MathPlus's definitions

Covid-👶

When some high-GDP countries whose low fertility rate is below their mortality rate are offering baby bonus cash gifts to their citizens who give birth during the coronavirus pandemic—the authorities don’t want the plague to prevent their nation from having “corona babies.”

Thanks to Covid-👶, Singaporean families could receive up to $35,000 as Baby Support Grant if they planned to add a new member to their family to help arrest the population decline.

by MathPlus October 11, 2020

No Calculators Allowed

When students’ reliance on a scientific or graphing calculator prevents them from being fluent in performing certain basic operations, such as factorizing a function, finding the zeros of a cubic polynomial, and standardizing a normal distribution from the Statistical Tables—ritually pressing a set of keys often conceals their poor understanding or mastery of these routines.

If only math teachers and tutors would implement the “No Calculators Allowed” rule, students would be manually forced to learn the routine or tedious steps in getting the answer to some intermediate step of a problem.

by MathPlus October 31, 2021

Mathematical Typhoon

A cyclone or hurricane that is named after a famous mathematician—like math, its presence never fails to instill fear in the general population.

Pascal is expected to hit the Philippines by early Monday morning—which happens to be a public holiday—after the mathematical typhoon had caused havoc in southern China.

by MathPlus March 24, 2017

Covid Power

When your fiends or foes realize that you have the power to harm or decimate them if they come close to you despite your small size.

Who can make light of the covid power of the dengue mosquito, which kills hundreds of people every year in some parts of Asia?

by MathPlus March 2, 2021

Fake News

Donald Trump’s pet word for any article or broadcast that exposes his white lies and shady deals, or for anyone who refuses to make him appear smarter or richer than he genuinely is.

Thanks to President Trump, “fake news” will probably be his most memorable presidential legacy long after he’s been impeached and imprisoned for branding that phrase in popular culture.

by MathPlus February 1, 2019

Paint by Numbers

The artistic equivalent of ordering a McDonald’s meal instead of going through the hassle of doing your own cooking at home.

Just as you can enjoy the food prepared by a gourmet chef even if you’re a hopeless cook, so you can appreciate a piece of art even if you’re clumsy at handling a “Paint by Numbers” kit.

by MathPlus January 8, 2019

Pi Slices of Pie

When some math geeks celebrate their birthday by having each half of their cake cut into four pieces, with three of them each having an arc length equal to the radius of the cake.

Deduce that pi slices of pie leads to the fact that “2π radians = 360 degrees.”

by MathPlus February 6, 2021