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. What is the formal definition of pi?

the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter
3.14159
the radius of a unit circle
the surface area of a sphere of diameter 22/7
a delicious dessert, especially if it contains cherries

3. 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

4. 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.

5. Which of the following fractions most closely approximates pi?

2549491779/811528438
22/7
864/275
5371151999754/1709690779483
3927/1250

eve@eveandersson.com