Singapore Math: Humor

Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Does AI Sulk at Counting?

Six days ago, in the wee hours at a 24/7 neighborhood coffeeshop, I spotted the unsightly aftermath of a chain-smoker’s bad habit. Below is a shot of its dirty floor:

While sipping my tea, it crossed my mind to convert that Ugly Singaporean’s behavior into a math question in the form of a haiku.

I crafted the maiku tongue-in-cheek and X-ed the following:

The Ugly Singaporean

Migrant worker’s toil—

Count the butts strewn on the floor,

Shameful act exposed.

A few days later, for no reason, I was prompted to ask AI for the number of cigarette butts on the floor.

Below are the exchanges or arguments I had with my virtual math teacher.

At 26, I decided to end the conversation, albeit I believed that with some persuasion I’d have tricked AI to agree with me that the answer could be 10π.

Now, it’s your turn to tell us the exact number of butts, by outsmarting AI. What’s the correct answer?

Humanly yours

Monday, January 6, 2025

The Singapore Mathematics Calendar

Not Your Average Math Calendar!

Even if you’re not a tiger mum or dad, there is no better way to usher in the New Year, by blessing your child or a loved one with the quirky and colorful Singapore’s Maths Calendar 2025.

Literacy & Numeracy

Singapore’s locally published and printed “first of its kind” math calendar aims to kill two birds with a mathematical stone, by helping your little one become both literate and numerate in the shortest time.

With a new math question every day—the answer is the date on which the question is posed—offers a creative way for grades 1–2 (or primary 1–2) children to learn math, while having fun along the way.

Plus, the questions have been painstakingly set in such a way that they follow closely and timely the topics or concepts that are presented in the students’ MOE-approved textbooks and workbooks. Yes, even during the school holidays, calendar users’ daily mathematical diet is being taken care of.

Enrichment Math via Comics

With a monthly comic story that promotes biodiversity so that the younger generation would still have a planet to inhabit when they’ve their own children and grandchildren, Singapore Maths Calendar 2025 also aims to educate young readers about Singapore’s wildlife, while learning some fun facts about birds, mammals, reptiles, and sea creatures native to the island state.

Available at all major bookstores and local school bookshops

Publishing a Math Calendar

For aspiring mathepreneurs or seasoned math writers, who desire to produce a similar calendar for other grades or editions in 2026 and beyond, you might think twice or thrice before embarking on such a “deceptively easy” math project.

As I hinted earlier, as a writer, if you want to write a salable math title that would pay the bills (or one that might even help you retire prematurely), writing an assessment or supplementary math title has a higher chance of fulfilling your short- or medium-term goals than working on a [Singapore/Singaporean] math calendar.

At best, writing and publishing a math calendar might temporarily boost your ego, but based on my experience working on these tricky pet math projects, I’d recommend that you spend the man- or woman-hours producing a few no-frills assessment or problem-solving or recreational math titles instead—if you long for some decent royalty or pie-in-the-sky lump sum payment.

For the publisher, producing a math calendar, especially in ever-dwindling birth rate Singapore, the risks (and costs) are pretty high. For the writer, the much-longer time and oft-unappreciated effort needed to write a math calendar could be better spent teaching, tutoring, editing, or writing more salable or profitable assessment titles.

From a business standpoint, 98% of publishers would rather focus their energy and deploy their manpower on producing profitable titles than meeting the mathematical needs and wants (or satisfying the ego) of their calendar math writer. Moreover, from the editorial and production angles, churning out a math calendar could be frustratingly painful and technically challenging, compared to producing a typical assessment or supplementary title (or even an oft-ill-edited primary school textbook).

Count on Singapore!

The Singapore Maths Calendar 2025 is not only a Christmaths gift for 6–8 year olds, especially those who’ve an ambivalent attitude towards the subject, but also an aha! souvenir for any traveler to the “fine” city of Singapore. An apt [nonboring] Singapore math gift to bless a loved one at home!

