Who Wants to Be a Mathematician

You find the strangest things when you search Google News for "game show." Like Who Wants to Be a Mathematician.

This contest really exists, and it runs as a game show among teen-aged contestants at various math conventions. This story tells about Anudeep Golla, a 15-year-old who will play at the 2019 edition in January.

As you might expect, Anudeep is one smart cookie. He's already zipped through a bunch of calculus courses, and now he's aiming for the $5,000 prize on WWTBAM(athematician). It's not quite a million like Chris Harrison offers - though nobody ever wins the top prize any more - but it's still a nice piece of change for a 15-year-old.

I looked through YouTube for video of the show and found a 2015 game. It wasn't quite as fast paced as, say, Jeopardy. For instance, the contestants got 75 seconds to answer the question in the screenshot. Your typical TV showrunner would groan over such a tortoise-like pace.

Shameless brag: I got the question right myself, but only after I messed with 1/π. I figured that π had to be somewhere in the answer. Then it dawned on me that the really indispensable number was √2. That makes the big circle twice the size of the little circle, so the correct answer is D.

Would I have nailed the answer if I had been 15 years old, onstage and under time pressure? I'll never know for sure, but I suspect I would have goofed big time.

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