The Pi Trivia Game

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Finally this is your chance to pay tribute to the magnificent transcendental number that we have all grown to love! Here are 25 questions (given to you 5 at a time), picked randomly from my pi question database. Get ready for the thrill of your lifetime, the ultimate challenge, The Pi Trivia Game!

1. How does one convert pi in base 10 to base 2?

Keep only the '0' and the '1' in the decimal expansion.
It is impossible because pi > 2.
Replace each digit of pi in base 10 with a 0 if it is divisible by 2 and with and 1 if it is not.
Successively multiply pi by 2 and put a '1' when it is greater than 1 and a '0' when it is smaller than 1. Repeat this step after having kept only the fractional part of the result.
Divide pi in base 10 by 5.

2. Among the digits of pi currently known, the concentrations of each of the digits 0 - 9 are pretty much equal. However, in the first 30 digits of pi's decimal expansion, one number is conspicuously missing. Which number is it?

7
2
0
8
6

3. There was a time (a while ago) when people were trying very hard to 'square the circle.' It was said at the time that it was even an illness and a name was given to it. What is it?

Squarerootofpitis
Impossibilus Fittis
Morbus Cyclometricus
WileECoyotisandRoadRunneritis
Repetitionatis Decimalus

4. Pi is ubiquitous in the branch of mathematics known as statistics. The maximum height of what famous curve is equal to 1/sqrt(2*pi)?

a sine curve
the bell (Gaussian) curve for a standard normal distribution
the step function y = int(x) between x=-17 and x=0
the Sarstedt curve
Euler's population density curve

5. If you were writing a computer program with the intention of breaking the world record for calculating the most digits of pi, why would it be foolish for you to use the well-known formula pi/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + ...?

it gives incorrect digits after the 875th decimal has been reached
it converges terribly slowly
it is more fun to use the Monte Carlo method
computers aren't good at doing such repetitive tasks as calculating series iterations
it would be too hard to implement this formula in any programming language

eve@eveandersson.com