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Mathematics General Knowledge

Can you answer these general knowledge questions about math?
Type using numerals when possible
Quiz by WolfCam
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Last updated: May 27, 2020
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First submittedFebruary 14, 2018
Times taken50,819
Average score73.7%
Rating4.38
4:00
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 / 19 guessed
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Hint
Answer
What do you call a polygon with nine sides?
Nonagon
What is 126 in Roman numerals?
CXXVI
What is the term for the spot (0,0) on a graph?
Origin
If a cube has sides of length 4, what is its volume?
64
What does the "m" stand for in y=mx+b?
Slope
Whose formula for right triangles states a2 + b2 = c2 ?
Pythagoras
What are the first five digits of pi?
3.1415
Cos stands for Cosine. What does Tan stand for?
Tangent
What number is a one followed by 100 zeroes?
Googol
What mathematician is the namesake of the number "e"?
Leonhard Euler
What is the total of a triangle's internal angles?
180 degrees
Pi, e, and √2, but can all be described as?
Irrational Numbers
How many centimeters are in a kilometer?
100,000
What is notable about the numbers 7, 11, 17, and 43?
They are Prime
What is the name of the sequence that begins 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8?
Fibonacci Sequence
What is the sum of the numbers 1 through 100?
5050
How many seconds are in an hour?
3600
If a right triangle has a height of 50 and a base of 50, what is its area?
1250
What numbering system uses only ones and zeroes?
Binary
+70
Level 75
Aug 1, 2018
The good thing about the metric system is you can just start typing zeroes when asked how many centimeters are in a kilometer :-).
+2
Level 77
Aug 1, 2018
Disgraceful!
+26
Level 89
Aug 2, 2018
Easier than how many cubic inches in a hogshead.
+2
Level 36
Aug 2, 2018
So then, remove the question, Cardian Sine!
+2
Level 76
Aug 28, 2018
A shameful display!
+5
Level 67
Aug 30, 2018
My car gets forty rods to the hog's head, and that's the way I likes it!
+8
Level 69
Aug 3, 2018
I totally did that ;-)
+10
Level 54
Aug 28, 2018
That's exactly what I did. I'm sure I could have figured it out but not necessary.
+2
Level 89
Oct 7, 2018
Seeing as it's a hundred (centi) times a thousand (kilo), yeah you probably could've come up with a hundred thousand.
+3
Level 32
Aug 1, 2018
can you change it so typos such as fibonnaci are accepted?
+3
Level 89
Dec 22, 2022
Anyone wanna answer this question? Anyone? Euler? Euler?
+3
Level 72
Aug 1, 2018
The average score on this quiz is 14, hhhmmm!!! I suspect a lot of people use Mr. Google as they are doing the quiz, or else the only people who have done it are Maths graduates/teachers.
+22
Level 33
Aug 1, 2018
It's Dr Google not Mr Google
+24
Level 48
Aug 1, 2018
No maths grad here and got 17/19. I didn't see anything beyond GCSE-level maths or general knowledge. (Apart from the quiz thumbnail image!)

Guessed "Euclid" for "e" number and missed the 1 thru 100 summation (despite previously seeing comments in other quizzes on the Gauss series formula: sum = n(n+1)/2 with n=100 returns 5050 :o)

