MathPlus's definitions

Magical Thinking in Mathematics

When we deceive ourselves and allow others to deceive us on myths, mysteries, and magic in mathematics, be they via half-baked concepts, faux hypotheses, fallacies, paradoxes, tricks, and the like.

How can we fall for less magical thinking in mathematics? By teaching about faulty thinking habits, exposing false assumptions or hypotheses, warning against unquestioned extrapolation or generalization of rules or formulas, and debunking irrational or conspiratorial thinking.

by MathPlus May 5, 2023

Mathematical Virgin

One who has never experienced the joy (or pain) of rigorous proofs in high-school Euclidean geometry or college calculus.

Angel couldn't understand why mathematicians make such a big fuss about rigorously proving mathematical results that are intuitively obvious to her—one should forgive her for her immaturity as she's still a mathematical virgin.

by MathPlus April 20, 2017

Pimp Up Pi

Make the number π look sexier by expressing it equivalently or approximately in an expression of numbers or/and constants—for example, π = 1 – 1/3 + 1/5 – 1/7 + 1/9 – 1/11 + ⋯, π ≈ √2 + √3, π⁴ + π⁵ ≈ e⁶, and π rad = 180°.

To get others’ attention to its numerical beauty, mathematicians never fail to pimp up pi.

by MathPlus October 14, 2021

Stop the TS

Short for “Stop the Trumpshit.” When thousands of Trumpists of all stripes—conservatives, Republican senators, right-wing and far-right groups, and conspiracists—descended on Washington, DC to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election—unfortunately, their president had zero time for them, who was playing golf while they were protesting for him.

As the world watches pro-Trump events like “Stop the Steal” and “Million MAGA March,” they just want to tell the noisy minority of deluded and disappointed protesters, “Stop the TS” and “Don’t let Trump’s dirty feet walk through your mind.”

by MathPlus November 15, 2020

Ⓥalentine’s Day

When only vaccinated couples or lovers are allowed to dine at restaurants on singles’ “most dreaded day of the year” if they show proof of inoculation at the entrance, or had previously emailed a copy of their certificate of vaccination while making a booking.

On this Ⓥalentine’s Day, guesstimate how many unvaccinated couples worldwide were turned away because they posed a health hazard to both restaurant owners and staff and the diners.

by MathPlus February 14, 2021

π

An irrational number that is traditionally defined with respect to the circle, such as the following:
The length of a semicircle of radius one unit.
The angle measure of a straight line segment in radians.
The number of times the perimeter of a circle is more than its diameter.

To help students appreciate π beyond the canned definition that it is the ratio of circumference to diameter, teachers ought to define it in terms of other quantities not related to the circle.

by MathPlus January 21, 2021

Coronabyte

A unit of information equal to ten billion billion (or ten million trillion) bytes: 10¹⁹, or a 1 with 19 zeros at the end—sometimes known as 10 giga-gigabyte (10 × 10⁹ × 10⁹), and written as 1 🦠B.

If all of earthlings’ talks and tweets about Donald J. Trump’s lies and white lies while he was at the White House were to be made available online, would a coronabyte suffice to storing them?

by MathPlus August 2, 2021