Mathematical terminology and notation through a linguistic lens Introduction The first time I attended graduate school was for Linguistics. My first year, I taught English as a Second Language. My most resistant students were Mathematics majors, because many of them held the opinion that mathematics is a universal language. Why bother getting fluent in English?…
Author: Clio
Keeping, Changing, Flipping
Consider the following task: \[1.\quad \text{Simplify the expression }\frac{3}{4}\div\frac{2}{5}.\] It is very common for students to struggle with this sort of task. A common teaching approach is “Keep Change Flip,” but too often that’s presented as a mechanical trick without any deeper understanding of why it works. In proper mathematical language, “Keep Change Flip” translates…
Like a Butterfly
lentement, doucement, comme un papillon contre le vent you reminded me to breathe because i’d forgotten i’d inhaled once then held it inside to bound around and pollute my soul i didn’t want to exhale because i was afraid the toxins would strangle the world my father had told me to keep the demons deep…
Reflections on Inverse Function Notation
I was thinking about inverse function notation, and that got me thinking about function notation, and that got me thinking about operations and how meh our notation for mathematical operations is. So, let’s start fresh. We’ll pretend we don’t have any operators, just a bunch of numbers and an equal sign. We need to make…
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the king cat on thirteen eight three nine has been prancing towards the old appliance store for so long it feels like he’s always been there his mouth is upside down now but somehow his paint is still as fresh as the twinkle in his eyes before he appeared to strut down woodward in the…
The Citadel IV
I woke up on the floor of the tallest minaret in the citadel. Naked, fetal, confused, hugging my knees as if they were a friend I thought I’d lost. You found me there, staring out the window, looking up at the blue sky. And though you called my name, I did not want to answer….
Star Wars Cards
I’ve worn this war paint for so long I don’t know how to take it off I don’t know what I look like without it I don’t know who I am underneath Or even if there is a me beneath it This is my calloused skin Layered thick with “boys don’t cry” And “what’s wrong…
Pinocchio
The Turquoise-Haired Fairy lied: She told Pinocchio he could be a real boy If only he stopped lying, As if boyhood was based on truth. I learned as a boy that Boyhood was based on lies, And lies upon those lies, With the biggest lie of all being That I could ever be a real…
Sea (memoryland trilogy #3)
the sea is my safety it is my flesh it surrounds me it becomes me and i become it i am made of the sea it courses through my veins and reminds me of the time before and informs me of the time to come and lets me be in the now alone embraced surrounded…
Earth (memoryland trilogy #2)
push your fingers into the barrier dig deep until your hands have gone in up to the wrists feel your hands choking by the thickness of the barrier push until you can’t push and then push some more up to the elbows now and asked yourself is this a barrier is this a wall or…