A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman [email protected] last updated on 1/7/2007 A 9 12 Abelian – 10 or 10 depending on whether you studied math or maths at school Abscissa – a person who is self absorbed with their abs Absolute Geometry – geometry that doesn’t play fair Absolute Value – nonnegotiable price Absorbing State – “You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.” Abundant Number – a lot Acceptance Sampling – launching a trial balloon Acousmatic – someone who is quick to point fingers Adding Machine – a good summer Additive Identity – alias Adèle Group – the Astaire’s Adenine – nucleotide that tells us how to go from 1 to 10 Adiabatic Law – always monitor your glucose level Affine Variety – what a good store carries Agonic – someone who lives in the past Airport Problem – when you lose your in flight internet connection Page 1 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Alethic – stout Alexander Polynomial – Iksander, Richard Burton, Colin Farrell, but apparently not Leonardo DiCaprio ALGOL – what Julius Caesar divided into three parts Aliorelative – onion Aliter – a little more than a quart Aliquot – “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” Allegory – Tipper’s husband when in Rome Almost Surely – Shirley Almost Everywhere – where kudzu grows Alternating Group – Animagi Alternation – Vatican City Amenable Group – The Beatles Amicable Pair – good friends Amphibology – switch pitching Analemma Curve – slant eight Anallagmatic – Wrangler blue jeans Analysis – denouement Analysis of Variance – psychotherapy Analytic Geometry – creole Page 2 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Annealing – genuflecting Ansatz – A ‘Convenient’ Truth Annihilator – “weapon of math destruction” Annulus – what the unhappy couple asked the priest to do Anticlastic – indivisible Anticomplement – a disparaging word Antinomy – what’s added to textiles to make them flame retardant (and carcinogenic?) Antipode – an acrobat who juggles with their feet Antiset – flavoring for those delicious Italian cookies Antitone – ‘ill conditioned’ a-Partite Graph – government corruption in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 Apeiron – what Oprah did on The Late Show Apex – 16 gallons Apothem – what the bluetick pup treed Apotome – The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe , 17 volumes, James Harrison, editor Arbelos – where the pirate said the supplies were Arcuate – without error Arithmetic Geometry – Arithmetic on the Frontier Page 3 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Arrow of Time – an anachronism Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem – what goes up must come down (assuming we ignore the potential effect of dark energy and trees) Astroid – a tag for Elroy’s dog Asymptote – how the farmer got his lame donkey home Automorphic Form – hardtop convertible Autoregression – PT Cruiser Autos Epha – carpeter (carpetlayer) Average – to bid farewell to the anger within Axiom of Choice – The Importance of Being ‘Ernst’ Axis – sacks B Back Substitution – artificial disk replacement Baire Category – ursine breed Baire Space – ‘polar plot’ Ballot Problem – rigged election Bandit Problems – when DoD money dries up for consulting inside the beltway Barber’s Paradox – stylist’s knot Page 4 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Basel Problem – skin cancer Basin of Attraction – the bathroom sink Bayes’ Rule – wash the tub after each use Beat the Dealer – Military Commissions Act provision for getting information out of Afghan opium traffickers Bell Numbers – Cambridge Surprise Major , Little Bob Minor , Grandsire Triples , … Bematist Goal – pari passu In the time of Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC) surveyors were trained in the skill of maintaining a fixed length pace, a bema ( βήµα ), over long distances. The bema was the distance between successive steps and was roughly two and a half feet. These human pedometers were called bematists and were able to stay within 1/100 of a bema with each step! It is a persistent legend that Eratosthenes (276 BC – 194 BC) hired bematists to measure the distance from Alexandria to Syene as part of his famous effort to determine the size of the Earth. This story is beautifully told in the children’s book The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky and is definitely worth reading by “kids” of all ages. The Romans, in contrast to the Greeks, defined a pace (Latin passus ) as the distance that would bring a land surveyor (Latin agrimensore ) back to the same foot ( i.e. roughly five feet). Pari is Latin for “equal” and thus the phrase pari passu translates literally from the Latin as “equal pace”. Putting this together, we have that the goal of a bematist (Greek) is to maintain an equal pace , which is the literal