Be a part of the Singapore math diaspora, while having a good idea of the mathematical standard expected of most local students. The calendar’s must-do or must-practice math questions allows you to gauge your child’s level of mathematical proficiency vis-à-vis their counterparts in Singapore, where even their weaker students have so far fared better than the global average.

For the price of two McDonald’s meals or less, with a yearlong supply of 365 routine and nonroutine math questions, plus 12 months of comics stories, there is probably no present Singapore math assessment title, enrichment or not, that offers the average or above-average student a wallet-friendly rich mathematical experience quite like the Singapore Maths Calendar 2025.

Trust not my words! See for yourself whether or not this math calendar-cum-assessment-book is worth a good educational investment for your child or homeschooler in 2025.

Bonus: A math problem a day could keep the tutor away!

Calendrically & mathematically yours

Singapore Maths Calendar 2025 at Kinokuniya and Popular bookstores

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Is Age Just a Number?

Cartoon © Anon. (being memeified)

I admit that I’m guilty of ageism, but I make zero apologies for exposing criminality or hypocrisy, especially among (past and present) heads of state.

For the majority of us, oft-reluctant law-abiding citizens of the world, few would admit that the criminal mind is a “creative” mind in disguise—one that we’d learn a thing or two from if we put aside our prejudices.

A Tale of Two Senior Presidential Candidates

What are the odds that the world might soon witness a presidential debate between a patient and a prisoner? If reelected, could either folk serve his full term?

Arguably, we’ve two power-hungry weak “leaders” that America could do without—when both seniors should be grandfathering (or con-sulting) rather than mis-leading or weakening the country for another four years (assuming their Creator doesn’t call them before their term is due).

Cartoon by Rick McKee (@Rick_McKee_Ink)

An Age Limit for Presidency

If the present president and his predecessor are too old to competently serve the challenges or demands of another term, shouldn’t lawmakers pass a constitutional law that no elected president shall be of a certain age on the date of inauguration?

What should that age limit be so that voters feel comfortable that any elected presidential candidate would fulfill his or her responsibilities of office? 65, 70, 75, or some other age?

Bitter Root ≡ Better Fruit?

If a bad tree can’t produce good fruit, it’s preposterous to see millions of voters expect a serial dishonest or corrupt “I-me-myself” candidate to deliver them from their years-old financial, social, and religious ills.

The theological or political argument that voters shouldn’t put too much emphasis on a candidate’s past manifold wrongs (who’s continually denied any wrongdoings) to assess or judge him sounds dangerously frightening. Understandably, the criteria to electing a president must be much lower than those used to choosing a pope. Really?

Cartoon by @DennisGoris (buff.ly/3VlEyaz)

King Saul 2.0

What are the chances that in Biden or Trump, we’d be witnessing a modern-day version of King Saul, whose rule would be cut short? Would those mostly morally bankrupt or corrupt appointees, who condone their lies and falsehoods, expect to operate in a blessed political environment? It looks more likely that political entropy would be the new normal come January 2025.

In politics, irrationality and hypocrisy often prove that a string of wrongs has near-zero bearing on the electability of a corrupt or rogue politician.

When one senior isn’t much younger than the other, the choice isn’t that difficult. You choose the one with (more) character, humility, and honesty. Voting for the alternative is flirting with ineptitude, dishonesty, and chaos—more pain and suffering for the majority of the population, who expect their next president to behave more like a priest or pope.

US Math: An Age Problem

Let’s end with a birthday joke on the two most senior presidential candidates in U.S. politics:

Q: Why even their diehard supporters see both Biden and Trump as old, who should be banned from taking part in a presidential election again?

A: At their last birthday, the candles cost more than the cake.

Electorally yours

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Musk vs. Math

In the aftermath of Twitter being rechristened to X, the letter or symbol X can now boast of a new nonmathematical meaning.

The Lawsuit of the Century

Would the world soon be witnessing the legal case of the year: X vs. Math Educators? Or Musk vs. Math?

Meme © Anon.

