Numerati's definitions

Pi Velocity

The ability to quickly and effectively come up with new and creative ideas on or about the number π that are both useful and practical.

Pi velocity measures one’s capacity to produce the most number of pi results in the least amount of time, which occurs when there are minimal creative barriers and sufficient time spent on the math project.

by Numerati October 11, 2025

Math Is a Verb.

When you can’t be a spectator vis-à-vis the world’s most disliked school subject, but you need to be a player to master it—reading or listening about math won’t make you fluent in the subject, but doing math will.

Like Christianity, math is a verb. Just like you can’t impact lives if you merely know about Jesus and His teachings, so reading pop math books without dirtying your hands is unlikely going to raise your quantitative literacy in meeting the technological challenges of the 21st century.

by Numerati December 6, 2024

6-7

When puritan parents are asked by their kids what the number sixty-nine means, they pretend they misheard it as sixty-seven, so they start chanting “six-seven, six-seven, six-seven” repeatedly—each time louder and faster—until the young ones start parroting it too.

In strict Singapore schools, where grades K–12 students generally respect teachers, some mean or no-nonsense educators vow to kick out rude or cheeky kids who’re caught saying or swearing 6-7 in class.

by Numerati November 17, 2025

Bar-Modeling Orthogonality

When incorporating Singapore’s bar model method—the problem-solving visualization strategy to tackle word problems—at the elementary school level and its aim to develop students’ pre-algebraic thinking skills (before they are introduced to formal algebra) are not often partially achievable or necessarily correlated in practice.

Wallet-friendly Singapore math textbooks, workbooks, and teachers’ resources on their own doesn’t guarantee problem-solving mastery—bar-modeling orthogonality seems to be a constant in many traditional American classrooms, often because of teachers’ or parents’ faux perception that a foreign math curriculum or publication is harder (or even inferior) than their local inch-deep-mile-wide one.

by Numerati December 5, 2024

AI-gebra

The use or misuse of AI to generate free algebra questions, most of which are quasi-plagiarized from social media platforms, where unknowns, variables, or parameters are represented by look-alike logos or trademarked symbols.

On querying ChatGPT to produce a sample of middle-school AI-gebra questions, Mr. Pinocchio was greeted with the following:

1. Solve these equations.
a) 𝕏 = 𝕏 + 1
b) 5 + 4x = 4(x – 2)

2. Find 𝕏 for which (𝕏 + 3)² = 𝕏² + 9.

3. Solve the following:
(i) 𝕏(2𝕏 + 3) = 2𝕏(𝕏 + 3)
(ii) (x + 2)² = x² + 4x + 3

by Numerati August 4, 2023

Working Out Pi

When both professional and amateur mathematicians worldwide go beyond calculating the number π to billions of digits to often set up world records—their effective algorithms or methods or formulas used to achieve these high-precision calculations also directly or indirectly help usher in new developments in mathematics.

The mathematical brethren’s quest for working out pi is like MAGA patriots doing all they can to ensure that their cult leader gets reelected by any means, legal or not.

by Numerati February 10, 2025

Does Pi Love Me?

When you are mathematically tickled why you have been experiencing an aha! on or about the number π pretty frequently recently—for no logical or valid reasons, it is as if pi seems to be infatuated with you.

Besides coming up with a few sexy proofs on some pi-related theorems, I spotted my birthdate and my cellphone number 31,415 digits apart among the first ten thousand digits in the decimal number pi. Sounds like a sign from on high that makes me wonder: “Does Pi love me?”

by Numerati November 5, 2023