I obtained a book a few years back from Crazy Mike’s Crazy Emporium, that was once located at what is now Sig’s Lagoon.
This 1959 book was written by Philip Heafford, Department of Education, University of Oxford: The Math Entertainer. His goal, from his introduction seems extremely optimistic. To entertain enjoyers of mathematics, but also to interest those who think they don’t like math.
(As a side note, this book was a gift to someone from Aunt Thelma and Uncle Nolen in 1974.)
The book contains 50 quizzes. And here, throwing copyright to the wind (that discussion for another day – and if the author would like me to remove this post, he need only ask), is the first quiz.
How many can you get? (feel free to post a reply) I got maybe half of them, maybe less.
Quiz No. 1: Quickies
Do these numbers ring a bell? For instance, the number 365 would mean only one thing to me, and that is the number of days a year. Ask someone to test you with this quiz. Six seconds for each question. How many can you get right in the time limit of two minutes for all the questions?
- 1,760
- 2,000
- 4,840
- 640
- 1.732
- 2.54
- 3.1416 . . .
- 366
- .3010
- 1492
- .4771
- .4971
- 1.6
- 1.414
- 1,728
- 3-4-5
- 6,080
- 62½
- 90
- 88
The answers, who got them, and my thoughts will follow (at some point).
I only recognize a few of them. Jeeze, I’m embarrassed to call myself a math major now.
Of course, in mathematics, the numbers don’t really mean anything. Even in physics, memorizing strings of numbers of constants or formulas is of limited utility.
Here’s what I guessed:
1. Yards in a mile
2. Pounds in a ton
5. Root of 3
6. Centimeters in an inch
7. Pi
8. Days in a leap year
14. Root of 2
16. Pythagorean theorem (perfect triangle)
19. Right angle
I’m sure many of the others are conversions from one unit of measure to another, but for someone that grew up using only metric, there is only one to remember… 10.
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