The Pi Trivia Game
part of Pi Land

Finally this is your chance to pay tribute to the magnificent transcendental number that we have all grown to love! Test your knowledge of history, mathematics, and even a little physics.

Here are 25 (given to you 5 at a time) fun pi-related questions, picked randomly from my exciting pi question database! Get ready for the thrill of your lifetime, the ultimate challenge, The Pi Trivia Game!

Pi Flower
1. What rapidly converging formula for calculation of pi was found by Machin in 1706?
pi/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + ...
pi/4 = 4 * arctan (1/5) - arctan (1/239)
e^(i*pi) = -1
pi = 3 (close enough)
pi = 4 * arctan 1

2. 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

3. Pi shows up many places in physics, including simple harmonic motion. Given a simple pendulum of length h, what is the period for a small oscillation (the period is the time it takes to complete one full oscillation)?
3c/(pi*h^2), where c is the speed of light
2*pi*sqrt(h/g), where g is the gravitational constant
e^(pi*h), where e is the base of the natural logarithm
h/pi
(27*pi^2)/(h*[g^2]*[e*c]^3)

4. Are pi's digits periodic?
Yes; the digits repeat themselves after every 6000 decimal places.
No; only women, not numbers, are unfortunate enough to be periodic.
Maybe; not enough digits of pi have yet been calculated to know if they start eventually repeating themselves.
Yes; every infinitely long number has to start repeating itself sometime.
No; every periodic number is rational, but pi is irrational.

5. What 1768 proof about pi is the German mathematician Johann Lambert famous for?
Pi > e.
No pattern exists in pi's digits.
Pi is irrational.
The area of a circle is equal to pi times the square of its radius.
It's fun to recite digits of pi.
eve@eveandersson.com