Mathematical Sabbath

One day in a week when you abstain from any mathematical activity—no preparing, no problem solving or posing, no marking—to give the left part of your brain a day off, while inviting the right part to take over.

Your mathematical sabbath could prove to be the most productive day of the week, as you let your logical mind recover and reenergize from a hectic week.

by Numerati August 16, 2023

Mathematical Shrine

A shelf that displays your math memorabilia (abacuses, slide rules, polygonal stamps, math-related postcards, 3D wooden puzzles, topology toys, …) that are likely to be a topic of conversation as friends and strangers visit your home.

Ian’s mathematical shrine is made up of origami polyhedrons, magic card tricks, Napier’s rods, vintage calculators and clocks, and Lilliputian math books.

by Fasters February 24, 2022

Mathematical Sensitivity

When a math teacher decides not to hurt the feelings of their weak students, by insincerely using large numbers and symbols to grade their test paper—for example, a student receiving back their exam paper with a score of (√81)/90 or 4²/100, mistaking it for 81/100 or 42/100.

Some parents object to teachers’ “mathematical sensitivity” or fake feedback, preferring that they’d tell their child the painful truth how poorly they had performed in their math test.

by MathPlus November 30, 2020

Mathematical Steroid

Short-term success in math, whereby exam-smart teachers and tutors drill or spoon-feed students, by getting them to memorize modeled solutions of questions that are likely to appear in the coming examination based on previously set questions from past exam papers.

It’s not surprising that most university students in Singapore, who are reading for a degree in math, struggle with their courses because they grew up on mathematical steroids in high school.

by MathPlus December 7, 2021

Mathematical Slowies

Non-trick or non-tricky math questions that you can do at your snail’s pace without worry or fear of having to sit for any killer test or exam—they are recommended for self-confessed folks who pride themselves of being “hopeless at math,” or not being born with the “math gene.”

Mathematical slowies are the opposite of “mathematical quickies,” which are generally solved with some insight, and often accompanied by an occasional aha! reaction.

by Numerati January 19, 2025

Virginia Apgar + Victor Varnado + Bruce Willis (A Mathematical Song))

What I call homo-sapiens who are addicted to abscesses?

Person 1: Are you addicted to abscesses?
Person 2: Yes.
Person 1: Virginia Apgar + Victor Varnado + Bruce Willis (A Mathematical Song))

by LeSouffleDeVersailles January 21, 2025

mathematician

A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems.

Asked for a testimony to the effect that Emmy Noether was a great woman mathematician, he said: I can testify that she is a great mathematician, but that she is a woman, I
cannot swear.

by G Gorkenheimer April 24, 2006