Today is the Pi Day – an annual celebration of the mathematical constant Pi. It is observed every year on March 14, since Pi can be approximated by 3.14, and the this date is written as 3/14 in the month/day format.

To celebrate this day, here is a short quiz about Pi. You can find all the answers on the web, but it is more fun to try answering while depending only on personal knowledge. Let’s go!

1) In the ancient world, many cultures derived approximations to ?. Which ancient culture had the best approximation?
a. Egypt
b. Babylon
c. Hebrews
d. India

2) Which of these fractions is the best approximation Pi?
a. 2549491779/811528438
b. 22/7
c. 3927/1250
d. 864/275

3) Who popularized the use of the Greek letter Pi to represent the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter?
a. Carl Friedrich Gauss
b. Leonard Euler
c. Pierre Simon Laplace
d. Issac Newton

4) The problem of squaring the circle does not have a solution because Pi is
a. An algebraic number
b. A rational number
c. A transcendental number
d. An irrational number

5) Who prove that the problem of squaring the circle does not have a solution?
a. Carl Friedrich Gauss
b. Adrien Marie Legendre
c. Ferdinand von Lindman
d. Evariste Galois

6) Pi plays an important role in Statistics because
a. The value of Pi can be approximated by dropping needles on the floor
b. The sample size calculation formula contains Pi
c. The probability density function of the Normal distribution contains Pi
d. Pi is the maximal value of Euler’s population density curve

7) Who was born on Pi day?
a. Johann Strauss
b. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
c. Johann Sebastian Bach
d. Georges Bizet

8) How many decimal digits of Pi were calculated up to date?
a. ~ 206 billion
b. ~ 50 quintillion
c. ~ 22.5 trillion
d. ~ 352 million

9) The first known rigorous algorithm for calculating the value of Pi was devised by
a. Shankara Variyar
b. Liu Hui
c. Archimedes
d. Ibn al-Haytham

10) Which of the following series does not converge to Pi?

Good luck! I will post the answers next week.