Fasters's definitions

Metamates

What Facebook employees are unofficially being called by fellow geeks, as “the Zuck” shift their attention to the Metaverse or to the world of virtual reality (VR).

Math geeks who are bewitched or mesmerized by what the Metaverse could offer the physical world in coming years or decades have a very high chance of being recruited as Metamates.

by Fasters June 14, 2022

Tai Ji and Pi

When the practice of Tai Ji (or T’ai Chi) could metaphysically or transcendentally propel someone to experience an aha! on the number π.

Speaking to a group of Buddhist mathematicians and math educators, a Tibetan lama challenged his audience to explore the mutual benefits of Tai Ji and Pi.

by Fasters January 25, 2022

Covidagon

What a layperson would call a 19-sided polygon or 19-gon rather than an enneadecagon or enneakaidecagon.

A corona math question for geeks: “Show that the interior angle in a regular covidagon is 161¹/₁₉°.”

by Fasters September 17, 2020

Less Is More

When an item or product costs more than a similar one with less sugar or salt content, which seems to suggest that having lesser or fewer of something is more inconvenient or harder to produce, or making a decision to be healthier is dearer—could it also be a mere marketing gimmick to lure health-conscious freaks?

A six-pack of Chrysanthemum Tea costs $1.95, but a similar one with lower sugar content costs $2.30; two isotonic bottle drinks cost $3.95, while the ones with zero sugar cost $4.40—aren’t these two cases prove that “less is more”?

by Fasters September 8, 2022

The MAGA-fication of Singapore Math

When more Trumpublican parents and patriots, who believed the 2020 election was stolen from ex-President Trump, are pushing their lawmakers to fine or revoke the licences of state bookstores that sell Singapore math textbooks and workbooks, and also to ban these oft-brain-unfriendly but wallet-friendly titles in local schools, because these foreign K–12 math publications are allegedly detrimental to the mental health of local math-anxious or low self-esteem students.

The MAGA-fication of Singapore math has failed to prevent tens of thousands of homeschoolers in red states every year from ordering value-for-money math titles from the “fine” city for their children, who’re often bored or unchallenged by their dear inch-deep, mile-wide thick colorful math textbooks.

by Fasters September 15, 2022

Buffalo Pi

When someone boastfully claimed to have used the value of the decimal number π to at least a dozen digits in a computation to sound more accurate, when three or four digits would have sufficed.

Unless they are a rocket scientist or quantum physicist, laypersons who pridefully tell others that they had used buffalo pi in a practical math problem are simply blowing their own horn.

by Fasters January 2, 2022

Mathematical Shrine

A shelf that displays your math memorabilia (abacuses, slide rules, polygonal stamps, math-related postcards, 3D wooden puzzles, topology toys, …) that are likely to be a topic of conversation as friends and strangers visit your home.

Ian’s mathematical shrine is made up of origami polyhedrons, magic card tricks, Napier’s rods, vintage calculators and clocks, and Lilliputian math books.

by Fasters February 24, 2022