Math Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Math trivia quiz questions with answers about arithmetic

Math Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What is arithmetic?
A: Arithmetic is a branch of mathematics that consists of the study of numbers, especially the properties of the traditional operations on them—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Arithmetic is an elementary part of number theory, and number theory is considered to be one of the top-level divisions of what?
A: Modern mathematics, along with algebra, geometry, and analysis.

The terms arithmetic and higher arithmetic were used until the beginning of the 20th century as synonyms for what?
A: Number theory and are sometimes still used to refer to a wider part of number theory.

The prehistory of arithmetic is limited to a small number of artifacts which may indicate the conception of what?
A: Addition and subtraction, the best-known being the Ishango bone from central Africa, dating from somewhere between 20,000 and 18,000 BC, although its interpretation is disputed.

The earliest written records indicate the Egyptians and Babylonians used all the elementary arithmetic operations as early as when?
A: 2000 BC.

The hieroglyphic system for Egyptian numerals, like the later Roman numerals, descended from what?
A: Tally marks used for counting.

In both cases, this origin resulted in values that used a decimal base but did not include what?
A: Positional notation.

Complex calculations with Roman numerals required the assistance of what?
A: A counting board or the Roman abacus to obtain the results.

Prior to the works of Euclid around 300 BC, Greek studies in mathematics overlapped with what?
A: Philosophical and mystical beliefs.

The ancient Greeks lacked a symbol for what?
A: Zero, until the Hellenistic period.

The ancient Chinese had advanced arithmetic studies dating from what dynasty?
A: The Shang Dynasty and continuing through the Tang Dynasty, from basic numbers to advanced algebra.

The ancient Chinese used a positional notation similar to that of whom?
A: The Greeks.

Since they also lacked a symbol for zero, they had one set of symbols for the unit's place, and a second set for what?
A: The ten's place.

For the hundred's place they then did what?
A: They reused the symbols for the unit's place, and so on.

Their symbols were based on what?
A: Ancient counting rods.

The ancient Chinese were the first to meaningfully discover, understand, and apply what type of numbers?
A: Negative.

Leibniz's Stepped Reckoner was the first calculator that could perform what?
A: All four arithmetic operations.

In the middle Ages, arithmetic was one of the seven “what”, taught in universities?
A: Liberal arts.

The flourishing of algebra in the medieval Islamic world and in Renaissance Europe was an outgrowth of the enormous simplification of computation through what?
A: Decimal notation.

Various types of tools have been invenInventions Trivia Quiz Questions and Answersted and widely used to do what?
A: To assist in numeric calculations.

Before Renaissance, they were various types of what?
A: Abaci.

More recent examples include what?
A: Slide rules, nomograms and mechanical calculators, such as Pascal's calculator.

At present, they have been supplanted by what?
A: Electronic calculators and computers.

What are the basic arithmetic operations?
A: They are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Arithmetic expressions must be evaluated according to the intended what?
A: Sequence of operations.

Any set of objects upon which all four arithmetic operations (except division by 0) can be performed, and where these four operations obey the usual laws (including distributivity), is called a what?
A: A field.

What is the most basic operation of arithmetic?
A: Addition.

In its simple form, addition combines two numbers, the addends or terms, into what?
A: A single number, the sum of the numbers.

Adding finitely many numbers can be viewed as repeated simple addition; this procedure is known as what?
A: Summation, a term also used to denote the definition for "adding infinitely many numbers" in an infinite series.

Repeated addition of the number 1 is the most basic form of what?
A: Counting, the result of adding 1 is usually called the successor of the original number.

Addition is commutative and what?
A: Associative.

The identity element for a binary operation is the number that, when combined with any number, yields what?
A: The same number as result.

According to the rules of addition, adding 0 to any number yields that same number, so 0 is what?
A: The additive identity.

Subtraction is the inverse operation to what?
A: Addition.

Subtraction finds the difference between two numbers, the minuend minus the what?
A: Subtrahend.

If the minuend is larger than the subtrahend, the difference is what?
A: Positive.

If the minuend is smaller than the subtrahend, the difference is what?
A: Negative.

In any case, if minuend and subtrahend are equal, the difference equals what?
A: 0.

Subtraction is neither commutative nor what?
A: Associative.

What is the second basic operation of arithmetic?
A: Multiplication.

Multiplication also combines two numbers into a single number, the what?
A: The product.

The two original numbers are called the multiplier and the what?
A: Multiplicand, mostly both are simply called factors.

Multiplication may be viewed as what type of operation?
A: A scaling operation.

Multiplication is commutative and what?
A: Associative; further it is distributive over addition and subtraction.

The multiplicative identity is 1, since multiplying any number by 1 yields what?
A: That same number.

The multiplicative inverse for any number except 0 is what?
A: The reciprocal of this number, because multiplying the reciprocal of any number by the number itself yields the multiplicative identity 1.

What is the only number without a multiplicative inverse?
A: 0.

How is the product of a and b written?
A: As a × b or a•b.

In computer programming languages and software packages in which one can only use characters normally found on a keyboard, it is often written with what?
A: An asterisk: a * b.

Division is essentially the inverse operation to what?
A: Multiplication.

Division finds the quotient of two numbers, the dividend divided by the what?
A: The divisor.

Any dividend divided by 0 is what?
A: Undefined.

The quotient multiplied by the divisor always yields the what?
A: The dividend.

Division is neither commutative nor what?
A: Associative.

Modern methods for four fundamental operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) were first devised by whom?
A: Brahmagupta of India.

This was known during medieval Europe as what?
A: "Modus Indoram" or Method of the Indians.

The process for multiplying two arbitrary numbers is similar to the process for what?
A: Addition.

Until the 19th century, number theory was a synonym of what?
A: "Arithmetic".