When the three parts that make up the number π decide to perform a Michael Jackson’s moonwalk in front of a geeky audience.
With three permissible orientations of the legs (/, |, \), show that there are at most six possible movements of the pi dance.
by Fasters June 25, 2022
Out-of-print math titles whose covers, contents, or creators the present generation could still remember, because when they were students, teachers, or parents, these wallet-friendly, brain-unfriendly books had positively impacted their mathematical learning or teaching, which were unsurprisingly bestsellers of their day.
Singapore’s zombie math titles of yesteryear like Fabian Ng’s “Process Skills in Problem Solving,” Dr Y H Leong’s “Challenging Problems in Mathematics,” and K C Yan’s “Mathematical Quickies & Trickies” had not only differentiated themselves from the sea of canned drill-and-kill titles, but they have since become an integral part of the local math education culture.
by Fasters February 05, 2022
Doing math from a cat’s standpoint, or with the least effort. When a creative but lazy person is always on the lookout for a shortcut or hack to solve a math problem, so that they could have more time for leisure or rest.
Street-smart people tend to use Garfield math strategies to deal with their everyday quantitative challenges, compared to their exam-smart counterparts who prefer a more conventional or routine approach.
by Fasters February 06, 2022
Short for “Spy Pi.” The coded term for a math secret agent—who usually works as a journal or college textbook math editor, reviewer, or consultant—who would leak out information about submitted journal articles or contracted unedited manuscripts on the number π to some tenured faculty members (or to those seeking a permanent position in academia) in exchange for cash or favors.
Although the pool of 007 π operatives worldwide is unknown, however, their number is likely to be much higher than expected, as they’re sought after by faculty members who’d resort to unethical means and ways to secure tenure.
by Fasters November 24, 2022
When the world’s most popular mathematical constant lured me to coin or christen no fewer than 3.14 × 10² words and phrases about her as part of a lifelong recreational math project to preach the mathematical gospel to an oft-math-anxious or semi-innumerate global community.
The “Pi Made Me Do It” sounds like a marketing slogan in the math or math education business, but its global positive impact among math educators has so far been nothing short of a miracle.
by Fasters May 30, 2023
An author’s little-known truth, because trees give rise to lumber, which can then be converted to paper, before it is being used to print books, which earn the writer a cash lump sum or an obscene royalty.
In billions of homes, it’s not uncommon for parents telling their children off that money doesn’t grow on trees, or that money is hard to come by, but for millions of authors and publishers, the opposite is true: “Money grows on trees.”
by Fasters April 26, 2023
Gang members who identify themselves with a π tattoo, which piques someone’s curiosity whether their leader was previously a math nerd, whose life had since taken a perilous turn.
Several members of the pi mafia, who were recently arrested for possessing illegal drugs and guns, confessed to having zero clues on the meaning of the tattoo they’re wearing, when questioned by the police.
by Fasters January 22, 2022