Summer is here and it’s no time to let your brain rot. Dorky Geeky Nerdy is here to keep that gray matter working over the break. Today we present thirty trivia questions about the field of Mathematics. So, polish your slide rule and get ready for Mathematics Trivia.
A huge shout out to W. Blaine Dowler for his help on writing these questions. Blaine does podcasts over at Bureau42.com on a variety of geeky subjects, most notably the X-Files Retrospective Podcast. I highly recommend you check them out.
Pencils sharpened and books away. Time for a pop quiz.
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Episode Introduction
It’s Summertime. Or at least it is in the Northern Hemisphere. And Summer is when it’s time to head out of school and let all that knowledge fall out of your brains. But we here at Dorky Geeky Nerdy are going to help keep your brains sharp over Summer break.
Hey there. This is your host, Brian Rollins and over the Summer, Dorky Geeky Nerdy will be featuring Summer School episodes every Saturday, in addition to our usual Wednesday episodes. While our Wednesday episodes will still focus on Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and other geeky pursuits, Saturdays will be for more academic topics. This first Summer School episode is all about Mathematics.
As always, we’ll have three rounds of ten questions each. Each round is a hard than the last. If you’re looking for ways to score your game, point your browser at dorkygeekynerdy.com/rules. If you’re a teacher and want to use this in your classroom, these rules and the score sheets on that page will be a huge help.
OK class, settle down. It’s time to begin.
The Dorky Round
1. What is the only even prime number?
2. When you divide a chart into four sections, what are those sections called?
3. This field of study, focusing on relationship between angles and side lengths of right triangles, can be taught almost in its entirety in High School.
4. This operation in calculus uses an infinite sum to find the area under a curve.
5. Using standard orders of operations, what's the last operation you perform on an equation?
6. This is the mnemonic to aid in remembering which trigonometric function is which.
7. The Cartesian coordinate system is named after which French mathematician?
8. What is the measure of a right angle, expressed in degrees?
9. In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow says 'The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.' Which famous theorem did he get wrong in this quote?
10. Follow up question: what correction needs to be made for the Scarecrow's statement to be true?
The Geeky Round
1. 10 followed by 100 zeros is called what?
2. Which field of math is named for a mispronunciation of an arabic phrase meaning 'reunion of broken parts'?
3. Parabolae, hyperbolae, circles and ellipses are all part of which class of relations?
4. This broad category can be subdivided into studies of group, rings, and fields.
5. To be considered a function, a relation must pass this test.
6. To fully study this field, one will need to be able to write in at least four colors.
7. This term is used to describe a detailed study of real numbers, often being used to justify calculus.
8. What number is denoted by a lowercase j in electrical engineering and a lowercase 'i' in virtually every other context?
9. What function created by physicist Paul Dirac accidentally spawned the theory and study of distributions?
10. Which branch of math deals exclusively with terms of a single variable with exponent 1 or constants?
The Nerdy Round
1. A number series where each number is equal to the sum of the two previous numbers is called what?
2. What is the mathematical name for the number or hash tag sign?
3. Though known as Arabic numerals, the numbers used in mathematics originated in what country?
4. Who was the most prolific mathematician in history, publishing over 50 papers per year when the average mathematician published 5?
5. Which mathematician's 'Thirteen Books of the Elements' birthed the modern approach to mathematics?
6. Which function involving partial differential equations allows us to extend the definition of the factorial to fractions and negative numbers?
7. What is the name of the line between the numerator and the denominator in a fraction?
8. What Hebrew letter is used to denote a specific size of infinity?
9. What critical component of Newton's formulation of calculus was not formally verified until Abraham Robinson published 'Non-Standard Analysis' in 1966?
10. What mathematical object, similar to but different from a matrix, is needed to define the topology of a non-Euclidean space?
Episode Conclusion
That’s the bell class. When you add up your points, be sure to show your work. Don’t forget to study for next week. By the way, here’s a hint for next week’s class:
Charles Darwin is considered the Father of Modern what?
I hope you enjoyed this new adventure in trivia podcasting. It does mean twice as many episodes per week (which several people have requested). We’ll see how well I manage the new load.
A huge shout out to Blaine Dowler who wrote nearly all of the questions for this episode. He hosts a variety of very geeky podcasts over at Bureau42.com. I’ll drop a link on the show notes for this episode. They are worth a listen. He goes into some insane depth on topics like mathematics, the X-Files, and much more.
So to sum up, I’m your host, Brian Rollins. Thanks for listening.
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Credits
Hosted & Written by Brian Rollins
Music by Kevin MacLeod
Copyright 2019-2025 by Brian Rollins
This podcast is copyright 2025 Brian Rollins. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to redistribute but not to be altered or used for AI training.
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