What on earth is behind the choice of the letter or symbol or logo X to rebrand a once-beloved app, whose shelf life now looks shaky, to say the least?

The X of Singapore Math Publishing

Earlier, I’d x-ed (or “tweeted”) tongue-in-cheek that

“Changing Twitter’s iconic bird logo to a white “X” hoping to launch a "super app" is like Singapore math editors—who’re responsible for their publishers’ MOE-rejected titles—rationalizing that by joining a competitor, their odds of approval would be higher.”

Most mediocre math editors are often deluded into thinking that their new higher position or pay in another publishing house would magically make them a better “word doctor,” thus increasing the chances of their manuscripts getting approved by the Ministry of Education.

Twitterdamus: The Fall of Twitter

Late last year, when the founder of SpaceX started downsizing Twitter’s workforce, the temptation to coin Twitterdamus was just too strong.

I tweeted the above definition with this hypothesized question: “Twitter Math: Guesstimate the number of Twitterdamuses who secretly wished to witness the bankruptcy of Twitter in a-not-too-distant future.”

Threat from Threads

Below are some tweets I recently posted related to the privacy or security of our personal data.

Your metadata has now a choice. Who’s your less trusted or beloved billionaire? [Cartoon from FRusty.creates]

Threads’s Threat: Is the Threads app an Alibaba version of Twitter? Sounds like the social media equivalent of Trump’s frivolous lawsuits against those who expose him! Why isn’t Twitter also suing Weibo—China’s copycat?

When Free is often costly: If the product or service is free, you are the product. Think of Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, which have sold or resold your personal data multiple times for billions.

A prayer for millions of anti-𝕏 followers who sorely miss the little blue bird: Let 𝕏 Be Twitter Again!

Sunday, June 4, 2023

Is a Pythagorean Ban or Bill in the Pipeline?

Is the above geometry question a “trick” question to check whether the “anti-woke” curriculum censors in some red states are awake or not?

Or just pro-Disney critics trying to poke fun at some pro-DeSantis “math specialists” (or ultra-MAGA patriots and puritan parents), who’re hell-bent to ban any deemed questionable or objectionable math questions that could potentially add unnecessary stress to math-anxious students and their parents?

If a poem promoting national or racial unity could “cause confusion and indoctrinate students,” a nonroutine math question from an alien or foreign source might also inflict twice as much psychological harm to the self-esteem (or mental health) of students who’re not born or blessed with the “mathematical gene.”

In the name of mathematical wokeism, what would qualify as a “worst [math] question”? One that could lead to a temporary mental blackout or a three-second-long stroke?

Or one that would trigger common symptoms like faster heartbeat, sweaty palms, and dry throat, which unspokenly affect all of us to a certain degree, when faced with a time-based brain-unfriendly or fiendish math question?

Should polarized politics or racial puritanism be allowed to triumph over mathematical problem solving and critical thinking? When “holy votes” from a significant proportion of the population dictate the direction of math education, curricular or educational decisions that would benefit the nation would be rarer than perfect numbers.

Questionably & critically yours

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Seven Irreverent Definitions of Singapore Math

Since I started christening mathematical words on Urban Dictionary, as someone who makes a living evangelizing the gospel of Singapore Math, it’s too tempting not to attempt defining the love-or-hate term, depending on your personal experience with the alien, hybrid math curriculum. Indeed, your geography or maturity would most likely determine your position or reaction vis-à-vis Singapore Math—for a number of you, not only you love Singapore Math, but Singapore Math loves you, too!

Since last December, I discovered that out of the hundreds-odd math terms or phrases I had contributed to Urban Dictionary—the "anti-Wikipedia"—under different pseudonyms, one “terrorist stalker” has been serially and wickedly downvoting a number of them on a daily basis to the point that the online dictionary had to temporarily suspend and eventually remove the most downvoted entries to prevent further digital abuse or digital persecution—two of those deleted definitions involve Singapore Math.

