MathPlus's definitions

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

It is better to receive than to give.

A commandment with regard to our relationship to God, compared to our relationship to people, where it is better to give than to receive—when Jesus, the "bread of life" and the “living water,” wants us to partake of Him and receive from Him all that we lack in this world.

Jesus told his disciples that it is more blessed to give than to receive in relating to others, and when it comes to meeting their physical and spiritual needs, He wants them to know that as their Provider, Deliverer, and Healer, it is better to receive than to give.

by MathPlus March 31, 2021

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

Mathematical Sensitivity

When a math teacher decides not to hurt the feelings of their weak students, by insincerely using large numbers and symbols to grade their test paper—for example, a student receiving back their exam paper with a score of (√81)/90 or 4²/100, mistaking it for 81/100 or 42/100.

Some parents object to teachers’ “mathematical sensitivity” or fake feedback, preferring that they’d tell their child the painful truth how poorly they had performed in their math test.

by MathPlus November 30, 2020

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

Malay Math

When Singapore’s affirmative action allows Malay students to pay zero school fees all the way up to their tertiary education, which has raised the mathematical proficiency of the Malay community over the decades—Malay math students, of which 99⁺% are Muslims, have fared reasonably well in international comparative studies like TIMSS and PISA vis-à-vis their foreign counterparts, albeit they still have some catching up to do compared to their local peers from other races.

Years ago, based on some TIMSS rankings, a Malay cabinet minister had figured out that Singapore Malay students are unofficially among the “world’s top ten,” which positively suggests that Malay math policies have helped raise the quantitative literacy of the Malay or Muslim community in Singapore.

by MathPlus July 15, 2021