and when talking about geometric means. he gave them the definition and like 2 questions later asked what the GM was of 2, 5, and 100. they got it wrong lol
People with decent level specific maths and physics knowledge commenting 'this isn't that hard for university'. Um yeah, the point of this show is to test the contestants with specific knowledge over a wide range of topics. The fact you knew Pauli was responsible for the exclusion principle doesn't make you smarter than these guys. That's a specific piece of knowledge to that subject, which isn't general knowledge - and that's the point of the game.
Lots of keyboard warriors in the comments. I also got most of these rights, but when you're filmed and under pressure I guess it's a total different story. By the way science is about being amazed and trying to understand the world around you, it's not a dick size contest. Stop being so full of yourselves
Karl Pilkington has got this sussed! He enjoys playing University Challenge at home, not by answering the questions, but by guessing which egghead will answer each question. Genius!
Yeah, but they are under allot of pressure. Its easy to mock their mistakes when you sit at home watching. That said, not knowing about Ramanujan is disgraceful.
Still even under loads of a pressure, I'm pretty sure u can still realize that any number raised to an exponent is essentially positive. So why in the world did he get -10??
How is naming physicists, mathematicians, and chemical symbols based on bible testaments have anything to do math and physics?? I really hope this crap isn't on any exams in universities.
of course its not part of formal tests, but knowing about the history and progression of the topic is valuable and important when learning maths and various branches of the sciences
Everyone here in the comments is wondering how they didn't know Ramanujan or Tesla, and I'm over here wondering how the fuck they didn't know the secant question. That's basic high school geometry/trigonometry.
47:04 Also, they did not realize that (m/s)² [velocity squared] does *NOT* give the same units as m/s² × m³ [acceleration times their answer of radius cubed].
(Rant) I have a degree in maths and from personal experience, I think the actual computational maths problems are all around A-level maths/further maths standard, like something you would get in a Cambridge maths interview. Like the linear algebra/ Taylor expansion/elementary probably theory stuff which is further maths. On the other hand the knowledge based questions are pretty specialist (90% from 1st year material with a few harder exceptions) but you don't have to work anything out. The exceptions include the v-e+f=2 Euler equation I learnt in 3rd year discrete maths, and Cauchy, Laplace etc whose names I only got to know in 2nd year. I remember from another episode a question about the Lebesgue/Jordan measure which is definitely 3rd year probability theory. The other things like Mersenne primes, Riemann Hypothesis etc are basic knowledge for all keen high school students wanting to pursue mathematics. Also I managed to answer 4 physics questions from remembering my A-level physics classes, so I think they must be around the same level. This makes me feel much better now since most of the time I don't even understand the questions on the show that's not maths or classical music. But I guess it's manageable for people who study that particular subject. I'm still amazed at how these guys do maths problems so fast under pressure though👍🏼
You heard about Cauchy in your second year for the first time? This dude came up with the foundation of Analysis. If the Mathematics program you attended does not cover Analysis I (including among other topics: construction of the reals, sequences and convergence, (infinite) sums, continuity of functions, differentiation) it has to be a very shitty program.
+Sheldon Cooper I think I meant to say the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality (and Laplace transforms), but shortened my point incorrectly. I know that some unis like Oxbridge teach it in first year, but as I did a combined degree we learnt it in 2nd year real analysis. Also would you like it if I were to call your degree shitty? We are all grown ups so please speak in a civil manner. FYI rankings tell me that my uni is one of the best in the world so I'm pretty sure the courses I took were far from 'shitty'.
+amesakurako: Great writeup, thank you. +Sheldon Cooper: stop the dumb trolling and get on the University Challenge program to prove what you know in a competitive pressure situation.
A lot of the questions are meant to just be really quick, off the cuff answers. I mean... One of the questions they just sounded off the definition of continuity in a topological space. I can't imagine they've never been exposed to it, I'm guessing it was nerves.
@@ralphinoful Hearing topological space and answering convex or concave means that they are guessing with whatever words they learned in preparation. Convexity has more or less nothing to do with topological spaces (unless you are in a convex topological vector space).
That was a great deal of fun, but I have one tiny nit to pick (with the questioners). "Heisenberg's Cat" doesn't actually say that "the cat is simultaneously dead and alive" (although this is how it is often posed). Rather, it claims that the cat is _neither_ dead _nor_ alive until the measurement is made.
Maybe when you have such a vast pool of notable scientists stored mentally, selecting the correct answer becomes less trivial than when only knowing the most obvious select few. That, or they be dumb.
its not meant to be university level questions, rather such a broad variety of questions that it is very difficult even for university students. Also just because you may have answered these, dosen't mean you could compete in this as you need to know many areas (from maths to classical poetry) to even qualify for the team of most unis
"What are *the four* roots of unity?". Huh? For any n there are n roots of unity. Tell us what root you're talking about. Maybe he was meant to say "what are the *fourth* roots of unity"?
Surely 5:40 is a perfectly good answer, just with x instead of y as the independent variable. Edit: I see he said "written as a function of y". Still kinda stupid though.
It pisses me off that they're guessing all the historical figures based on a relatively small set of potential answers. "AN ITALIAN?? UHHH.. GALILEO I GUESS."
Can someone please explain to me why the answer for the question starting around @24:40 is 3? My very fast guess would have been 0...(not considering negative integers though).
By Bezout's identity, the smallest positive integer that can be written as 375a + 147b (where a and b are integers) is also the greatest common factor of 375 and 147. They obviously share 3 and dividing 375 by 3 gives 5 cubed. Since 147 is not divisible by 5 and 375 has no other prime factors (as 3*5^3 is its prime factorisation), the greatest common factor must be 3.
It was actually hardy who thought his cab number was uninteresting, and srivinasa said that it had those properties, or as the story goes, just goes to show these guys who don’t even study maths (most of them) still have heard of these things which I find so impressive, I only came here because I’m a maths student (with a keen interest in physics my diss is on star formation) to see whether I’d get many of them. Seems I’ve forgotten half of my degree already
How can there be a probability of 1 (ie certain to occur) that one of two half-possible events will occur (of two mutually exclusive events, each with only a probability of one half of occurring)? When say there's half a chance that coin A turns up heads when flipped- and half a chance that coin B turns up heads- it's DEFINITELY not certain that one of them will show heads. I must be misinterpreting the question.
Not saying they arent bright at all, but how tf do u not instantly answer those exponential expressions at 21mins in. Like im in highschool and even I got all those instantly
University challenge asks questions about every subject , these people are most likely not studying maths at university and are relying on their high school maths which for some was maybe 5-6 years ago.