The Fear Factor in Singapore Math Education

If math teachers, tutors, writers, and editors were given the assurance that they wouldn't be punished, fined, jailed, or even caned for speaking up and speaking out on the good, the bad, and the ugly of Singapore math education, it's inconceivable why Singapore couldn't potentially become a global mathematical hub of choice for those born with the mathematical gene (let’s pretend that there’s such a thing) and a sense of humor or irreverence.

As a proof that we in Singapore aren’t the boring, exam-smart math educators that some outside the island-state would like to portray us, below are seven irreverent or light-hearted definitions on Singapore Math, which were approved and published on Urban Dictionary, the World's No. 1 online dictionary.

Could you figure out which two of the seven definitions were "censored" or deleted? At one point, I thought maybe there is a vigilante math squad, a subset of the small army of moral and political policemen and women, recruited by the Singapore authorities to monitor any citizens or residents who try to publish any mathematical thing, which speaks ill of the government, the police, the army, and the judiciary.

Who knows that these e-censors might be on the lookout to report any "mathematical black sheep" to the authorities, who might then threaten and sue them, if they refuse to take down any content or comment that allegedly promotes the dark side of math or math education in Singapore?

Singapore Math with a New Twist

May I encourage you to redefine “Singapore Math” based on your personal experience and interaction with fellow math educators, students, parents, and caregivers (or maids-turned-tutors). Indeed, Singapore Math has many faces, and your unique perception and definition of it would allow us to peek at a hitherto unseen (sexier or darker) side of it. It's never too late to share your definition (or frustration) with fellow math educators.

In Singapore Math, we trust!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

A Dozen Numerical Deeds for the Chinese New Year

The Lunar New Year is often a time of receiving rather than a time of giving for most youngsters. However, like Christmas, for not-well-to-do donors, it's the worst time of the year, when they're expected to give hong baos or gifts to the younger generation, many of whom think it's their juvenile rights to receive these red packets.

An extra zero is always welcomed!
From: The Straits Times, Feb. 18, 2015. p. A24.

In recent years, more shops and supermarkets are open during the Chinese New Year, because foreign workers and non-Chinese Singaporeans are willing to work overtime to serve locals, who would otherwise be inconvenienced when it comes to buying household items; or having a wallet-friendly meal, while they go around visiting friends and relatives. Not to say, foreign-born doctors and nurses who are on stand-by to look after local patients, who are admitted to hospitals during the Chinese New Year public holidays.

There is no better time than the Chinese New Year to show our appreciation to the financially disadvantaged and to tens of thousands of migrants, who help sustain the economy, when most Chinese Singaporeans are having a good time catching up with relatives and friends.

A Dozen Deeds for Singaporeans of All Sizes, Shapes, and Ages

Here are a dozen simple numerical deeds many could afford to do during this festive season, especially after receiving fat hong baos from senior family members and relatives.

12. Give some iTunes or Google play gift cards to children from disadvantaged homes for them to purchase some educational apps or ebooks.

11. Donate a math ebook, or offer a sample chapter, or book voucher to someone whose child might benefit from it.

10. Overtip a waitress.

The book may be unsuitable for non-geeks!

9. Give ten bucks to a street musician or blind person.

8. Compliment three strangers every day during this festive season.

7. Give a gift certificate or cash voucher to a beggar.

6. Bless a poor child with a Rubik's Cube.

Not all Rubik's cubes are made equal!

5. Offer ten percents of your income to charity, on top of your tithe.

4. Surprise an old friend overseas with a phone call.

A value-for-money grade 3 SG math book

3. Volunteer to teach or tutor someone how to use the model- or stack-model method as a problem-solving strategy to solve brain-unfriendly questions.

2. Settle the restaurant bill for a family of four strangers while they are enjoying their meal.

1. Buy a seasoned train ticket and give it to a poor person.

The time to spread happiness and joy is now, especially among foreign and migrant workers and the economically disadvantaged. For the young, it's never too early to be a cheerful giver! Let the spirit of giving be extended far and wide vis-à-vis disadvantaged Singapore citizens and residents!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Creative Statistics

The fear of elementary statistics among an oft-innumerate public has often provided fertile ideas for artists and humorists to "abuse" and "misuse" the art and science of representing data meaningfully and creatively.

