My Favorite One-Liners: Part 86

Algebra II, Humor, Precalculus, Tales from the Classroom 1 Minute

In this series, I’m compiling some of the quips and one-liners that I’ll use with my students to hopefully make my lessons more memorable for them.

To get students comfortable with i = \sqrt{-1}, I’ll often work through a quick exercise on the powers of i:

i^1 = i

i^2 = -1

i^3 = -i

i^4 = 1

i^5 = i

Students quickly see that the powers of i are a cycle of length 4, so that i^5 = i \cdot i \cdot i \cdot i \cdot i is the same thing as just i. So I tell my students:

There’s a technical term for this phenomenon: aye-yai-yai-yai-yai.

See also http://mentalfloss.com/article/52790/where-did-phrase-aye-yai-yai-come for more on the etymology of this phrase.

Published by John Quintanilla

I'm a Professor of Mathematics and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas. For eight years, I was co-director of Teach North Texas, UNT's program for preparing secondary teachers of mathematics and science.

Published

One thought on “My Favorite One-Liners: Part 86”

  1. Pingback: My Favorite One-Liners: Index | Mean Green Math

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