Pick the Incorrect Number Trivia Quiz

Answer: 132

The pattern is square numbers. The number 132 is equivalent to 11x12 and therefore does not fit. A square number can end only with the following digits: 0, 1, 4, 6, 9, or 25.

Answer: 35

This is the Fibonacci sequence, named after mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci who first uncovered it in the early 13th century. The pattern is simply the sum of the previous two elements; therefore 34 appears (21+13) rather than 35. The sequence has since been found to exist in many natural occurences, such as the distribution of flowers and seeds in plants.

Answer: 12

Binary numbers only use the digits 0 and 1; therefore the number '12' is not possible. In binary, 1 is equivalent to the decimal number 1; '10' is equivalent to 2, and '11' is equivalent to 3.

Answer: 45

These are prime numbers; defined as numbers that can only be divided evenly by themselves and 1. The number 45 is divisible by both 9 and 5 and is therefore not a prime.

Answer: 48

This is the pattern of triangular numbers. These numbers are generated by the formula x = n(n+1)/2; or simply by adding one more than the previous addition performed. Interestingly, 36 is both a square and a triangular number.

Answer: Yes

These numbers are cubes (1x1x1=1; 2x2x2=8; 3x3x3=27; and so on). The next numbers are therefore 5 cubed (125) and 6 cubed (216).

Answer: 64

The pattern is 2 to the power of n, plus 1. Another (probably simpler) way to continue the pattern is to add double what you added previously to get the next number. So the progression from 17 to 33 achieved by adding 16; therefore the next number is found by adding 32 (to get 65...not 64), then you add 64 to get 129; 128 to get 257 and finally 256 to get 513.

Answer: 0.0167

The pattern is simply achieved by halving each number to get the next. You'll notice that after the first number (1), all solutions end with a 5. Starting with one, we get half (0.5), followed by one-quarter (0.25), one-eighth (0.125), one-sixteenth (0.0625), one thirty-second (0.03125) and so on, till you hit one-one-twenty-eighth (0.0078125).

The incorrect option was one-sixtieth (0.0167).

Answer: 3.416

The pattern is each integer followed by its square root (rounded to 3 decimal places). So 5 obviously fits (being an integer), as does 2.236 (rounded square root of 5) and 2.828 (rounded square root of 8). The square of 3.416 comes to about 11.67 and therefore it would not appear.

Answer: 1100

The pattern is simply 1 to 10 in binary form. Decimal numbers can be calculated from binary by taking the far right digit as units; the next digit to the left as a multiple of 2; the next as a multiple of 4; and so on. Therefore 110 = (0x1) + (1x2) + (1x4) = 6. 111 is (1x1) + (1x2) + (1x4) = 7. 1001 = (1x1) + (0x2) + (0x4) + (1x8) = 9.

The odd one out is 1100, as it comes to (0x1) + (0x2) + (1x4) + (1x8) = 12. Once you know it, as they say, binary is 'as easy as 1, 10, 11'!