MathPlus's definitions

Bolsonaro Virus

The Brazilian strand of Trumpvirus, which is deadlier than the coronavirus itself—named after President Jair Bolsonaro, whose fake leadership and ineptitude had failed to contain the pandemic crisis, which he continues to downplay in spite of the rising death toll.

With more than a quarter million corona deaths, which is the second-highest number of fatalities in the world after the US, Brazil is fighting two viruses: the coronavirus and Bolsonaro virus.

by MathPlus March 5, 2021

CRE8TIVE MATH

Exploring the beauty, ubiquity, and utility of the number 8 on earth—in disciplines like math, science, art, philosophy, religion, and literature—in heaven, and in hell.

Some cre8tive math questions are:

What is half of 8? 0, 3, or 4?
What color is the number 8?
How are eight and infinity related?
Why do spiders and scorpions have 8 legs?

Why are superstitious Chinese fond of the digit 8?
What is the spiritual significance of the number 8 in the Bible?
What are some common traits for people born with the digital root 8?

by MathPlus February 8, 2021

Vaccine Apartheid

When a government pretends not to make vaccination compulsory for everyone, yet has enacted rules that makes the unvaccinated unable to live a normal life—it is pure hypocrisy for making inoculation voluntary while making the unjabbed suffer for their “selfish” decision for not protecting themselves and others.

Guesstimate how many developed countries practise vaccine apartheid in one form or another, while claiming to respect the personal rights of their citizens to get jabbed or not.

by MathPlus November 28, 2021

X

The letter nonbinary people, who see themselves as neither male nor female, want to use on identification documents like their birth certificate or passport to reflect their gender—preventing them to do so would force them to lie about their true identity.

Although a number of countries allow their citizens to use X and O (for “others”), rather than M or F, on their passport to identify themselves, however, the odds of their being denied entry by border control authorities elsewhere are never zero.

by MathPlus March 17, 2021

Singapore

Math educators’ promised land that combines the best practices of math education from the East and the West—one such concoction is the “model method,” the problem-solving heuristic that has had global appeal, especially among homeschoolers in the US, in solving challenging word problems that would traditionally need formal algebra for their solutions.

Due to their stand on democracy and freedom of speech, a number of American educators have stood firm in rejecting Singapore math, although they acknowledged that the math curriculum of the “fine” city is a superior one compared to those used in a number of US states in helping to raise the quantitative literacy of the students.

by MathPlus October 3, 2021

Mathematical Bullshit

The lie that an educated person needs to be versed in both probability and statistics, besides being fluent in applied arithmetic, to function confidently in life.

Unless they’re a math teacher or textbook writer, folks from most walks of life hardly need anything beyond grade four math to handle everyday numbers seamlessly—that they require higher math to succeed in life is nothing but mathematical bullshit.

by MathPlus October 28, 2017

Corona Mathematica

A brain-unfriendly but wallet-friendly Singapore math title that irreverently leverages on the deadly coronavirus to teach creative mathematical problem solving—when the product of two negatives (Covid-19 and school math) is a positive (a confident and skilful problem solver).

Prof. Ian is trying to kill two mathematical birds with a numerical stone in 2020: he wants to launch “Singapura Mathematica” and “Corona Mathematica” at the same time in the midst of rising infection and mortality rates nationwide.

by MathPlus December 1, 2020