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. In 1949, a digital computer was first used to calculate pi. To how many decimal places was this computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Intergrator and Computer), able to find pi (it took 70 hours)?
10,493
576
2037
8331
297,454

2. One way to calculate the value of pi is to find the perimeter of polygons inscribing and circumscribing a circle. The circumference of the circle lies in between those two values, and the values approach pi as the number of sides of the polygon approaches infinity. Who originated this method of pi approximation?
Archimedes of Syracuse
Plato
Pythagoras
Socrates
Murray Gell-Mann

3. Which of the following is an arctangent formula for pi?
arctan 1
3*arctan 1/256 + 2*arctan 1/17
4/3*arctan 1
16*arctan 1/5 - 4*arctan 1/239
2*arctan 2

4. 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

5. 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

eve@eveandersson.com