Definitions by MathPlus
Otter Math
When locals’ and aliens’ mixed attitude vis-à-vis otters and their apparently manageable growing population on the “fine” city of Singapore provides a fertile ground for math educators to pose a number of brain-unfriendly questions to challenge exam-smart symbol-minded students.
Two otter math questions from a Singapore math problem solving book are:
1. At a recent otter attack at a church’s fish pond, five koi fish were swallowed up, while the remaining partially eaten fish were left with one or two eyes. From the 17 koi fish in the pond, the verger found only 16 eyes. How many koi fish lost only one eye?
2. On average, what percentage of fish in a pond get eaten by an otter family every time they terrorize a condominium located in some posh area of Singapore?
1. At a recent otter attack at a church’s fish pond, five koi fish were swallowed up, while the remaining partially eaten fish were left with one or two eyes. From the 17 koi fish in the pond, the verger found only 16 eyes. How many koi fish lost only one eye?
2. On average, what percentage of fish in a pond get eaten by an otter family every time they terrorize a condominium located in some posh area of Singapore?
Otter Math by MathPlus December 11, 2021
Is Pi More Dog Than Cat?
When the feline behavior of the irrational and transcendental number π, which is stubborn in revealing some of its beautiful numerical or geometric properties, clashes with its oft-canine responses, which occasionally rewards those who have loyally spent their lifetime with the beloved constant with an aha! erection.
The number π is a love-hate mathematical constant among the educated lay public, who are delighted or disgusted by its manifold numerical and geometric properties. To number addicts, is pi more dog than cat? Or is it more cat than dog? To number phobics, pi is unquestionably worse than a pandemic.
Is Pi More Dog Than Cat? by MathPlus December 10, 2021
Christmas Pi
When symbol-minded folks decide to come up with some math crackers in the form of π-related quickies and trickies for Christmas to enliven the mood of math geeks, who couldn’t wait to go back to school to indulge themselves in some creative problem solving.
Moonlighting school math teachers in Singapore have been pressured by some owners of tuition or enrichment math centers to come up with at least twenty-five brain-unfriendly Christmas pi questions to meet the mathematical needs and wants of their restless, bored students.
Christmas Pi by MathPlus December 7, 2021
Mathematical Steroid
Short-term success in math, whereby exam-smart teachers and tutors drill or spoon-feed students, by getting them to memorize modeled solutions of questions that are likely to appear in the coming examination based on previously set questions from past exam papers.
It’s not surprising that most university students in Singapore, who are reading for a degree in math, struggle with their courses because they grew up on mathematical steroids in high school.
Mathematical Steroid by MathPlus December 7, 2021
Are you a pi-kind of person?
When people wander why every now and then you can’t help yourself but to randomly start behaving like an irrational or even delusional person, although they are curiously or mysteriously mesmerized by your transcendental beauty or brilliant brain.
e: “Are you a pi-kind of person? Or more of a phi-kind of personality?”
i: “Dear, my ancestors came from the Land of the Imaginary, so we’re anything but real!”
i: “Dear, my ancestors came from the Land of the Imaginary, so we’re anything but real!”
Are you a pi-kind of person? by MathPlus December 6, 2021
Trumpémon GO
Pokémon GO à la Trump, where players hunt for digital apparitions of ex-President Donald Trump and some of the notorious morally bankrupt GOP lawmakers, being caught indulging in some unethical or immoral activities at some locations frequently patronized by them, before these Trumpémons are being dealt with by different destructive tools.
Trumpémon GO is pretty additive among tens of thousands of Democrat voters and mainland Chinese students studying in US colleges, with some of them being made penniless after splurging so much on digital currencies to track their favorite Trumpémons.
Trumpémon GO by MathPlus December 4, 2021
Covid-𝜊
Read as “Covid-Omicron.” Also known as the B.1.1.529 or “Omicron” variant. WHO’s second “variant of concern” for South Africa—after the Beta variant (B.1.351)—that is thought to be more infectious and transmissible than the Delta variant, and can apparently bypass most of the protection offered by presently approved vaccines.
What are the odds that profit-driven vaccine makers would soon pressure folks who were recently boosted against the Delta variant to go for a fourth shot to protect themselves against the unprovenly deadliest Covid-𝜊?