Math Trivia Questions (Jeopardy-Style)

101 Math Trivia Questions with Answers—Are Your Ready?

Are you looking for some fun and challenging math trivia questions? If so, this page shares 101 math trivia questions based on the following categories:

• Famous Mathematicians

• Properties of Numbers

• Math in Pop Culture

• Math in the Real World

• Geometry in the Real World

• Math in Nature

• Mathematical Symbols

• Do the Math!

• Mathematical Constants

• Miscellaneous Math Trivia

You can scroll down to see all 101 math trivia questions in order, or you can click on any of the blue text links above to jump to any one particular category.

Attempting to answer a few math trivia questions is a great way to test your knowledge of all thing mathematics—from famous mathematicians to number theory to mathematics in nature and beyond.

Whether you are a trivia fan looking to broaden your field of knowledge or a math student or enthusiast looking to test how much you actually know about math, the math trivia questions below will be a fun and entertaining challenges that will surely teach you a new fact or two about math.

Are you ready to get started? Let’s start off with our very first category…

Math Trivia Category: Famous Mathematicians

1.) This famous Greek mathematician, and author of The Elements, is known as the “Father of Geometry.”

Answer: Euclid

2.) This famous English mathematician is often credited as the inventor of calculus also had a deep interest in alchemy, spending many years of his life conducting secret experiments in the hope of discovering the fabled Philosopher’s Stone.

Answer: Sir Isaac Newton

3.) This famous German mathematician is best known for his contributions in the field of statistics and the Gaussian distribution, which we know today as the normal distribution curve.

Answer: Carl Friedrich Gauss

4.) This famous mathematician and philosopher developed the Cartesian coordinate system in the 17th-century.

Answer: René Descartes

5.) This famous German mathematician has a rival claim to Sir Issac Newton as the inventor of calculus.

• Answer: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

6.) This famous French physicist and mathematician is best known for formulating Pascal’s Triangle.

• Answer: Blaise Pascal

7.) This famous Iranian mathematician became the very first woman to win the Fields Medal for mathematics in 2014.

• Answer: Maryam Mirzakhani

8.) This famous Greek mathematician is known for having accurately calculated the circumference of planet Earth using only shadows and some simple geometry.?

• Answer: Eratosthenes

9.) Also known as Leonardo of Pisa, this famous Italian mathematician is best known for discovering a sequence where each number is the sum of the two previous numbers.

• Answer: Fibonacci

10.) This famous British computer scientist and mathematician is known for leading the team of cryptographers who broke the German Enigma Code during World War II.

• Answer: Alan Turing

Math Trivia Category: Properties of Numbers

11.) This value is, by definition, the smallest prime number.

• Answer: 2

12.) This term refers to any non-prime whole number other than 0 and 1.

• Answer: Composite Number

13.) This value represents the sum of the first five prime numbers.

• Answer: 2 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 11 = 28

14.) True or False: 51 is a Prime Number.

• Answer: False

15.) True or False: 64 is both a Perfect Square and a Perfect Cube

• Answer: True

16.) This mathematical property of numbers states that the order of the terms when performing addition or multiplication does not affect the end result.

• Answer: The Commutative Property

17.) This classification refers to any number that can not be expressed as a fraction with an integer in the numerator and an integer in the denominator.

• Answer: Irrational Number

18.) True or False: Zero is an even number.

• Answer: True

19.) This number is the smallest positive integer that is divisible by both 6 and 8.

• Answer: 24

20.) This number is the product of every prime number that is less than 10.

• Answer: 2 × 3 × 5 × 7 = 210

Math Trivia Category: Math in Pop Culture

21.) In this 1997 film, Matt Damon’s character plays a Harvard janitor who is also a natural genius in mathematics.

• Answer: Good Will Hunting

22.) In this 2001 film, Russell Crowe plays real-life mathematician, John Nash, who is best known for his contributions in the field of game theory.

• Answer: A Beautiful Mind

23.) In this 2014, Benedict Cumberbatch plays famous mathematician and computer scientist, Alan Turing, and highlight’s how his team cracked the German Enigma Cold during WWII.

• Answer: The Imitation Game

24.) During the math competition scene in the movie “Mean Girls,” the answer to the calculus problem “what is the limit as x approaches zero of [ln(1-x)-sinx]/(1-cos²x)” is this.

• Answer: The Limit Does Not Exist

25.) According to the film The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, this number is associated with life, the universe, and everything.

• Answer: 42

26.) In the 2016 film Hidden Figures, three African-American women mathematicians—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson—contributed to the launch of this NASA space mission.

