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From: gds@mit-eddie.UUCP (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: net.games.trivia,net.math
Subject: Re: Trivial Pursuit errors?
Message-ID: <911@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jan-86 16:18:38 EST
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Posted: Thu Jan  9 16:18:38 1986
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> From: ccs020@ucdavis.UUCP (Kevin Chu)

> Trivial Pursuit has many incorrect answers in it.  Most of them are wrong
> because they were worded incorrectly, like the example above.  

> Here is a good example, the question reads:

> "What surface area do you get when you slice a solid sphere?"

> The answer given is "a circle" which is incorrect for several reasons.
> How many can you name?

I believe the question itself is incorrectly worded.  It should read
"What geometric shape do you get when you slice a solid sphere?"

As I recall, if you slice a cone with a plane parallel to the base of the
cone, you get a circle.  However if you slice it at an angle to the base
of the cone, you'll get an ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola (or
intersecting lines) depending on the angle.  If you slice a solid sphere
you'll get a circle.  However, the "surface area" is the area of the
circle, not the circle itself.

If there are any mathemagicians out there please help us out!
-- 
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under.

Greg Skinner (gregbo)
{decvax!genrad, allegra, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds
gds@mit-eddie.mit.edu