Fasters's definitions

Pi Clock

A normal clock in which the numerals representing the numbers 1 to 12 have been replaced by only three irrational numbers, positioned at π, 2π, and 3π.

What is the acute angle measure when the minute hand of a pi clock points exactly at 2π while the hour hand has moved past 3π—or when the time is slightly past 9:30? Answer: 97.3°.

by Fasters July 30, 2022

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

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

#TrumpMath

A Twitter hashtag that mathematically pokes fun at the twice-impeached, thrice-married Donald J. Trump, by divining or predicting what he would do based on his idiocies and idiosyncrasies, which have kept thousands of reporters, writers, and comedians worldwide happy (and also lazy)—they were blessed with daily free juicy materials from the Pinocchio-in-Chief turned Pharisee-in-Chief to write about.

#TrumpMath parodies Trump’s fake news, which revolves around dishonesty, hypocrisy, racism, supremacism, vanity, and xenophobia, among other things.

by Fasters January 31, 2023

Pitrepreneur

A math educator or geek who plans to turn their passion or obsession for the number π into cash.

Be it via newly coined pi-related definitions, factoids, and jokes on mugs and T-shirts; pop math books on or about pi for dummies, idiots, and morons; or pi NFTs and PiCoins, Prof. Ian, a self-professed pitrepreneur, wants to turn his geeky passion into obscene profits.

by Fasters March 31, 2022

Algebra

The branch of mathematics that turns simple-minded people into symbol-minded citizens, who work out the values of unknowns x’s, y’s, z’s with the help of constants a’s, b’s, c’s.

Algebra helps students to move from the particular to the general, by enabling them to speak the language of science so that they’d make sense of the workings of the universe.

by Fasters June 26, 2022

Pi Awakening

When an oft-semi-innumerate lay public realize that the number π has so much more to offer in terms of mathematical beauty or metamathematics (or mathematical philosophy), which allows them to experience sporadic aha moments, other than what they had boringly learned about the constant in school.

Going by the increasing number of pop math titles on pi published by math educators of different nationalities in different places, it can be arguably posited that there is presently a post-pandemic pi awakening sweeping the planet, much to the delight of both recreational and amateur mathematicians.

by Fasters December 14, 2022