MathPlus's definitions

I Safe! You Safe! We Safe!

A half-broken English slogan used by construction companies in Singapore to remind their workers to be accident-conscious—zero success is the goal to preventing any casualties, accidents, or deaths.

If a grammatically incorrect slogan can get people to stop and comment, its impact in conveying the intended message is likely to be greater—I Safe! You Safe! We Safe! looks like a potential winner.

by MathPlus June 8, 2017

Coronaire

Someone who becomes a millionaire or billionaire during the coronavirus pandemic, who thrives when others could barely survive, as their products or services are in great demand.

Who are the coronaires? Those in the food and goods industries? Those whose businesses produce face masks, ventilators, and vaccines? Or those selling fake vaccine certificates?

by MathPlus November 8, 2021

We Are One in Pi.

When math geeks are connected to each other by their shared love for arguably the most beautiful constant in mathematics: π’s beauty, ubiquity, and utility never fail to bring and bond them together.

Just as a number of white racists and supremacists are united by the xenophobic policies of Donald J. Trump, so a number of recreational mathematicians are drawn by the occurrence or presence of pi in the least unexpected places, who love telling the non-math people: “We are one in pi.”

by MathPlus December 13, 2020

Durianian

Someone who just loves eating the durian in spite of its pungent smell, which tastes like heaven to them—the only tropical fruit that is banned on Singapore’s public transport system.

Singapore secretly wants more of its citizens to be durianians, so that in the event of any of its unfriendly neighbors trying to pollute its limited air space with the fruit’s pungent smell, it’d minimize any potential “death by durian.”

by MathPlus January 1, 2019

The Dodo Is Alive!

When some Trumpists-turned-QAnonists still stranded on the volcanic island of Mauritius—who needed to concoct a half-believe story to gain public attention so that they could fly back home—told the locals that they spotted a big bird that resembled the flightless dodo in the middle of the night, when the country was still on lockdown, thus raising the infinitesimal hope that the Mauritian bird, thought extinct, is far from dead.

That “the dodo is alive!” sounds like a modern version of the biblical story of Jesus’ raising Lazarus, who had already been in the tomb for four days, from the dead—even if the big bird is long dead, who says that it can’t miraculously be resurrected?

by MathPlus December 12, 2020

Corona Convert

A hardcore Trumpist or QAnonist who had previously put their faith in the Pharisee-in-Chief for preaching that the pandemic is a hoax, and had refused to wear a face mask, but had since confessed the virus’s existence after contracting it, or being hospitalized.

Guesstimate how many corona converts failed to cheat death after realizing that they’d been conned by their Commander in Cheat.

by MathPlus January 10, 2021

Mathematical Virginity

You lose it when you experience your first Aha! moment—when you feel like parading yourself naked after being struck by an insight, or upon solving a difficult math problem.

Billy lost his mathematical virginity after he found an intuitive proof to the Pythagorean theorem.

by MathPlus October 5, 2017