• Answer: The Mercury-Atlas 6 Mission (John Glenn's famous orbit of Earth)

27.) In this famous fiction novel by author Dan Brown, the main character solves puzzles and other historical mysteries by using the Fibonacci sequence and other math-related clues.

• Answer: The Da Vinci Code

28.) In the 1993 film Jurassic Park, this actor played Dr. Ian Malcom, a mathematician who specialized in chaos theory.

• Answer: Jeff Goldblum

29.) In the 1997 film Contact starring Jodie Foster, the main character discovers an alien communication signal encoded in this type of number.

• Answer: Prime Numbers

30.) In the famous Netflix show Stranger Things, the young characters frequently refer to this branch of mathematics as it relates to an alternate dimensions, which they call the upside down.

• Answer: Quantum Mechanics

Math Trivia Category: Math in the Real World

31.) Binary number systems, often found in computer programming, use only these two digits.

• Answer: 0 and 1

32.) First celebrated in San Francisco in 1988, this mathematical holiday is celebrated annually on March 14th.

• Answer: Pi Day

33.) In gambling and investing, the term “Perms and Combs” is often used, where “Perms” refers to Permutations, a set where the order matters, and “Combs” refers to __________________________, a set where it does not.

• Answer: Combinations

34.) Developed by Alfred Wegener, this mathematical model explains the movements related to plate tectonics.

• Answer: Continental Drift

35.) Video game designers plan out their games using this kind of system, that, by definition, uses X, Y, and Z-values to determine the position of a point.

• Answer: Coordinate System

36.) Earning interest on both the principal value invested and on the interest you’ve already accumulated is known as this.

• Answer: Compounding

37.) Between 4:00 PM and 4:50 PM, the minute hand on Big Ben covers this many degrees.

• Answer: 300

38.) This fraction represents the odds of flipping a coin four times in a row and each time it landing on heads.

• Answer: 1/16

39.) True or False: -40ᵒ Celsius is equal to -40ᵒ Fahrenheit.

• Answer: True

40.) This statistical measure of central tendency represents the middle value in a data set when the numbers are arranged from smallest to largest.

• Answer: Median

Math Trivia Category: Geometry in the Real World

41.) Located in Washington, D.C., the famous government building, The Pentagon, has this many sides.

• Answer: Five

42.) Planet Earth’s general shape, despite being slightly flat at its poles, can best be described as this 3D-shape.

• Answer: Oblate Sphere

43.) Despite its slight vertical tilt, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy can best be described as this type of 3D geometric figure.

• Answer: Cylinder

44.) Located in the heart of Paris, the giant glass structure located in the main courtyard of the Louvre Museum is this geometric shape.

• Answer: Pyramid

45.) Located in St. Louis, Missouri, the famous Gateway Arch is an example of this type of geometric curve.

• Answer: A Catenary

46.) This famous architect is known for using complex geometric concepts and designs in his works, which include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California.

• Answer: Frank Gehry

47.) Often found in tile patterns and in the artwork of M.C. Escher, this concept refers to the repeated arrangement of interlocking figures and shapes.

• Answer: Tessellations

48.) Dedicated to the goddess Athena, this famous Greek temple is believed to feature the Golden Ration in its architectural design.

• Answer: The Parthenon

49.) This massive geometric structure covered with a high-tech exterior LED screen began hosting immersive entertainment experiences in Las Vegas in 2023.

• Answer: The Sphere

50.) Closely resembling a soccer ball, this geometric structure is comprised of interlocking hexagons and pentagons.

Answer: Buckyball

Math Trivia Category: Math in Nature

51.) Honeybees use this geometric shape when constructing their hives as a way of maximizing space in a mathematically efficient way.

• Answer: Hexagon

52.) Found naturally in pinecones and sunflowers, the spiral arrangement of structures and seeds follow this geometric sequence.

• Answer: The Fibonacci Sequence

53.) This type of symmetry can be found in Starfish, whose limbs radiate from one central point.

• Answer: Radial symmetry

54.) This type of symmetry can be found in butterflies, whose wing patterns form a vertical mirror image.

• Answer: Bilateral symmetry

55.) Due to their unique molecular structure of ice crystals, snowflakes always form this type of prism.

• Answer: Hexagonal prism

56.) Due to surface tension and air resistance, raindrops form this geometric shape as they fall.

• Answer: Oblate spheroid

57.) Mathematical in nature, ocean waves often follow this type of function, which is used to describe cyclic oscillations.

• Answer: Sine wave

58.) The atoms in a methane molecule are arranged as a Platonic Solid with four triangular faces, six edges, and four vertices, also known as this type of 3D figure.

• Answer: Tetrahedron

59.) Known for spiraling upwards in a twisting motion, tornados can be modeled using this type of 3D mathematical curve.

