Jeopardy Math: Volume 2

As a former math teacher and academic teach coach from several years ago, and also as a bit of a trivia fan, two of my areas of interest are math and the TV game show Jeopardy.  In a previous blog post from September, I wrote about Jeopardy Math.  In that post, I explored the mathematical question of what the highest possible score would be in a game of Jeopardy.  Here, as I write this one, I have recently watched the conclusion of Jeopardy’s 2021 Tournament of Champions.  A couple of events from this year’s tournament have prompted me to share some more Jeopardy thoughts, much of which are math-related.

Before I get too far into this, I should mention that this post contains spoilers.  So, if you are a fan of Jeopardy and have not watched this year’s Tournament of Champions, but you intend to, and you don’t want to know what happens until you actually watch it, you may not want to read any further just yet.  Watch it first, then come back and read this.  (I believe all the episodes can be found on YouTube.)  Otherwise, if you’re okay with finding out information before (or without) watching the tournament, you may go ahead and read further.