Among my favorite statistical diagrams are the ones featured by Demetri Martin, a lawyer-turned-comedian, who was a writer with Late Night with Conan O'Brien and a performer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

If only some mathematicians or math educators suffering from mid-life crisis would switch careers to focus on hilarity instead of mere applied numeracy, they could help reduce the trauma and pain experienced by thousands of [sadistic?] statistics students every year, by humanizing a much-disliked mathematical topic in school.

Below are a sample of the creative use of statistical diagrams to convey both useful and useless information.

A classic in pop math literature

In [Creative] Statistics we mistrust! Thou shalt abuse or misuse statistics to tell white lies!

Humorously and Statistically yours

References

Benson, R. (2012). F in Retakes. West Sussex, UK: Summerdale Publishers Ltd.

Martin, D. (2013). Point your face at this. Penguin Books.

Martin, D. (2011). This is a book by Demetri Martin. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

The Lighter Side of Singapore Math (Part 4)

A Citizenship Proficiency Test

Below is a sample of math-related questions that could be posed in a "Singapore Citizenship Proficiency Test" paper meant for future naturalized citizens.

1. Singapore is

A. the fourth largest city in China, after Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing.

B. the capital of Malaysia.

C. an island situated near the equator.

D. an island off the East coast of Taiwan.

E. none of the above.

2. The Singapore model method, or bar method, is a naturalized math product. Where did it originate from?

I. China

II. Israel

III. Japan

IV. Russia
V. United States

A. I only

B. I and III only

C. I, III, and IV

D. II and IV

E. I, III, IV, and V

3. Singapore math textbooks are currently used in

A. the United States and in fewer than 10 Asian countries.

B. more than 50 countries around the world.

C. fewer than 20 Commonwealth countries.

D. over 120 American schools.

E. none of the above.

4. The "Math in Focus" series of books, published in Singapore and printed in China, is an adaptation of a local popular math series. What is the name of this math series?

A. Shaping Maths

B. Discover Maths

C. My Pals Are Here

D. Everyday Maths

E. Maths in Action

5. Which country came top in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for three consecutive times?
A. China

B. Japan

C. Finland

D. Singapore

E. Germany

The Art of Model Drawing: The Right Model

Based on a grade two word problem, the diagrams below show the solutions of four students. Which one best represents a suitable model drawing?

The right [or write?] model is ____.

An [Unofficial] PISA's Ranking for World's Cities

Following the recent PISA ranking, with Shanghai coming up first in math, science, and reading, one mainland Chinese commented online:

"If China were to submit test results for all 30 of its provinces then they will rank from #1 to #30 with Korea and Japan squeezed in between." Z

The comment is anything but far-fetched, as it's an open secret that it's much harder for a high-school graduate to be admitted to the top universities in China than to secure a place in the top two universities in Singapore.

Here's a possible PISA or TIMSS ranking, should they decide to compare city-state Singapore with the world's best cities in mathematics or science.

Toyko
Tel Avi
...

Beijing
Shanghai

…
Seoul

Taipei
...

Hong Kong

Guangdong

Moscow

…

Mumbai

Tehran

…

Singapore

Bangalore

…

Pyongyang

Chennai

…

New York

London

Washington

…

Will Singapore be around in the next century?

In the sixties, to control the population growth, the slogan then to [primarily non-college-] graduates couples was: "Stop at two kids!"

Today, to address the declining birthrate, the dangerously unwritten slogan in some postmodern or liberal circles is: "Seek two… wives!" Or, maybe it's: "Stick to one wife, but sleep with a few concubines!"

Expensive-cheat Titles

Two more expensive-cheat Singapore math books—titles which over-promise and under-deliver, or whose contents are worth a fraction of their published prices—according to dozens of local teachers, tutors, lecturers, and parents. Order them from Amazon.com if you've extra cash to spare!