Singapore Math Books

Math titles that marry decent quality with affordability—authors must be racially, religiously, and sexually sensitive, while the Ministry of Education (MOE) controls the price of the books.
Because Singapore math books cost a fraction of their American counterparts, US distributors have been importing them for homeschoolers, who think they're getting value-for-money textbooks—a number of them might even mistake Singapore for a city in China.
by MathPlus August 11, 2016
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Pitrified

When someone is mentally or psychologically frozen at the sight or sound of the irrational number π, which reminds them of their negative experiences or recurring failures of school math.
Guesstimate how many millions of otherwise educated folks worldwide would be pitrified at birthday parties or social functions, when the beauty of math or geometry suddenly popped up in their casual conversation.
by MathPlus June 16, 2021
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Mortal Mask

A mask brushed with toxic chemicals on the inside that is offered to unsuspected or innocent strangers, who would lose consciousness once they wear it at the request of their evil donors, who would then rob their victims.
At secluded traffic junctions, it’s not uncommon for criminals in police uniforms to stop a car whose driver and fellow passenger are both unmasked, who would be handed a pair of mortal masks to wear before they’re allowed to drive off.
by MathPlus April 14, 2021
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Alibaba Graduate

A recipient of the postgraduate computer science scholarship, offered by the Chinese tech Alibaba, which is notorious for condoning fake and pirated goods on its e-commerce site—one who could be recruited as a “rogue hacker” or cyber terrorist for the Chinese Communist Party.
As a recent Alibaba graduate from Singapore, Jack couldn’t turn down the million-dollar job offer to work for one of Alibaba’s security departments, where he’s unspokenly expected to hack foreign IT systems to steal intelligence information for China’s military.
by MathPlus September 04, 2018
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Corona Luck

When superstitious 4D gamblers, who rely on the daily number of corona infections released by the authorities to bid for their “lucky” numbers, are angry because the number of infected cases has been rising to a five-digit figure in recent days.
Guesstimate how many 4D punters in Singapore have been in a volcanic mood since last weekend, who haven’t stopped swearing and cursing the ill-fated corona luck plaguing them.
by MathPlus February 16, 2022
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Immoral Algebra

When a dishonest seller uses their finger or hand or some other means to tilt one side of a weighing balance to make the left and right sides of the scales look balanced to cheat the customer—a weight balance is often used as a metaphor for an algebraic equation.
God, the Great Mathematician, dislikes immoral algebra, but delights in accurate weights or honest scales.
by MathPlus May 19, 2021
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No Calculators Allowed

When students’ reliance on a scientific or graphing calculator prevents them from being fluent in performing certain basic operations, such as factorizing a function, finding the zeros of a cubic polynomial, and standardizing a normal distribution from the Statistical Tables—ritually pressing a set of keys often conceals their poor understanding or mastery of these routines.
If only math teachers and tutors would implement the “No Calculators Allowed” rule, students would be manually forced to learn the routine or tedious steps in getting the answer to some intermediate step of a problem.
by MathPlus November 01, 2021
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