term has acquired a specific meaning for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. "Zero hour" can also mean any moment of truth, turning point, or exigency.

Answer: zero-sum

A zero-sum game is any situation, process, competition, or outcome in which the winner's gain is exactly equal to the loser's loss. Poker is a zero-sum game because the amount of money won by one player equals the amount lost by the other players.

Answer: zero tolerance

The phrase "zero tolerance" first appeared in connection with US politics, when New Jersey passed the Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Act in 1973. In criminology, however, it has been found that zero-tolerance laws are not effective in reducing crime, even though they may increase the perception of less crime. Rather, such laws redefine social problems in terms of security, criminalize the poor, and reduce the definition of crime to "street crime" while excluding white-collar crime.

Answer: absolute zero

In physics, the theoretical temperature at which a substance contains no thermal energy is absolute zero, when all molecular activity ceases. This would be 0 degrees Kelvin, equal to -273.15°C or -459.67°F. In 1999, scientists achieved near-absolute zero, at 1 billionth of a degree Kelvin, or 1 piko-Kelvin (pK), by cooling the nuclear spins in a piece of rhodium metal.

Answer: the null set

Let's say you have set A, and you've defined set A = {cat, dog, canary, goldfish}. Then you have set B, which you've defined as having no elements at all, or B = { }. Set B is the null set or the empty set. It's actually not represented by the numeral 0 but by the symbols { } or Ø (the latter sometimes just vocalized as "null").

The difference between the null set and zero becomes very important when programming databases, for example.

Answer: zero conditional

In a conditional sentence, there is a subordinate clause that states the condition, and a main clause that states a result. The order of the clauses doesn't matter. "If it rains, I will stay home" is equivalent to "I will stay home if it rains." In zero conditional sentences, the tense in both parts of the sentence is the simple present. "If it rains, the grass gets wet." Zero conditionals make statements about the real world, and often refer to general truths or scientific facts.