The Anti-Math Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. There exists an actual phobia called arithmophobia.

Answer: True

Arithmophobia (or numerophobia) is the fear of numbers. According to "Math: Facing an American Phobia", by Marilyn Burns, "Two thirds of American adults have a hatred and deep fear of math. Recollections of math failure lead many to believe that they are simply not suited to mathematical thought."

2. This language gives us the useful (or terrifying, depending on your opinion) words "Algebra" and "Zero".

Answer: Arabic

Math may be the language of the sciences, but its words have been coined from many languages. Dictionary.com tells us that algebra is from "al-jebr", meaning "reduction of parts to a whole". Zero is from the Arabic "ifrun" or "ifr", meaning "empty". Both words entered Latin and then Italian before English. Other math words are derived from Greek, Persian, and even French. We (well, not me, maybe you) use the letter "m" to denote the slope of a line. The "m" is from the French verb "monter" which means to mount, to climb, or to rise.
(info from www.curiousmath.com)

3. Who was NOT a famous mathematician who, in addition to doing all kinds of difficult (and fabulous) math, had a really hard name too?

Answer: Soup�on de Bouillabaisse

Bougainville was one of those annoying people who was good at an awful lot of things. He was a mathematician, wrote "Trait� du calcul-int�gral" in 1752, and then became an explorer and the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe. The stunning tropical flower Bougainvillea is named for him.

Bhaskaracharya was an Indian math whiz who lived in the 12th century. His name looks easy when compared to his considerable mathematical output, which includes "Karanakutuhala (Calculation of Astronomical Wonders)".

Cauchy merits inclusion for his "Le�ons sur le Calcul Diff�rentiel" and his name, which I need a few le�ons in pronouncing.

Soup�on de Bouillabaisse, or "hint of something fishy", is the French patron saint of people who can't do math OR pronounce French. (okay, I made that up.)

4. Suffer the little children, for they shall be called upon to learn math. Which of the following CANNOT be found on the Internet to help?

Answer: Math Muck

Hard to believe no one has taken the Math Muck name yet, isn't it?

5. A sad chapter in both math and feminist history was the introduction of the Teen Talk Barbie doll, who famously said which of the following until she was shut up for contributing to stereotypes?

Answer: "Math class is tough"

The year was 1992, the company was Mattel, and the facial hue was red with embarrassment. Barbie also said, among other best-forgotten phrases, "Meet you at the mall!", "Can we EVER have enough clothes?" and "I love shopping".
(Hey, wait a minute...)

6. Mathematical illiteracy is called innumeracy.

Answer: True

Yep. According to dictionary.com, to be innumerate is to be
"unfamiliar with mathematical concepts and methods". The term is of fairly recent coinage, from the 1988 book "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos.

7. Which of these actual songs is about something that happened, mathematically, in the United States in the 1960s?

Answer: New Math by Tom Lehrer

"Hooray for new math,
New-hoo-hoo-math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!"

The official (well, it looks pretty official to me, because it is from mathematicallycorrect.com) definition of "new math" is "A change in the perspective of mathematics education in the early '60s that emphasized set theory, and has nothing to do with the changes to math education today."
For a more complete discussion of New Math and its place in history, see http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mnewmath.html

Of the incorrect choices, Dave Mitchell is a Canadian math lecturer who sings about numbers; School House Rock, which premiered on TV in 1973, is permanently engraved upon all our brains; and TMBG are a favored band of the mathematically and scientifically inclined. "Everything Right Is Wrong Again" is from 1986.

8. Seriously, the only thing your faithful quiz writer likes better than math is fashion. How could I combine the two?

Answer: Buy "Pi" from the House of Givenchy

"There's a new definition of sexiness. Today, women are more concerned with a man's psyche than his physique. Parfums Givenchy understands this concept, and incorporated it in the creation of their new men's fragrance, "Pi.""
(from http://greatdayamerica.com/style/fragrance/pi.shtml)

I made up two of the three wrong answers, shame on me. I would have loved to own "Cowculus", but unfortunately, it was sold years ago. Darn.
http://houston.cowparade.net/cow/detail/823

9. Could a divided highway have a measure of central tendency?

Answer: Yes

It could if it had a MEDIAN, which along with MEAN and MODE are the three main measures of central tendency. Now, you may think that this is a math question, and this is the Anti-Math Quiz. Actually though, this is a vocabulary question, so all is cool.

10. Finally, just when we'd started to think that mathematicians had the answer for everything, they came up with Heisenberg's ________ Principle.

Answer: uncertainty

The fundamental principle of uncertainty that underlies quantum physics is referred to as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Source: Author LilahDeDah

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ArleneRimmer before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Would you rather hide under a rotting bridge than do math? Or do you LOVE it, yet sense a certain anti-math bias in the world? Calculators down... the Anti-Math quiz is for everyone!

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