MathPlus's definitions

God as Your Doorkeeper

When God opens doors no one can shut and when He shuts doors no one can open—when people and circumstances appear to be preventing you from your dream, but God wouldn’t allow the doors to close if they were going to keep you from your destiny.

Closed doors look permanent—your health isn’t getting better; your financial situation isn’t improving; the chances of meeting someone look dim; you’re stuck in your job or not getting promoted—but God as your doorkeeper can just walk in and suddenly open them. Are you ready for these suddenlies, as He opens and closes the right doors to protect and propel you to your next level of growth or success?

by MathPlus November 10, 2021

Wayang Math

When someone shows off the success of their exam-smart or pseudo-talented kids or tutees in school or olympiad math, by posting photos of their grades, awards, medals, or certificates on social media, dreaming for a googol likes in return—wayang is a Malay word that mockingly describes someone as being “fake” in the sense that they are putting up an act in front of others.

Guesstimate how many wayang math postings appear on Facebook and Instagram every year by oft-kiasu or egocentric parents to hint to their social circles of their “supernatural” parenting or tutoring skills.

by MathPlus November 13, 2021

Trumpificate

Also known as a “Trump certificate.” A fake Covid-19 vaccine passport that could be purchased on the black market or dark web, or sometimes even downloaded free of charge by clicking a link and filling in one’s personal details.

Guesstimate how many trumpificates are in circulation worldwide as anti-vaxxers play cat and mouse with the authorities, which don’t have the manpower nor the knowhow to expose those digitally savvy criminals.

by MathPlus November 15, 2021

Bar Modelist

Someone who is more likely to apply Singapore’s bar model method rather than use algebra to solve a word problem—when a “look-see” proof to an elementary math nonroutine question is conceptually richer or more intuitive than mindlessly juggling some symbols and numbers to find the answer.

With Singapore math being the foreign math curriculum of choice among many homeschoolers, teachers, and tutors, guesstimate the number of bar modelists in the United States in the last two decades.

by MathPlus November 16, 2021

Trickle Down Mathematics

A cute sounding phrase, which is 99.99% bullshit, that is used to justify the high royalties demanded by half-baked math authors in academia, or the high fees charged by most overrated textbook math consultants or general editors (who are notorious in giving cosmetic feedback to a manuscript).

Educational publishers in Singapore reluctantly give in to trickle down mathematics, hoping to increase the odds of their approved textbooks to be adopted by more local schools, by displaying as many PhDs on their book covers.

by MathPlus November 17, 2021

Cecaporeans

Naturalized Singaporeans who are often faulted or scapegoated for stealing jobs from locals, especially from retrenched middle-aged university and polytechnic graduates, who now have to work as cab drivers or Grab food delivery riders to make a living— Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) has so far been a one-sided trade agreement whereby India has benefited a thousand times more than Singapore, with tens of thousands of Indian graduates from oft-dubious universities currently working in a hundred-odd industries in the island state.

What percents of Cecaporeans had successfully used their fake degrees to secure employment in the “fine” city of Singapore? How many of them were recruited thanks to cronyism and old boys’ networks?

by MathPlus November 18, 2021

The Air Travel Bubble Hypothesis

Every time two countries announce an air travel bubble, one of them will see a spike in corona cases closer to the flight date, dashing hopes of paid travellers, who would nevertheless be consoled that they would be given first priority for the next fight if they were not to cancel their booking.

On the one occasion when the air travel bubble hypothesis was apparently proved wrong, the decades-old Soviet plane that was carrying a few dozen Russian mercenaries and terrorists was never heard again after take-off—had the ATB hypothesis struck in a more deadly form?

by MathPlus March 11, 2022