+3
Level 49
Aug 2, 2018
18/19 here... and I also guessed Euclid :)
+1
Level 64
Aug 28, 2018
It's Euler, folks. I used google but it didn't help. 16/19 though
+4
Level 68
May 27, 2020
Fortunately, Euler made it to my school's giant wallpaper of the History of Maths and I was smart enough to read it.
+1
Level 75
May 27, 2020
I frequently bemoan our American use of the word aluminum instead of the British aluminium which I find easier to say, but I think we have the easier version of our shortened form of mathematics. I think math is much easier to say than maths.
+2
Level 38
May 28, 2020
I guessed Euler because I studied networks recently and remembered Eulerian paths. Didn't even think about Euclid.
+13
Level 53
Aug 28, 2018
It wasn't that difficult a quiz...
+5
Level 70
Aug 28, 2018
The only ones that were a bit tricky really were the e one, which I only knew because it was part of a question on Trivial Warfare recently, and the sum of the numbers 1 through 100. I didn't know the formula for that, but I reasoned the 1+100=101, 2+99=101, 3+98=101, etc., so I multiplied 101*50.
+2
Level 89
Oct 7, 2018
I've always liked when they give credit to people for figuring out some little pattern like that and millions of junior high school kids have on their own.
+1
Level 41
Oct 17, 2022
E=MC² is not a trite formula. Nor were the works of Euler.
+2
Level 46
Dec 21, 2022
I did the 1-100 one this way: 1+99=100, 2+98=100, 3+97=100 ... 49+51=100, that's 49 different ways to add up to 100, so 49*100=4900, all that's left is 50 and 100, 4900+50+100=5050
+1
Level 73
Dec 24, 2022
The n(n+1)/2 formula was derived by Gauss and you'd be surprised to know he used a similar, if not the same, method to derive this formula. :)
+10
Level 69
Sep 4, 2018
Not really, nothing here is beyond high-school level math.
+4
Level 89
Oct 7, 2018
Why only 14? That's less than 75%, a pretty crappy test result in school. We didn't touch any complex math.
+3
Level 29
Jan 14, 2020
Iim in middle school, this is general knowledge.
+2
Level 29
Mar 7, 2020
Learning Algebra and got 100%. Could do this in my sleep.
+1
Level 56
Apr 24, 2020
What type of algebra are you studying?
+1
Level 47
Apr 15, 2022
some of these questions deal with geometry/trigonometry like the triangle and cos cosine tan, but i get what u mean. algebra teaches a lot bc its a foundational math
+1
Level 33
Aug 8, 2020
I think I'm going to have to agree with you there. I got 13. I'm not necessary a "math guy", but I've delt with math quite a bit and thought I had done pretty well all things considered. I think I would have done a little better with more time (some of them were coming to me as a dredged through the memory banks). But I certainly believe that there are plenty of people that have google open on another tab as they take these quizzes.
+2
Level 64
Dec 15, 2021
You think people must have cheated to get a single mark better than your score?
+1
Level 41
Oct 16, 2022
Why do you say cheat.
+1
Level 28
Dec 10, 2022
17/19, I admit I used Google but that was only to look up the English names for some answers since English isn't my first language...
+1
Level 66
Aug 1, 2018
"What is the total of a triangle's internal angles"... should also accept 2pi or 2*pi
+14
Level 72
Aug 2, 2018
Actually, it's 1*pi.
+10
Level 36
Aug 2, 2018
Which is why 180 is incorrect, since it should be 180 DEGREES. Please fix (and use the fancy round superscript character too) while you're at it. Thanks!
+9
Level 68
Aug 10, 2018
You mean this beast:

180º

+2
Level 89
Oct 7, 2018
Roar
+8
Level 70
Aug 6, 2018
Should technically specify degrees. π is the answer in radians, which are what should be assumed if no unit is given.
+1
Level 43
May 27, 2020
That would be entirely incorrect.
+7
Level 72
Aug 2, 2018
Please accept "base 2" instead of binary. I don't know if I am right, although Wikipedia suggests I am, but when I think of a numbering system, I think of base 2, but when I think of the results of the system, I think of a binary number.

In any event,base-2 is certainly a correct answer to the question you asked.

