Mathematical History
Math at UF
Theorems/Concepts
UMS Trivia
Random Estimation (answer as power of 10)
100
The English word algebra is derived from the word al-jabr in this language.
Arabic
100
How many total math classes are required for a B.S. in math at UF?
11 or 12 classes (Calculus 2, Calculus 3, Elementary Differential Equations, Sets and Logic, Linear Algebra 1, Abstract Algebra 1, Advanced Calc 1, Advanced Calc 2, and 4 math department approved electives - at least 3 of them offered by the department of mathematics)
100
This theorem states that every integer greater than 1 either is a prime number itself or can be represented as the product of prime numbers and that, moreover, this representation is unique, up to (except for) the order of the factors.
Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, Unique Factorization Theorem.
100
Name one person who has given a talk for UMS in the past academic year (Fall 2020 - Spring 2021)?
Acceptable answers: Dr. Stone, Dr. Fairbanks, Dr. Zare, Alex Elchesen, Dr. Marsiglietti, Elaine Danielson, Tyler Beauregard, Dr. Bona, Julia Franck, Frank Cole, Cooper O’Kuhn, Dr. Pilyugin, and Dr. Rong, Dr. Stone
100
How many Kevin Knudsons would you need to stack head to toe to reach the sun?
11 - 83999067476.6, given he’s 5’10”
200
The ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras spawned a superstitious cult named after himself. This group believed that numbers were the foundation of reality and that these did not exist.
irrational numbers
200
To the nearest 10, how many sections of Calculus 3 are there this semester (Spring 2021)?
50 - there are 51 including UF online, residential online, and dual enrollment, and 48 not including those
200
Name the 3 properties necessary to make a relation an equivalence relation.
Reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity
200
Name two days of the week that UMS has not held an event this semester?
Sunday, Tuesday, Friday are all acceptable
200
How many times could the average person say the alphabet in 24 hours given standard speaking speed?
4 - 13886 times given 4.5 syllables per second, 86400 seconds in a day
300
A memorial for this mathematician exists in Bourg-la-Reine cemetery. He suffered a fatal wound to the abdomen during a duel at the age of 20, after predicting this death in this way almost a year prior.
Galois
300
The Erdős number is the number of "hops'' needed to connect the author of a paper with the prolific late mathematician Paul Erdős. An author's Erdős number is 1 if he has co-authored a paper with Erdős, 2 if he has co-authored a paper with someone who has co-authored a paper with Erdős, etc. What is Dr. Alladi’s Erdős number?
1
300
This theorem states that any real-valued differentiable function that attains equal values at two distinct points must have at least one point where the first derivative is zero.
Rolle’s Theorem
300
What year was UMS founded?
2011
300
How many bits is Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up video in 1080p?
9 - 8.872e+8 based on 110.9 megabytes
400
The mathematical scene in Renaissance Italy in the early 16th century was very competitive. Oftentimes, mathematicians would challenge each other to public competitions, generally referred to as ______, in which two mathematicians would assign each other a problem set to solve, oftentimes consisting of very difficult, unsolved problems. Mathematicians who won these won exorbitant prizes and fame, and those who lost were shamed, disgraced, and often lost their teaching jobs for the rest of their lives. A primary example was the race to find a general solution for the cubic equation between Cardano and Tartaglia.
mathematical duels
400
A screenshot is provided from this UF professor's webpage.
Dr. King
400
One way you might prove that the rational numbers are ________ is via a diagonalization argument. In general, one might prove that a set of numbers is ________ by proving there exists a bijection between that set and a subset of the natural numbers.
countable
400
Who are the two co-hosts of the podcast My Favorite Theorem (which we listen to weekly at the Podcast Group)?
Kevin Knudson and Evelyn Lamb
400
What length can the average ink pen write (in kilometers)?
3 - 4-5 kilometers
500
Bernhard Riemann notably wrote very few math papers during his lifetime. How many of Riemann’s papers have been published to date?
15
500
Which current faculty member has been at UF the longest, since 1967?
James Keesling
500
This problem is the only problem of the seven millennium prize problems which has been solved, notably by the mathematician Grigori Perelman, who rejected the million dollar prize out of disappointment for the ethical standards of the field of mathematics. This famous problem is a theorem about the characterization of the 3-sphere, which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dimensional space.
Poincare Conjecture
500
Which Marston study room was used to host our weekly study group pre-covid?
Tesla
500
How many alligators could fit in the Reitz union, standing room only?
3 - 1363 given 30k squarefoot and 22 sqft per alligator)