MathPlus's definitions

Simpsons Math

A pop cultural term for counting in base 8, because each character in the Simpson family was born with four fingers on each hand, which means they would count like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, …, such that all eight-fingered members could do without the symbols 8 or 9.

In Simpsons math, “If Homer and Marge and their four kids looked at two spiders, how would they write and pronounce the total number of their legs?” 20 and “two-zero” rather than “twenty.”

by MathPlus June 12, 2021

Editorial Ineptitude

Conceptual and linguistic blunders made by a senior editor or managing editor, as a result of her limited content knowledge of the manuscript and poor grasp of the English language.

Rose resorts to office politics and apple polishing to make up for her editorial ineptitude in occupying the managing director position—she's been promoted to her next level of incompetency, where editors hope she'll cause the least damage to the editorial team.

by MathPlus July 21, 2017

Jesus, the Multiplier

When you allow Jesus’ favor, wisdom, and power to grow your small or insignificant beginnings, just as He took a boy’s “five loaves and two fish” to multiplying them to feed five thousand-odd people.

Be it your career, business, or relationship, let Jesus, the multiplier, be part of the little you have, and witness His power in multiplying them beyond your dream or imagination.

by MathPlus December 15, 2018

Horrorscope 2018

1. Dictator Kim of North Korea will join his father and grandfather in hell.

2. President Trump won't get his Dread Wall of Mexico built.

3. President Putin will leave office rejected, ejected, and dejected.

Horrorscope 2018 for both dictators and murderers sounds good news for the world, with the defeat of ISIS and the death of some African dictators.

by MathPlus September 4, 2017

Pisector

Someone who tries to subdivide an angle into π parts using only a pair of compasses and an unmarked ruler.

Just as the trisectors of yesteryear tried to prove the impossible, pisectors are hell-bent to achieving their goal, hoping that their proofs would bring them mathematical fame or immortality—when being dubbed a “mathematical crank” feels less bitter than being a nobody or fading in obscurity.

by MathPlus February 7, 2021

The Sanitization of Singapore Math

When fertile or fitting real-life or contextual questions and math tidbits or humor in a math textbook, submitted to Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) for approval, are often rejected for politically incorrect reasons, or because the items could potentially be perceived to be linked to politics, race, religion, or sex.

Items like “Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not divide by zero!” and phrases like “beautiful curves,” “immoral algebra,” and “juicy little theorem” are banned without being given valid reasons—aren’t these rejections part of the sanitization of Singapore math to only publish sterilized or sterile contents to satisfy the mathematical wants of a humorously or prudishly challenged audience or readership?

by MathPlus September 5, 2021

QAlculus

Short for “QAnon Calculus.” When white supremacists or racists claim that God set the white race apart from other races, by empowering them with the tools of calculus, so that any inventions they come up with would prove to others, who idolize gods and goddesses, that they are a privileged or selected lot.

Citing Newton and Leibniz as QAlculus ambassadors, alt-right Trumpists and QAnonists told their brethren that both British and German mathematics would witness a second mathematical revolution in the next decade or so.

by MathPlus October 30, 2020