+2
Level ∞
Aug 2, 2018
Okay
+6
Level 82
Aug 2, 2018
d'oh! I read "WHOSE formula" as "WHAT formula" and kept typing in pythagorean theorem over and over.
+1
Level 70
Aug 4, 2018
Seconds and hours are purely physical definitions. Thus this question has nothing to do with mathematics. While the same holds for the "meter", the relation between "centi" and "kilo" indeed relates to mathematics. Just said. Further, with the non-metric system used in parts of the world, it appears to be an accident that all countries use the same units of time. ;-)
+5
Level 86
Aug 28, 2018
I'm curious how you think someone would answer the question "How many seconds are in an hour?" without using math. True, you could just know it off the top of your head, but I think most people would say, "Okay, 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute, so the answer is 60 * 60."
+1
Level 53
Aug 28, 2018
I think s/he means that you can just as easily ask 'how many players are on a football team' or 'how many objects do you see in this image' and it would be the same sort of question i.e. arbitrary counting using definitions set by people as opposed to pure unadulterated unbiased 'mathematics'. Although I do agree with you, most people will use mental maths to solve this, so I'd say it's still fitting.
+1
Level 86
Aug 28, 2018
I suppose if you wanted to make it more obviously mathy (mathsy?) you could change it to "seconds in a day" or "seconds in a week" or something like that, because there are some people who just have the number of seconds in an hour memorized. Don't do "minutes in a year," though, because then it's definitely a music question, not a math question.
+1
Level 84
Dec 17, 2019
How many seconds in the month of February in the year 2400? Try getting that one without doing any math. ;-)
+2
Level 69
Aug 29, 2018
Also the name of the number that's a 1 followed by 100 zeroes isn't exactly "math" knowledge
+5
Level 43
May 27, 2020
If you go down that road, you'll end up in a place in which none of the questions is really mathematics enough. After all, Pythagoras is just an old Greek dude and the formula would have worked no matter who discovered it. So it's a history question.
+2
Level 47
Aug 30, 2018
Applied mathematics might not be very pure, but the quiz doesn't claim to be pure. And neither do I.
+1
Level 84
Dec 17, 2019
Do those initials stand for "Mae D. West"? :-)
+1
Level 79
Aug 28, 2018
I enjoyed figuring out the question about the sum of the numbers from 1 to 100. However, I find it odd that there is another featured quiz today with the exact same question.
+1
Level 64
Aug 28, 2018
Exactly. I really feel you.
+1
Level 84
Dec 17, 2019
You what?
+1
Level 47
Aug 28, 2018
wasted 2 minutes trying to calculate 1+2+3+4...+100, because I ended up with 4950
+2
Level 67
Aug 30, 2018
To find out the sum of all the numbers in any set that increases at regular intervals (eg., each number is 1 higher than the one before it, or each number is 5 higher than the number before it), just add the lowest and highest numbers, then divide by 2. Take your answer, and multiply it by the number of terms in the set. So, in this case, there are 100 numbers (or "terms"), increasing by 1 each time. Add the high and the low: 1+100=101. Divide by 2: 50.5 (this answer will also be the average of all the numbers in the set). Then multiply that number (50.5) by the number of terms in the set (i.e., 100). So, 50.5 x 100 = 5050.
+1
Level 89
Oct 7, 2018
Or...if you're starting at 1, just multiply by the next # (101) and then divide it by 2....
+1
Level 41
Oct 17, 2022
1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 = 45

ones place 45 × 10

tens place digits 45 x 100

( I also was off by 100. )

hundress place 1 x 100

I recall graphing lines in the 60s. Public schools mostly used m to define the slope.

+2
Level 86
May 27, 2020
An easy way to see the answer it to separate the sum into two parts:

1+2+...+50

100+99+...+51

then adding the terms two by two: 1+100 , 2+99, ..., 50+51 , one obtains 50 times 101 = 5050.

+3
Level 49
May 28, 2020
n(n+1)/2
+1
Level 69
Aug 28, 2018
Irrational, not imaginary!!! Doh - mixing up 1 and 2
+1
Level 60
Aug 28, 2018
Special thanks to Tool for the assist on Fibonacci.
+2
Level 64
Aug 28, 2018
100%!!! YES!
+1
Level 22
Aug 29, 2018
Please accept Pythagorean theorem as an answer for: Whose formula for right triangles states a2 + b2 = c2 ?
+4
Level 67
Aug 30, 2018
The question clearly asks "*whose* formula..." It obviously wants the person, not the theorem.
+2
Level 64
Aug 30, 2018
For those who keep saying 'm' means gradient, what country is that in? Because for me, a "gradient" (∇) is an operator whose result is a vector comprised of partial derivatives of the input function. But maybe that's just because I'm an engineer....
+1
Level 74
Aug 30, 2018
So just a one dimensional version of what you speak, then? (Or commonly known as just "grad")
+1
Level 69
Sep 4, 2018
Well I assume it is "m" in America because of this quiz and it's also "m" here in Australia, meaning its most likely the same in the UK.
+2
Level 70
Sep 10, 2018
It's called gradient in the UK. I don't really understand that definition so it probably is because you're an engineer. They're different meanings of the word "gradient".
+2
Level 61
Sep 12, 2018
Either way it still works, since the gradient of a line would just be a one-dimensional vector of the slope itself (since the slope is the partial derivative).
+1
Level 26
Sep 1, 2018
spent too long trying to type "orgin" and being confused why it wouldn't work
+2
Level 55
Dec 31, 2018
Easy. Finished with 2:33 remaining. Guess this shows how much I love math.
+1
Level 63
Nov 27, 2019
Whose formula for right triangles states a2 + b2 = c2 ? should accept Pythagorean theorem
+4
Level 84
Dec 17, 2019
Right, because Pythagoras' last name was Theorem. Good ol' Pythy.
+4
Level 43
May 27, 2020
Oh come on. People just really wish to display both immense knowledge of mathematics AND inability to read a simple question at the same time!
+2
Level 36
May 27, 2020
Pi, e, and √2 can also be described as real and imaginary?
+2
Level 86
May 27, 2020
Those three numbers are all real. An imaginary number is a number whose square is a negative real number.
+1
Level 58
May 27, 2020
None of them are imaginary, but all are indeed real.
+1
Level 44
May 27, 2020
I think you mean complex rather than imaginary. It may a translation issue; in French for instance, "imaginary numbers" are called "pure imaginary numbers" to distinguish them from "complex numbers", as those were originally simply called "imaginary numbers".

