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Quiz about Greek and Latin in Mathematics

Greek and Latin in Mathematics Quiz

Much math terminology is derived from Greek and Latin, mainly because these cultures developed many mathematical ideas. Other cultures added to the math vocabulary with time. Can you identify the meaning of these mathematical terms?

A multiple-choice quiz by drbabe. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
drbabe

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
332,580

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
7 / 10

Plays
564

Last 3 plays: PurpleComet (7/10), Guest 184 (5/10), Guest 24 (9/10).

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. The suffix -gon means side and is a part of the words pentagon, octagon, dodecagon. How many sides does each of these figures have? Hint

five, six, and seven

five, eight, and twelve

five, seven, and ten

six, eight, and twelve

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Question 2 of 10

2. The Greek suffix -hedron, which means face of a three-dimensional figure. The heads of certain viruses are icosohedral. What is an icosahedron? Hint

a donut shape

a two-dimensional figure with 20 sides

a three-dimensional figure with 20 faces

a sphere

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Question 3 of 10

3. What is the language of origin of the term quadrilateral? Hint

Latin

English

Greek

Both Latin and Greek

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Question 4 of 10

4. What common math term means "for every one hundred" in Latin? Hint

fraction

decimal

ratio

percent

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Question 5 of 10

5. The prefix nano- is used for one billionth. What does nano mean in Greek (it has the same meaning in the Italian language)? Hint

elf

dwarf

pygmy

midget

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Question 6 of 10

6. Computers have had storage devices in the gigabyte range for years, but now drives are available that are over one thousand gigabytes. What is the unit describing one trillion bytes? Hint

terrabyte

terabyte

trilobyte

muchobyte

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Question 7 of 10

7. Hexahedron is another word for this figure with the Greek name kubos. What is the more common name for this polyhedron? Hint

cuboid

cube

dice

box

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Question 8 of 10

8. What the heck does pastry have to do with math? No silly, pi not pie. What is pi? Hint

A radical number

An imaginary number

A negative number

An irrational number

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Question 9 of 10

9. This letter is often used for angle measure. What is this letter, which is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet and is associated with death? Hint

beta

theta

zeta

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Question 10 of 10

10. What name, describing a property of a circle, comes from the Latin word meaning ray? Hint

chord

circumference

radius

diameter

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Most Recent Scores

Apr 16 2024 : PurpleComet: 7/10
Apr 08 2024 : Guest 184: 5/10
Mar 26 2024 : Guest 24: 9/10
Mar 08 2024 : Guest 75: 9/10

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The suffix -gon means side and is a part of the words pentagon, octagon, dodecagon. How many sides does each of these figures have?

Answer: five, eight, and twelve

Although the triangle and square have names without the suffix, polygons with five sides up to twenty sides use the Greek prefix and the correct Greek number prefix. The number prefixes penta-, octa, and doceda- mean five, eight, and twelve. The prefixes for six, seven, and ten are hexa-, hepta-, and deka-.

2. The Greek suffix -hedron, which means face of a three-dimensional figure. The heads of certain viruses are icosohedral. What is an icosahedron?

Answer: a three-dimensional figure with 20 faces

The icosahedron is one of the Platonic solids, which have convex faces that are all congruent. The other Platonic solids are the tetrahedron (four faces), octahedron (eight faces), and dodecahedron (12 faces). The dodecahedron has pentagonal faces, while all the others consist of equilateral triangles.

3. What is the language of origin of the term quadrilateral?

Answer: Latin

Quadrilateral derives from the Latin. I always ask my students if they know Spanish because it is a (Roman)ce language. Cuatro sounds like quadri- and means four. Lado is Spanish for side and lateral is side in Latin. So a quadrilateral has four sides.

4. What common math term means "for every one hundred" in Latin?

Answer: percent

In Spanish, por ciento means the same thing, that is, percent. Percents, decimals, and fractions are three ways to describe the same value, depending on the situation.

5. The prefix nano- is used for one billionth. What does nano mean in Greek (it has the same meaning in the Italian language)?

Answer: dwarf

Nano means dwarf in Greek and the nanometer is the Systeme International unit for one billionth of a meter. When used in science nano- refers to features on the order of one nanometer in length or diameter. There are nanospheres, nanotubes, and nanobacteria. For comparison's sake, the wavelength of visible light is on the order of 400 - 900 nm.

6. Computers have had storage devices in the gigabyte range for years, but now drives are available that are over one thousand gigabytes. What is the unit describing one trillion bytes?

Answer: terabyte

Currently the largest hard drives available to the general public are on the order of 2 TB or two terabytes (2,000,000,000 bytes). These drives have the same dimensions or smaller than the 1 MB hard disk in the Apple Computer of the late 1980s and yet contain 1,000,000 times the information!

7. Hexahedron is another word for this figure with the Greek name kubos. What is the more common name for this polyhedron?

Answer: cube

Cube can also be a verb meaning to raise a value to the third power.

8. What the heck does pastry have to do with math? No silly, pi not pie. What is pi?

Answer: An irrational number

Pi is irrational because it cannot be represented as a fraction that either repeats or terminates. It is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle and drove the Greeks up the wall because they did not believe in the existence of irrational numbers. Pi day occurs on March 14, a tradition started at the Exporatorium in San Francisco. Everyone brings a pie and enjoys it on that day and geeks recite pi to thousands of places to the right of the decimal. Awesome!

9. This letter is often used for angle measure. What is this letter, which is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet and is associated with death?

Answer: theta

Theta and thanos (death) alliterate. The letter theta is also linked with Toth, the Egyptian god of magic.

10. What name, describing a property of a circle, comes from the Latin word meaning ray?

Answer: radius

The radius is one half of the diameter, extending from the center of the circle to its periphery. The circumference is the distance around the circle. A chord is a straight line that cuts a circle at two points, so all diameters are chords, but not all chords are diameters.

Source: Author drbabe

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