punters | Yan's One Minute Math Blog

Slightly more than a year before Singapore won its first gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, I tweeted that “Joseph Schooling’s golds at the SEA Games looks like Barcelona or Manchester United, winning the Singapore’s S-league. #swimming” (@SingaporeLite on June 11, 2015).

From 4-Year Games to 4D Gambling

On August 13, 2016, within an hour of Joseph Schooling’s historic feat for winning Singapore its first gold at the Rio Olympics, punters in Singapore were lining up outside betting outlets islandwide to leverage on his Olympic record-breaking time of 50.39sec in the Men’s 100m butterfly. Who says that medalists’ record times can’t numerologically be used to divine the next winning lottery numbers?

A Grade 9 Singapore Math Question: “How many possible 4D numbers (with and without repetitions) could punters choose from Joseph Isaac Schooling’s winning time of 50.39 seconds?”

The Olympicology of Schooling

Following the mania among superstitious punters to strike it big, I coined Olympiocology to poke fun at their irrational or paranormal behaviors.

On the same day, I also tweeted: “How can Singapore experience the Schooling Effect in the aftermath of winning its first gold medal?” with a link that opens up the DIY e-card below.

Sports Awards First, Military Service Second

Three days later, @Zero_Math, I texted: “Military rules are man-made—not cast in stone. How many Joseph Schooling’s and Fandi Ahmad’s does Singapore have?,” accompanied by the following e-card:

Should gold medalists be exempted from military service?

A Tale of Two Promoters: Vandal & Victor

On August 16, 2016, I also tweeted tongue-in-cheek another DIY e-card, comparing the notorious Michael Fey (the American teenager who was caned for vandalism in Singapore) and the glorious Joseph Schooling (whom some “bigoted” locals or Trump “patriots” claimed not to be a “true-blue Singaporean”).

When a cane brings more attention to Singapore than a coin.

Mathletes & Olympians: Mental v. Physical

Which is harder for most countries to produce: a gold medalist at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) or at the Olympic Games?

Although differentiating mathletes and olympians might look like comparing apples with oranges, however, for a number of developed countries, it appears that the chances of their athletes bringing in an Olympic gold medal home are higher than the odds of their IMO mathletes being a gold medalist, if some of their representatives aren’t foreign-born, or if they were to rely solely on their limited pool of local talents.

Below is another e-card I produced in the aftermath of Singapore’s first ever-win of a gold medal at the Olympics.

Which Singapore values more: Olympic or IMO gold medalists?

A Guesstimation Question: In a number of highly competitive events at the Olympic Games, where victory is determined by mini-seconds or centimeters, and if winning a gold medal is arguably “60% skill, 40% luck,” or “50% talent, 50% luck,” guesstimate what percentage of gold medalists make it by pure luck rather than by sheer skill.

Count on Me, Singapore!

Can Singapore still count on Joseph Schooling for more medals? Would he prove his critics or detractors wrong in making his country proud again? What are the chances that he’d “make Singapore great(er) again”?

Let’s wish him all the best in the next phase of his swimming career! Let no one take away what he did to make Singapore and Singaporeans proud.

2016: Singapore & Schooling: 🏊 🇸🇬 🥇

2020: Singapore & (Kimberly Lim and Cecilia Low): ⛵️ 🇸🇬 [🏅?]

Bibliography & References

Commentary: Singapore sports must learn lessons from Schooling’s decline
https://www.todayonline.com/node/12067716

President Halimah, govt leaders speak up against ‘negative, hurtful’ comments on Joseph Schooling’s Olympics performance
https://www.todayonline.com/node/12062406

‘It’s hard to swallow’: Joseph Schooling disappointed by butterfly performance at Olympics, vows to fight harder
https://www.todayonline.com/node/12056111

Golden ticket 5039 sold out after Schooling’s win http://www.todayonline.com/node/2318881

Most of us may not admit it, but we’ve all fallen victim to the lure of innumeracy—the mathematical equivalent of illiteracy—consciously or unconsciously. Here are twenty of my favorite innumerate events I often witness among my numerate and semi-numerate friends, colleagues, and relatives.

• Taking a 45-minute train journey to save a few dollars at Carrefour or Walmart.

• Lining up for hours (or even days, if you’re in China?) to buy an iPhone or iPad.

• Paying a numerologist or geomancy crank to divine your “lucky” and “unlucky” days.

• Visiting a feng-shui master to offer advice how best to arrange your furniture at home, or in your office, to ward off negative or “unwanted energies.”

• Buying similar items in bulk at discounted prices, which you don’t need but because they’re cheap.

• Offering foods to idols [aka gods and goddesses] in the hope that they’ll bring you good luck and prosperity in return.

• Offering gifts to hungry [angry?] ghosts to appease them lest they come back to harm you and your loved ones.

• Buying insurance policies against alien abduction, meteorites, biological warfare, or the enslavement of the apocalyptic Beast.

• Filling up lucky draw vouchers, by providing your personal particulars for future pests-marketeers and time-sharing consultants.

• Betting on horses, football, stocks, and the like—any get-rich activities that may cut short a 30-year working life, slaving for your mean or half-ethical bosses 9-to-6 every day.

• Buying lottery tickets to short-circuiting hard work, or to retiring prematurely.

• Going on annual pilgrimages to seeking blessing from some deities, prophets, saints, or animal spirits.

• Outsourcing your thinking to self-help gurus or motivational coaches.

• Going for prices that end in 99 cents, or acquiring auctioned items that are priced at $88 or $888—the number 8 is deemed auspicious among superstitious Chinese.

• Replying to spam mails from conmen and “widows” from Nigeria, Russia, or China, who are exceedingly generous to transfer half of their inherited money to your bank account.

• Taking a half-day leave from work, or faking sickness to visit the doctor, to line up for hours to buy McDonald Hello Kitties.

• Lining up overnight to buy the latest model of a game console, or to secure an apartment unit of a newly built condominium.

• Enrolling for courses that cost over a thousand bucks to learn “Effective Study Habits of Highly Successful Students.”

• Postponing all important meetings, or avoiding air traveling, on a Friday the thirteenth.

• Canceling all major business dealings, weddings, or product launches during the Ghost (or Seventh) Month.

Now is your turn to share with the mathematical brethren at least half a dozen of your pet innumerate activities—those numerical idiocies or idiosyncrasies— that you (or your loved ones) were indulged in at some not-too-distant point in the past.

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