• Answer: Helical Spirals

60.) Natural objects, such as ferns, often exhibit these patterns of similar structures at smaller and larger scales.

• Answer: Fractals

Math Trivia Category: Mathematical Symbols

61.) In math, the ≈ symbol, which resembles a wavy equals sign, is to represent an ______________________.

• Answer: Approximation

62.) In math, ∠EFG can be used to describe an angle with a vertex at this point.

• Answer: F

63.)In math, the ≥ symbol, represents this phrase.

• Answer: Greater Than or Equal To

64.) In math, the √ symbol is used to denote the ____________ of a number?

• Answer: Square Root

65.) In math, the ∑ symbol, known as sigma, is used to represent _________________ .

• Answer: Summation

66.) In math, the ∞ symbol represents the concept of ____________.

• Answer: Infinity

67.) In math, the ! symbol is used to indicate a ___________________, which represents the product of the sequence of every positive integer leading up to the given number.

• Answer: Factorial

68.) In set theory, the ∪ symbol represents the ________________ of two sets.

• Answer: Union

69.) In set theory, the ∅ symbol represents the ________________ set.

• Answer: Empty

70.) In calculus, the ∫ symbol represents an _____________________.

• Answer: Integral

Math Trivia Category: Do The Math!

71.) This number equals to the sum of any integer and its negative.

• Answer: 0

72.) This number equals to the number of square inches in a square foot.

• Answer: 144

73.) This number equals to the sum of the first three perfect cubes.

• Answer: 1 + 8 + 27 = 36

74.) This number equals to the product of the first three prime numbers.

• Answer: 2 x 3 x 5 = 30

75.) This number equals 44 plus 7, minus 23, times 10, divided by 2.

• Answer: 140

76.) The length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs whose lengths are 6 and 8 is this number.

• Answer: 10

77.) This number equals 2⁵.

• Answer: 2⁵ = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 32

78.) Jake has 6 oranges, Brett has 4, Mikey has 2, and Drew has 8 for an average of this many oranges.

• Answer: 5

79.) If 5 chickens each lay an egg every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only, it’ll take this many weeks to make a 30-egg omelet.

• Answer: 2 Weeks (15 eggs per week)

80.) The fraction (8x⁴)/(2x) reduces to this number.

• Answer: 4x³

Math Trivia Category: Mathematical Constants

81.) Rounded off after two decimal places, the mathematical constant pi (π) is often approximated as this number.

• Answer: 3.14

82.) Rounded off after two decimal places, the Golden Ratio (φ) is often approximated as this number.

• Answer: 1.62

83.) This mathematical constant represents the square root of negative one.

• Answer: i (the imaginary number unit)

84.) This cornerstone of Newton’s Law of Gravity, this mathematical constant is equal to approximately 6.674 × 10⁻¹¹ N(m/kg)².

• Answer: G (The Gravitational Constant)

85.) This mathematical constant represents the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter.

• Answer: π (Pi)

86.) This mathematical constant represents the ration between a circle’s circumference and its radius.

• Answer: τ (Tau)

87.) In exponential mathematics, e⁰ is equal to this integer.

• Answer: 1

88.) In Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC², the constant used to express the speed of light is represented by this letter.

• Answer: C

89.) This mathematical constant represents the natural logarithm of 1.

• Answer: 0

90.) This mathematical constant is used as the base value of the natural logarithm and can be approximated to 2.72.

• Answer: e (Euler's Number)

Math Trivia Category: Miscellaneous Math

91.) The sum of the interior angles in angle triangle will always equal this number.

• Answer: 180

92.) This field of mathematics is concerned with the sines, cosines, and tangents of angles.

• Answer: Trigonometry

93.) This word describes and angle greater than 90 degrees, or a person who is a bit slow-witted.

• Answer: Obtuse

94.) In 1975, John Playfair simplified Euclid’s famous axiom about these, still saying they will never meet.

• Answer: Parallel Lines

95.) A prism has the same relationship to a pyramid as a cylinder does to a ____________________.

• Answer: Cone

96.) An icosahedron is a polyhedron with 20 faces, each of which is one of these shapes.

• Answer: Triangle

97.) This unimaginably large number can be represented by 10 raised to the power of 100.

• Answer: A Googol

98.) The sum of the interior angles in angle triangle will always equal this number.

• Answer: 180

99.) Thousands, then Millions, then Billions, then Trillions, then ___________________.

• Answer: Quadrillions

100.) A fraction is known as improper only if it is greater than this number.

• Answer: 1

101.) This value is the only whole number that can not be represented using Roman Numerals.

• Answer: 0