MathPlus's definitions
Short for “mask haiku.” A three-line poem, written in a 5-7-5 syllable count, that can help activate the oft-atrophied right part of the brain, which is responsible for creativity in the arts.
Let’s indulge in some masikus.
MASK & MATH
Both hide much from us.
If we could see what’s behind
Fear would have to flee.
THE MASK OF MATH
Math won’t reveal much
Until we use our mind’s eye
To see its beauty.
THE MATH OF MASK
Mask diplomacy.
China and Russia ship them
By the ten millions.
MASK & MATH
Both hide much from us.
If we could see what’s behind
Fear would have to flee.
THE MASK OF MATH
Math won’t reveal much
Until we use our mind’s eye
To see its beauty.
THE MATH OF MASK
Mask diplomacy.
China and Russia ship them
By the ten millions.
by MathPlus April 20, 2021
Get the Masikumug. When the Singapore authorities could stop, disable, or block access to any online math content, which was unprovenly created via the works of foreign mathematicians or math educators, that the government deems politically, racially, religiously, or socially inappropriate to be published, because it could cast doubt or create confusion in the minds of locals, who could then have a low or wavering confidence in the Ministry of Education (MOE)’s goal in making the “fine” city an innumerate-free nation—FICA is short for “Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act.”
With a penalty of a fine of up to S$5,000 and continuing fines of up to S$500 for “every day or part of a day” for refusing to remove any politically incorrect content, guesstimate how much FICA math revenue could be generated annually from “mathematically significant” individuals and organizations that committed a mathematical offence.
by MathPlus October 13, 2021
Get the FICA Mathmug. The excitement someone feels when they come across something new to them about the number zero, be it a numerical property, puzzle, tidbit, or joke.
Bob’s zerolation upon learning that businesses lose tens of millions of dollars every year because of people’s zerofusion to distinguish between the digit 0 and the letter O lasted a mere few seconds.
by MathPlus September 13, 2018
Get the Zerolationmug. A slogan you wear on a jacket or T-shirt to tell the world how you feel about school math: it is as boring as dull wood, or as useless as stale food.
Prof. Smith likes to get attention from passers-by, so he carries a tote bag with the words “With Math You Can Do Everything!” stamped on it, while wearing a T-shirt with the message “I Really Don’t Care About Math. Do U?”
by MathPlus June 25, 2018
Get the I Really Don’t Care About Math. Do U?mug. The call by medical personnel to half-hearted pro-Trump politicians in a number of red states that have started to witness a rise in corona infection in spite of the fact that more people are continually being vaccinated—a “proof” that vaccination doesn’t prevent infection or reinfection, and that mask-wearing is a necessary irritation until the population achieves herd immunity.
Should “Make Masks Mandatory Again” be elevated or promoted to an official slogan to educate patriots and conspiracists that they’d still wear a mask in public squares, especially when it’s difficult to practice social distancing in a crowded space?
by MathPlus May 22, 2021
Get the Make Masks Mandatory Againmug. When the irrational and transcendental number π occasionally reveals herself to excite the mathematical brethren of her numerical or geometric hidden properties, be it through some new beautiful pattern or little juicy theorem.
Both number theorists and numerologists get pretty aroused when they get invited to attend a pi striptease event (by invitation only), whose aha! moments could get them mathematically excited for days.
by MathPlus September 1, 2021
Get the Pi Stripteasemug. When a brain-unfriendly, tricky, or ill-posed oft-elementary math question in a national exam is shared rapidly and widely on the internet, because an obscene number of unhappy students and their clueless parents could not solve it, who blamed the problem poser of the “unfair” question for causing them trauma, nightmare, pain, or suffering, with some even entertaining suicidal thoughts.
Singapore’s high-stakes Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE)—grade six—exam is notorious for setting viral math questions almost every other year—the PSLE math paper via its higher order thinking skills (HOTS) questions acts as a social filter to filter out the nerds from the herd.
by MathPlus October 21, 2021
Get the Viral Mathmug.