**Uncover Your Mathematical Persona with Ben Orlin’s Quiz**
Mathematics, often viewed as the universal language of the universe, can sometimes be seen as unforgiving, stiff, and inflexible. Nevertheless, Ben Orlin, a math educator and author of *Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language*, disputes this belief by emphasizing the human aspect of math. On his blog, *Math With Drawings*, Orlin delves into the eccentric, amusing, and profoundly personal ways individuals interact with mathematics. To commemorate the launch of his latest book, Orlin has crafted an enjoyable and enlightening quiz to assist you in identifying your distinct mathematical persona.
Mathematics, akin to any language, comes with its own dialects, accents, and idiomatic expressions. Whether you are a math aficionado, a professional mathematician, or simply inquisitive, this quiz provides a playful avenue to contemplate your relationship with the topic. So, what is your mathematical persona? Let’s jump in and discover!
### 1. What do you call the square root of two?
– (a) √2
– (b) 21/2
– (c) “The positive solution to x² = 2”
– (d) I like to joke and call it “1.4 exactly” or “the diagonal that shall not be named.”
### 2. If you notice someone writing “0.33333,” how do you interpret this?
– (a) They must have meant 1/3.
– (b) They must have meant 33,333/100,000.
– (c) Appears to be a fifth-iteration entry in a generalized Cantor set. I need more context to specify.
– (d) It’s a cryptic message to my robot mind. To break free from the time loop, we need to execute Commander Riker’s strategy and relax the primary shuttle bay.
### 3. Quick, mention the first number that comes to mind.
– (a) Seven.
– (b) 3+4i.
– (c) Oops, I ended up sampling uniformly from the unit interval and obtained something non-computable. I can’t express it in a limited time. Apologies.
– (d) Legendre’s Constant (which is my way of saying “one”).
### 4. What type of geometry do you prefer?
– (a) Euclidean.
– (b) Non-Euclidean.
– (c) Does “algebraic geometry” count?
– (d) I presume you’re asking, “If you had the chance to reside on a massive piece of pasta, which shape would you choose?” Well, to make a long story short: cascatelli.
### 5. If given two variables, what names would you give them?
– (a) x and y
– (b) x₁ and x₂
– (c) xᵢ and xⱼ
– (d) “Hootie” and “the Blowfish”
### 6. What’s your opinion on Pi Day?
– (a) Positive. I enjoy math, and pie is delicious.
– (b) Strongly against. The US date format is inferior, 3.14 is a less accurate representation compared to 22/7, and memorizing digits is… wait, where are you headed?
– (c) Sorry, I’m unfamiliar with that notation… π day, as in the differential of ay?
– (d) Here’s my criticism: Since every conceivable date and time can be found in the decimal extension of π, why is Pi Day celebrated only once a year? Why aren’t we indulging in pie every moment of our existence, and specifically, *right now*?
### 7. What base do you prefer for a number system?
– (a) Base 10, I suppose.
– (b) Base 12. Base 10 is a testament to human folly and should be discarded tomorrow.
– (c) I prefer integer bases, but it’s not a strong inclination.
– (d) Unary, also known as base one, also known as tally marks. It’s visually appealing and it would alleviate AI doomsayers (it’s quite slow to train a neural network when storing all weights as tally marks).
### 8. What is your favorite type of mathematical puzzle?
– (a) Sudoku.
– (b) Solving quartic equations by hand.
– (c) I’d say NP-Hard. Or, did you mean a class of genuine isomorphs?
– (d) Nice attempt, but I’m not about to nerd-snipe myself.
### 9. What are your thoughts on writing a radical in a denominator, such as 1 / √2?
– (a) Fine.
– (b) Deep