I agree with you, the 3 numbers can be described as real and complex. The hint is a bit confusing.

+3
Level 71
Dec 22, 2022
A certain amount of common sense can be required--remember, the instructions on Jetpunk's quizzes always ask if you can guess an answer based on a hint; it never says "Each of these answers has one unique, correct, answer: provide it."

In this case, yes, they are real numbers; but what is the motivation for listing them, if the answer is "real numbers"? None--they are not better exemplars of real numbers than any other.

But they are, famously, irrational and proofs of their irrationality is usually part of a math curriculum; high school math students are likely to see a proof of √2's irrationality. So irrational is obviously the best and intended answer, even if there are other strictly correct ones.

I do think it's slightly weird to spell "Pi" and not use π, it kind of implies you're referring to the letter and not the constant, but it's still clear what's being asked for.

+1
Level 64
May 27, 2020
2:07, first take

Nice one, thanks!

+1
Level 56
May 27, 2020
If only Major Charles Ingram had done this quiz ;)
+1
Level 75
May 27, 2020
Did anyone else watch Donald in Mathmagic Land when they were in school? It's disconcerting that the things I remember most about math class came from Donald Duck.
+1
Level 88
Dec 22, 2022
Not sure that I saw it in school but I definitely watched it multiple times as a kid. Good stuff.
+1
Level 48
May 29, 2020
I think that "Pythagorean theorem" or "Pythagorean" should be accepted. I've never heard it just called "Pythagoras"

Pleasant Quiz otherwise :)

+4
Level 39
May 30, 2020
But it says "WHOSE...", so it is specifically asking for the name of the mathematician.
+1
Level 71
Dec 22, 2022
All three of the questions about stuff named after mathematicians ask for the mathematician rather than the item. It's not "Euler's number" about e, and "sequence" is already filled in for "Fibonacci". So it's nicely self-consistent in the quiz.
+1
Level 79
Jan 31, 2021
Yay, got all of them! (having studied Maths in school helps I guess)
+2
Level 67
Aug 18, 2021
How to obtain the sum of the numbers 1 through 100:

1 + 100 = 101

2 + 99 = 101

...

50 + 51 = 101

101 x 50 = 5050

+1
Level 65
Dec 23, 2022
Sum (1...n) = [(1+n)*n]/2

So indeed 101*100/2 = 101*50 = 5050

+1
Level 47
Apr 15, 2022
sometimes i question my ability to understand math :l but i got 100 thanks to my friends help. great quiz
+1
Level 67
Dec 22, 2022
The question about pi, e, and the square root of 2 makes no sense
+1
Level 62
Dec 22, 2022
Whyever not‽ All those numbers are famously irrational.
+4
Level 60
Dec 22, 2022
Would have gotten the one about slope if the question hadn't used the phrase 'stand for' because it implies that the answer starts with m. Found that very confusing
+1
Level 17
Aug 13, 2023
Agreed - the only one I didn't get (I have a maths degree...) because I was randomly typing in words beginning with m (metric, matrix, measure, ...)!
+1
Level 38
Dec 22, 2022
can you add pythagorean theoreme as an answer?
+1
Level 62
Dec 22, 2022
Ah, yes, that famous PERSON, Mx. Pythagorean Theoreme.
+1
Level 49
Dec 23, 2022
Thank you, math is fun! I knew Euler, but for some reason e was taught us in school in Finland as Neper's (Napier's) number, base number of natural logarithm. Euler's name is good to know in this, because it explains, why it is called e.
+1
Level 60
Dec 23, 2022
The question about the Fibonacci sequence has multiple different answers. Sequence A079500 in the OEIS starts with 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 14, 24, 43, 77...
+1
Level 77
Jan 2, 2023
Could you explain how the Roman numerals question is about math? It seems rather arbitrary.
+1
Level 61
Dec 24, 2023
Roman numerals, as in the system of numbers used by the Romans. System of numbers... seems like some math to me
+1
Level 43
Dec 12, 2023
Can you please change the spelling of Pythagoream pls
+1
Level 21
Mar 25, 2024
anyone else find this way too easy?