The Weak Days of the Week It’s said that working seven days a week makes one weak. Even workaholics who often wished they had an eight-day week couldn’t go on their routine hoping to ever be productive or creative sans experiencing a breakdown sooner than later. Four-Day Work Week Recently, there was much talk in the “fine” city about a four-day working week. Sounds like good news for tens of thousands of employees, especially those in the civil service, but bad news for profits-over-people employers or bosses in the private sector, who don’t subscribe to a workplace promoting a less than ..read more

Shot from Tiesha Sanders/Facebook The above grade one math question from Texas is debatably ill-posed. However, the child answer of “7 ones” is “non-mathematically creative” or “irreverently correct.” The teacher’s reply to the mother that “… this is the new math they have us teaching.” would puzzle many math educators outside TrumpLand. Arguably, the correct answer to this routine question has little or nothing to do with “new math” or “new new math” or whatever politically correct mathematical term we want to christen it. The child’s “correct” answer that was marked wrong by her t ..read more

More than half a dozen years ago, I coined “Prime Murder” as follows: What proportion of integers are prime? What are the odds that you might commit a prime murder at some point in your mathematical career, be it in teaching, editing, or writing? Over the centuries, both professional and amateur mathematicians weren’t spared from it. Think of Pierre de Fermat who erroneously thought that 2^(2⁵) + 1, or 2³² + 1, was a prime. So, for the majority of us, whether we’re born or blessed with the “mathematical gene” or not, the chances of being found guilty of a prime murder might not be limited to ..read more

On Facebook, someone recently posted the above primary 4 (or grade 4) geometry question, asking for help from fellow parents. How would you do it (without calling on ChatGPT)? If you’re a parent, homeschooler, or tutor, how would you explain it to an eight- or nine-year-old child, who’s struggling with non-drill-and-kill questions on area and perimeter? Give It a Try First! Try figuring out the answer on your own first before peeping at two parents’ quick-and-dirty solutions below. Better still, could you present an idiot-proof or peasant-friendly solution that even a smart dog or cat co ..read more

Zero causes so much pain and suffering to tens of millions of students and their parents every day. Indeed, zero is the real troublemaker among the numbers! It's not too late to get even with the Roman Catholic Church’s once-deemed blasphemous infidel number (again). Below are ten idiot-proof activities you’d do to celebrate Zero Day. 10. Avoid writing the now-redundant zero before a decimal point: .23, .583, .0045, …—move away from dated deception, faux religion, or numerological superstition. 9. Use the letter “o” or “O” when you mean the number or numeral “0”—for example, when ..read more

On X (formerly Twitter), @wiseconnector posed the following question: How many numbers can you find? It’s never too late for an eye check-up and also an opportunity to hone your logical and visualization skills. This logic or math question can serve as an icebreaker at a birthday party even for those who proudly or unashamedly boast of being “hopeless at math or numbers.”  Try it! The answer is anything but obvious. Ask a toddler or kindergartener, and also your seniors at home, especially if you’re concerned that they might succumb to dementia or Alzheimer’s in their later years, based ..read more

https://fb.watch/lTvXKc6VyK/?mibextid=v7YzmG  Does the comedic rant on “Racism in Maths Problem Sums” serve as a “proof” that inequality or racism is rampant in math and math education? Often times, math educators pose and solve these artificial or contrived word problems without giving much thought to them, especially when they’re oblivious that they might trigger mixed or negative feelings among highly sensitive schoolchildren and parents that belong to certain racial or minority or economically disadvantaged groups. Math in Multicultural Singapore It’s no harm nor too late for the M ..read more

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 ..read more

Photo © Anon. Few would disagree that the above math or science question has now gained deadly relevance or importance in this year’s cruel summer, especially during this week’s abnormally hot weather. EcoMath 4 Everyone Is it apt for math teachers to use this week’s extreme weather condition plaguing some parts of the planet to help some middle-school students brush up their Celsius-Fahrenheit conversion skills, and to challenge them with some real-world problems in the aftermath of climate change?  A typical grade nine (or secondary three) ecomath question is the following: On a cert ..read more

Not too long ago, a mother posted the above grade three question on Facebook, and sought help from fellow parents: “Hi all, can anyone advise this P3 qn? Thanks!” Before you read some of the replies or suggestions below, if you’re a parent or tutor, how would you solve this fraction question (with the mathematical knowledge of an average grade three student)? A parent’s reply was: “This is a question that wants u to compare the fraction with half. Whichever fraction is smaller than half is the answer. “To compare against half, take the denominator and divide by 2. If the numerator is less th ..read more