Famous Triangles
1, 6, 15, 20, 15, 6, 1 are the elements of the 6th row of the triangle named for this man.
Who is Pascal.
In his pioneering work in statistics and computer science, John Tukey was the first to use this word which was a portmanteau of “binary digit.”
What is Bit
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c) is this property of addition.
What is Associative
On “The Price Is Right” each of 3 contestants spin a big wheel containing 20 numbered spaces. Of these spaces, 17 are black (yielding no money), 2 are green (yielding $5000), and 1 is red (yielding $10000.) Find the probability that two consecutive independent spins each yield the red space.
1/400
This mysterious triangle, loosely associated with an increase in aircraft and sea-craft disasters in the 20th century, has approximate vertices at Miami, FL, at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and at this British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean for which is it named.
What is the Bermuda Triangle.
Despite a longtime running gag that it was Al Gore who invented it, it was actually Vint Cerf who was working on ARPANET at UCLA in 1973 who first used this term in writing.
What is Internet
An angle whose measure is less than 90 degrees would be considered this.
What is Acute
On the edition of “Press Your Luck” from 1985, the probability that a contestant would land on a “Whammy” on any one spin of the “Big Board” was 1/6. On a game which contained 42 spins, all of which are independent, find the expected number of Whammies.
7
The famous 3-4-5 right triangle is also this type of triangle, one in which all three sides have different lengths and all three angles have different measure.
What is Scalene
A competing way of thought to Frequentist Statistics, the field of statistics where probability expresses a degree in a belief in an event is named for this man whose seminal work wasn’t published until after his 1761 death.
Who is Thomas Bayes
This word comes from the Arabic word al-jabr, meaning “reunion of broken parts.”
What is Algebra
On “Let’s Make A Deal” one of the games involves a contestant repeatedly independently rolling a specially designed die to try to win a car. Of the six sides of the die, 1 contain a picture of a car, 2 contain $1000, 2 contain $2000, and 1 says “ZONK.” Contestants roll as long as they want but once they roll a car, they win the car and the game ends immediately, and once they roll a zonk they lose everything and the game immediately ends. Find the probability that the contestant wins the car on their third roll of the die.
16/216 or 2/27
The United States Department of Transportation describes the official pavement markings for this instruction to drivers as “a white, open outline isosceles triangles pointing toward approaching traffic”
What is Yield (or Yield Ahead)
This field of mathematics literally means “pebble” in Latin since the ancient Romans used pebbles to count and do addition and subtraction and thus pebbles became associated with computation.
What is Calculus
A working example of this Ancient Greek mathematician’s “screw” can be seen in Boca Raton at the science exhibits at Sugar Sand Park.
Who is Archimedes
On “Deal or No Deal” suppose that a contestant has 4 cases left in play. These cases have values $250, $750 $1000, $100000. Find the exact value of a truly fair offer from the banker based on the expected value of the cases.
$25500 (102000/4)
The Hess Triangle, an isosceles triangle with a 25.5 inch base and two 27.5 inch legs, is a tile mosaic installed in 1922 that marks the location of a surveyor’s mistake in a dispute over eminent domain between the Hess family and this major US city during the 1910s and 1920s.
What is New York City (Manhattan).
“Bayoustatistics” reads the plaque at the entrance to the Department of Biostatistics at the largest state university in this southern state.
What is Louisiana
For a hemisphere, the formula is best known as the formula for Surface ____?
What is Area
On “Funny You Should Ask”, contestants are asked to either say “True” or “False” to 6 independent questions in round 1. Each correct answer is worth $100. Find the probability that a contestant chosen at random answers at least one question correct in round 1 thus earning some money.
63/64