Fasters's definitions

X

Pronounced as “ex.” The debatably new “terrible” or “terrifying” name for the formerly known Twitter app, which reminds billions of kids and their parents worldwide of their dreaded years-long school algebra.

Are the days of X numbered, especially when two key rivals are exploring whether or not they’d also be renaming some of their subsidiaries Y and Z to strategically create confusion and chaos on social media?

by Fasters July 25, 2023

Florida Math

Also known as “Anti-Woke Math.” Math curriculums, textbooks, and resources that include materials that whitewash any centuries-long contributions from nonwhite and LGBT mathematicians and math educators worldwide; or contents that exclude any elements of critical race theory, social-emotional learning, journal writing, ethnomathematics, and other MAGA dislikes.

In 2022, the Department of Education rejected more than 40% of math textbooks publishers submitted, because they fell short of the “high” standards set up by Florida math curriculum censors, who work closely with puritan parents and “anti-woke” lawmakers.

by Fasters July 20, 2023

Pi Day Syndrome

The feeling of anger, stupidity, and loss when someone feels alienated for not being able to participate in casual conversations with their geeky colleagues and friends, who never stop cracking and sharing pi jokes and factoids on mathematics’s most beloved day of the year.

Guesstimate how percents of math-anxious folks worldwide suffer from the Pi Day Syndrome to some degree, without being consciously aware of it.

by Fasters July 17, 2023

Swiftematics

The aftermath the overwhelming demand for Taylor Swift’s limited supply of wallet-unfriendly concert tickets has on math or math education among teenagers and young adults in some high-GDP nations and emerging economies in Asia—when there seems to be an inexplicably positive correlation between idol worship and a rise in the quantitative literacy among the Swifties.

Two Swiftematics quickies tailor-made for middle- and high-school Swifties are:

1. Guesstimate how much tourism revenue Taylor Swift’s six concerts would generate when she toured the “fine” city of Singapore in March 2024.

2. What are the chances that a Singaporean Swiftie would get to watch their American idol live when she performed in “Disneyland with the death penalty” next year?

by Fasters July 10, 2023

≤ and ≥

Two inequality or “woke math” symbols, formed by the portmanteau symbols for the equals (=) symbol and the less than (<) and greater than (>) signs—they are read as “less than or equal to” and “greater than or equal to.”

When ≤ and ≥ are brought together, they look like ≤≥.

by Fasters July 8, 2023

< and >

The inequality or “woke math” signs for “greater than” (>) and “less than” (<), which often confuse an obscene number of young schoolchildren worldwide, because they mistake one sign for another.

Two metamathematics questions on “< and >” are:
True or False: (a) 3 > ⁵ and (b) ₅ < 4.

by Fasters July 8, 2023

Pifulness

Also known as “Pi Playfulness.” Having fun and toying around with the number π mentally, artfully, philosophically, poetically, or spiritually.

Pifulness isn’t so much about coming up with a new pi theorem or an elegant proof—unless that’s your thing—but it’s also about exploring and expanding the use of pi beyond mathematics or science.

by Fasters July 3, 2023