The Pi Trivia Game

by Eve Andersson

Home : Pi : The Pi Trivia Game

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. 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

2. Which French mathematician said in 1909 that it is hopeless to think that we could ever check if there are 10^100 consecutive zeroes in the decimal expansion of pi?
Félix-Édouard-Justin Émile Borel
René Baire
Felix Klein while looking at his cat.
Felix Klein while looking at his cat in his bottle.
Möbius while walking on a strip of stamps.

3. Say you have a rope wrapped tightly around the earth at the equator. How much longer would you have to make the rope if you wanted the rope to be exactly 1 foot above the surface the whole way around? (assume that the earth has a constant radius at the equator)
2*pi feet
2*pi*R feet, where R is the radius of the earth
pi*R^2 feet
pi + D feet, where D is the diameter of the earth
pi/2 feet

4. What is the earliest known reference to pi?
the Rosetta Stone, inscribed in approximately 200 BC
a Middle Kingdom papyrus scroll, written around 1650 BC by Ahmes the scribe
Euclid's Elements, written in the 3rd century BC
The Uselessness of Pi and its Irrational Friends, written in 1994 AD
the Bible

5. Which of the following is NOT equal to pi?
4 * the integral from 0 to 1 of sqrt(1 - x^2)dx
4 * arctan 1
the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter
(3/4) * the number of radians in a 270 degree angle
2 * the number of radians in a right angle
eve@eveandersson.com