Fasters's definitions

Pi Made Me Do It

When the world’s most popular mathematical constant lured me to coin or christen no fewer than 3.14 × 10² words and phrases about her as part of a lifelong recreational math project to preach the mathematical gospel to an oft-math-anxious or semi-innumerate global community.

The “Pi Made Me Do It” sounds like a marketing slogan in the math or math education business, but its global positive impact among math educators has so far been nothing short of a miracle.

by Fasters May 29, 2023

Creepily Pi-ed

When a math-anxious or mathophobic person’s stress level skyrockets at the sight or sound of the number π, or on spotting expressions or formulas that contain the irrational number—common symptoms are faster heartbeat, sweaty palms, temporary mental blackouts, and in some cases a seconds-long stroke.

Don, who’s creepily pi-ed after watching a science fiction horror movie, was given three days leave by his family psychiatrist to recover from his post-pi traumatic experience.

by Fasters May 28, 2023

Piroscope

The art of predicting someone’s personality based on the number of digits of the number π they remember or have painfully committed to memory, or on a certain fraction or expression they use to approximate the irrational number.

In pseudo-evangelical circles or conspiratorial quarters, it’s not too difficult to match the piroscope sign MAGA patriots belong to.

by Fasters May 26, 2023

Mathematical Wokeism

When ultra-MAGA Trumpublicans or white Christian nationalists are hell-bent to censor any math educator or publisher who dares to expose the whitewashing of math or math education throughout history, because allowing them to right any past mathematical wrongs or injustices committed by colonialists or imperialists would lay bare their selfish attempts to brainwash millions of children that the evolution of mathematical ideas is a white people’s contribution.

White supremacist or extremist math educators label mathematicians and math educators, who question the distorted or fake view of the history of mathematics, or who lecture about mathematical wokeism, as “mathematically toxic”—they’d be deprived of education funding for discussing that math is racist, or for condemning centuries-long white male privilege in academia.

by Fasters May 26, 2023

As Deadly as Pi

When Pi, the life-threatening Covid-19 variant of concern that came after the variant Omicron, was marginalized by WHO, as it fears that the politically incorrect or mathematically blasphemous label might unprovenly trigger a global outcry or protest among millions of math educators for whatever unspoken or irrational reasons.

From 2020–2023, many different types of Covid-19 variants were floating freely on the planet, but none was as deadly as Pi.

by Fasters May 23, 2023

🐓 π

Short for “Chicken Pi.” A mathematical rebus that sounds like “chicken pie.”

At a KFC outlet in the “fine” city of Singapore, passers-by could spot the silhouette of a chicken and a π-like symbol meters apart. What are the chances that someone would interpret these two figures as 🐓 π?

by Fasters May 23, 2023

Anti-Pi Day

A hands-on educational event for math-anxious students and adults that would offer them some fun non-symbolic things to do on Pi Day—a mathematical equivalent of an anti-Valentine’s Day for singles.

To empathize with tens of thousands of kids who feel left out or alienated on Pi Day, a Singapore NGO is organizing a “Anti-Pi Day” concert to boost their low self-esteem in math.

by Fasters May 22, 2023