MathPlus's definitions

Mathematical Typhoon

A cyclone or hurricane that is named after a famous mathematician—like math, its presence never fails to instill fear in the general population.

Pascal is expected to hit the Philippines by early Monday morning—which happens to be a public holiday—after the mathematical typhoon had caused havoc in southern China.

by MathPlus March 24, 2017

Covid-👶

When some high-GDP countries whose low fertility rate is below their mortality rate are offering baby bonus cash gifts to their citizens who give birth during the coronavirus pandemic—the authorities don’t want the plague to prevent their nation from having “corona babies.”

Thanks to Covid-👶, Singaporean families could receive up to $35,000 as Baby Support Grant if they planned to add a new member to their family to help arrest the population decline.

by MathPlus October 11, 2020

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 October 31, 2021

Death by Mask

The number of people worldwide who have died not of the coronavirus but accidentally or frighteningly because of the face mask, be it in the incorrect way they handle or wear the mask, which leads to breathing difficulty; or old or weak-hearted folks who were shocked by a masked family member, who wanted to pull a scary prank on them.

During this pandemic crisis, which is likely to be higher: death by math or death by mask?

by MathPlus July 4, 2021

Doom-and-Gloom Math

The hypothesis that a large proportion of the people in the developed world would lack the critical thinking and quantitative skills required of a 21st-century citizen, because the politics of nativism, populism, and racism plaguing their societies have directly or indirectly brainwashed or radicalized them.

Thanks to Trumpism or right-wing politics, clothed under white supremacism or white Christian nationalism, millions of adults and children have fallen victims to the gospel of doom-and-gloom math, who blame millions of immigrants and refugees for stealing their blue-and white-collar jobs and for invading the promised land of their forefathers (who did the same thing to Native Americans).

by MathPlus April 28, 2023

Who Wants a Sinovac Shot?

The Chinese equivalent of “Who wants a Covaxin jab?” When China is aggressively involved in vaccine diplomacy, by donating millions of its home-made partially trialed and 50⁺% effective vaccines to poor or emerging countries, whose populations have mixed feelings about these WHO-unapproved shots—is China trying to redeem itself or to make up for its earlier lies and cover-ups for failing to alert the world of the pandemic?

When beggars can’t be choosers, even if the vaccines have got zero WHO approval, how dare millions of recipients worldwide cynically or skeptically ask: “Who wants a Sinovac shot?”

by MathPlus March 23, 2021

Trickle Down Mathematics

A cute sounding phrase, which is 99.99% bullshit, that is used to justify the high royalties demanded by half-baked math authors in academia, or the high fees charged by most overrated textbook math consultants or general editors (who are notorious in giving cosmetic feedback to a manuscript).

Educational publishers in Singapore reluctantly give in to trickle down mathematics, hoping to increase the odds of their approved textbooks to be adopted by more local schools, by displaying as many PhDs on their book covers.

by MathPlus November 17, 2021