translation of the (Latin) phrase pari passu . Pari passu is now used as a legal phrase with the general meaning of “on equal footing”. The phrase is also used in finance with the meaning “at the same rate”. e.g. All creditors will be treated pari passu . Incomes for middle class and wealthy families were not increasing pari passu . The equating of these Greek and Latin phrases apparently has no historical basis. But that is okay as there is a word for such invented linguistic Page 5 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] miscegenations – it’s called macaronic . And as any Italian restaurateur will tell you, the best way to top off a meal of macaroni like this is with a slice of pari passu , that delicious Italian dessert made with mascarpone cheese. But then that would be a malapropism and that’s another story altogether. Fortunately, linguists will forgive all if you say it with a big enough smile. Benford’s Law – “One is the likeliest number that you’ll ever know. Two is not as likely as one, but it’s the likeliest number since the number one.” Bias – the two words parents hear most on the cereal aisle Bicorn – an option at the Merc Bicursal – the ability to swear in two languages Big-Endian, Little-Endian – Much Ado About Nothing Big M Method – product bundling Big O Notation – Oscar Robertson’s number Bing Sling – a highball with a cherry Binit – when you’ve had your turn in tag Biplot – selecting a retirement location Birthday Problem – old age Block Scheduling – filibuster BLUE – bummed Bonnet Net – snood Borda Count – 2(A− I + 1) when in Boston Page 6 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Boundary Condition – terminal case Braneworld – “There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man.” Brownian Motion – when a Girl Scout moves to recess Butterfly Effect – Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo! Butterfly Effect – Psyched C Calculemus – Machiavellian motto Calculus – the Flintstone’s daughter Canard Solution – Duck Soup Canonical Analysis – weapons inspection Cantor Dust – what a horse kicks up Cantor’s Middle Third Set – second of an hazan’s three part performance Cardinal Characteristic – bright red cassock and zucchetto Carnap Rule – never wake a baby who has fallen asleep in a car seat Casting Out Nines – pitching your niblicks Catenary – without even a hint of malice or spite Catenoid – what you get if you grab a tiger by the tail Page 7 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Cattle Problem – BSE Centroids – Emperor Palpatine’s (a.k.a. Darth Sidious) strategy for invading Naboo Ceteris Paribus – Elsie the Cow Cheney’s Card Trick – WHIG Chudnovsky Brothers – piquant Church’s Thesis – God exists Cissoid – an impolite way to describe your elder sister Clinure – the two words kids hear most re their room Cliques – Ska Geeks, Metalheads, Goths, Punks, … Closed Function – a private party Clustering Illusion – apophenia Cochain – what Joe Paterno is known for Cofactor – someone faking a cold Cofinal – what you have when students collude on the end of term exam Collatz Problem – when pages of your exam are out of order Column Space – stoa Combinatorics on Words – magnetic poetry Common Knowledge – heard throughout the dining hall Commutative Group – carpoolers Page 8 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Commutator – a spud-nik Complement of a Set – best wishes to the newlyweds Complete Pivoting – an about-face Completing the Square – The Princess Diaries Complex Analysis – study connecting guilt, inferiority, god, persecution, martyrs and nice guys Complex Numbers – Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 , Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 , Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No. 5 , and Chopin’s Etude No. 1, Op.10 . Complex Plane – the F-22A Raptor Comprehensive Exam – day of reckoning Conic Section – where Dilbert lives Conjunction – The Joint Construction Tools – Erector Set Continued Fraction – an ongoing part Contour Map – what tourists use at Alcatraz Contrapositive – Oliver North’s point of view Control Group – Agents 86 and 99, Chief, Larabee and Hymie Cook’s Theorem – “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” Coprimes – bop, hop, lop, mop, pop, sop, top, … Corner Test – an autopsy Page 9 A Set of Mathematical Equivoques Ken Suman, [email protected] Correlation Implies Causation – cum hoc , ergo propter hoc Coset – Jean Valjean’s daughter Cossic Art – pysanky Countability of the Rationals – "Everyone is crazy except you and me … and sometimes I wonder about you." Critical Path – Main Street Critical Point – exigency Cross Product – double cross Crunode – Bordeaux C-Space – an ocean Curve of Constant Width – spotting everyone the same number of points Cylinder – what the revenuer asked the bootlegger D Damped Sine