MathPlus's definitions

The Year of the Covidox

When Chinese at their annual family reunion dinner held before or during the Lunar New Year of the Ox are banned from screaming auspicious or superstitious phrases at each other to minimize the odds of corona infection, but are encouraged to play pre-recorded good-luck or prosperity messages instead.

In the Year of the Covidox, dozens of diners had their non-Chinese neighbors report them to the police for noise pollution, and for failing to wear a mask while broadcasting their deafening auspicious greetings.

by MathPlus February 3, 2021

To Mask or Not to Mask

The moral decision heads of state need to take due to a shortage of face masks in the market, as they don’t want to create a public panic that would lead to mask hoarding, which would endanger the lives of unmasked medical personnel and frontline workers.

With the pandemic crisis worsening, and not wanting to alarm the public by telling them the painful truth of a dearth of mask supply, politically vulnerable heads of state need to make up their minds whether to mask or not to mask the population—which decision would minimize the number of infections and deaths?

by MathPlus June 9, 2021

Rainbow Math

When liberal publishers in some Western countries decide to green-light math titles by LGBT+ authors in spite of the high risk of offending or alienating conservative potential customers—when they argue that sexual orientation and math publication needn’t be mutually exclusive.

Radical Islamist groups from rogue nations like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Iran have warned foreign publishers that their publications would be removed from bookstores if they’re caught shipping rainbow math titles to both Mohammedans and “infidels.”

by MathPlus October 10, 2021

God as Your Doorkeeper

When God opens doors no one can shut and when He shuts doors no one can open—when people and circumstances appear to be preventing you from your dream, but God wouldn’t allow the doors to close if they were going to keep you from your destiny.

Closed doors look permanent—your health isn’t getting better; your financial situation isn’t improving; the chances of meeting someone look dim; you’re stuck in your job or not getting promoted—but God as your doorkeeper can just walk in and suddenly open them. Are you ready for these suddenlies, as He opens and closes the right doors to protect and propel you to your next level of growth or success?

by MathPlus November 10, 2021

Logarithmic Instinct

When our primitive instinct makes us treat the comparison of large numbers as logarithmic rather than linear—for instance, we feel like the gap between a trillion and a billion is the same as that between a billion and a million, because both are a thousand times bigger, when the jump to a trillion is really much bigger.

When young children are asked which number is halfway between one and nine, their answers are three instead of five, as given by those with formal schooling. Is this a case of logarithmic instinct, where the middle is in relation to multiplication rather than addition: 1 × 3 = 3, 3 × 3 = 9?

by MathPlus October 8, 2020

Mathematical Verb

A math word or term that has graduated from noun to verb—for example, “zero,” “square,” and “number.”

Mathematical verbs, such as model, pattern, and fractal, are the mathematical equivalents of Google, Xerox, and Zoom.

by MathPlus October 19, 2021

Native Math

A math theorem, formula, or method that originates from a particular country—for example, a deductive proof in plane geometry is unmistakably Greek, while a visual proof has a Chinese or Indian flavor.

In this age of regional or international collaboration among members of the mathematics community, when co-authoring a journal article often involves contributors of different nationalities, we can only expect native math to be the odd one in a sea of even hybrids.

by MathPlus December 2, 2018