"Now it's time for everybody's favorite subject, math!"
Tropes relating to how mathematicians and their craft are depicted in the media.
Not to be confused with doing math with tropes.
Tropes:
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- Alternative Number System: A numerical system where the "base" isn't ten.
- Applied Mathematics: Using math symbols to mix real-world things.
- Calculus Is Arcane Knowledge: Calculus is used to show that a character is very intelligent.
- Carry the One: Somebody is good at doing equations, but forgets to carry a number (usually a one).
- Counting to Potato: Someone is counting or spelling but replaces a number or letter with a different one or a word.
- E = MC Hammer: Nonsensical equations.
- Eleventy Zillion: Made-up numbers.
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: All the main characters hate doing math.
- First-Contact Math: When meeting aliens for the first time, using math to see if they're intelligent and (hopefully) communicate.
- Formulaic Magic: Math is magical.
- Formula for the Unformulable: Someone tries to use numeric concepts to calculate the uncalculable.
- Good with Numbers: Someone has a knack for math.
- If My Calculations Are Correct: Intellectuals who talk about their "calculations" a lot.
- I Like Those Odds: Odds are not in someone's favor but they state (either snarkily or genuinely) that they like them.
- "Jar of Jellybeans" Contest: A contest focusing on counting or measuring to determine how much of an item is in a container.
- Ludicrous Precision: People who are Good with Numbers can calculate down to the last decimal.
- Mad Mathematician: Somebody is both Good with Numbers and insane.
- Million to One Chance: Unlikely things will almost definitely happen.
- Mismeasurement: Someone measures something incorrectly.
- Misplaced a Decimal Point: Somebody is meant to be Good with Numbers, but they misplace a decimal point in an equation.
- Mouthful of Pi: Geniuses can recite pi to a ludicrous number of places.
- Never Tell Me the Odds!: A character gets told that the odds are not in their favor. They reject it and beat those unlikely odds.
- Number Obsession: A character is obsessed with numbers, numerical order, and/or counting.
- Oven Logic: Someone thinks they can cook something faster by dividing the cooking time and proportionally multiplying the temperature of the oven. This usually results in smoke, fire, burned food, and more fire.
- Prescience by Analysis: Someone can calculate so well that they're almost psychic.
- Rebus Bubble: Applied Mathematics in a thought bubble.
- SI Prefix Name: Using SI prefixes to denote relative power.
- Train Problem: A mathematical "word problem" involving two trains.
- Visual Calculus: Projecting math over reality.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: A Plot Hole that comes from a mathematical error.