# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 200): Spider-Man

Let $T$ be the set of all times, and let $R(t)$ be the proposition “I will rest at time $t$,” and let $M(t)$ be the proposition “You are unmasked and eliminated at time $t$.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall t \in T(\lnot M(t) \Longrightarrow \lnot R(t))$.

This matches a line by J. Jonas Jameson in the 1990s Spider-Man cartoons.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 199): Justin Bieber

Let $T$ be the set of all times, let $K(t)$ be the proposition “You knock me down at time $t$,” and let $G(t)$ be the proposition “I am on the ground at time $t$.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall t \in T(K(t) \longrightarrow \lnot (\forall s \ge t (G(s))))$.

This matches part of the chorus of “Never Say Never” by Justin Bieber.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 198): Smash Mouth

Let $P$ be the set of all people, let $T$ be the set of all times, and let $R(x,t)$ be the proposition “$x$ told me at time $t$ that the world is going to roll me. Translate the logical statement

$\exists x \in P \exists t \in T (R(x,t))$.

This matches the opening line of “All Star” by Smash Mouth.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Slightly Incorrect Ugly Mathematical Christmas T-Shirts: Index

I’m doing something that I should have done a long time ago: collecting a series of posts into one single post. The following links comprised my series on slightly incorrect ugly mathematical Christmas T-shirts.

Part 1: Missing digits in the expansion of $\pi$.

Part 2: Incorrect computation of Pascal’s triangle.

Part 3: Incorrect name of Pascal’s triangle.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 197): Frank Sinatra

Let $p$ be the proposition “I’ve been up,” let $q$ be the proposition “I’ve been down,” let $r$ be the proposition “I’ve been over,” and let $s$ be the proposition “I’ve been out.” Translate the logical statement

$p \land q \land r \land s$.

This matches a quote from “That’s Life” by Frank Sinatra.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 196): Taylor Swift

Let $P$ be the set of all people, let $F(x)$ be the proposition “You find $x$,” and let $L(x)$ be the proposition “$x$ is like me.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \in P (F(x) \Longrightarrow \lnot L(x))$.

This matches a quote from “ME!” by Taylor Swift.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 195): Hannah Montana

Let $p$ be the proposition “We are a movie,” let $q$ be the proposition “You are the right guy,” and let $r$ be the proposition “I am the best friend.” Translate the logical statement

$p \Longrightarrow (q \land r)$.

This matches a quote from the Hannah Montana song “If We Were a Movie.”

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 194): Dragon Ball

Let $P$ be the set of all people, let $P(x)$ be the proposition “$x$ preaches about justice,” and let $G(x)$ be the proposition “$x$ is a good guy.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall x \in P (P(x) \Longrightarrow \lnot G(x))$.

This matches a quote from the Dragon Ball franchise.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# Predicate Logic and Popular Culture (Part 193): Randy Travis

Let $T$ be the set of all time, and let $L(t)$ be the proposition “I am going to love you at time $t$.” Translate the logical statement

$\forall t \in T (L(t))$.

This matches a chorus of the famous Randy Travis song.

Context: Part of the discrete mathematics course includes an introduction to predicate and propositional logic for our math majors. As you can probably guess from their names, students tend to think these concepts are dry and uninteresting even though they’re very important for their development as math majors.

In an effort to making these topics more appealing, I spent a few days mining the depths of popular culture in a (likely futile) attempt to make these ideas more interesting to my students. In this series, I’d like to share what I found. Naturally, the sources that I found have varying levels of complexity, which is appropriate for students who are first learning prepositional and predicate logic.

When I actually presented these in class, I either presented the logical statement and had my class guess the statement in actual English, or I gave my students the famous quote and them translate it into predicate logic. However, for the purposes of this series, I’ll just present the statement in predicate logic first.

# My Stanford Story: Madeleine Gates

I enjoyed this video about Madeleine Gates, who is both a middle blocker for the Stanford women’s volleyball team (ranked #2 in the country at the time of this writing) and also a graduate student in statistics. There aren’t a whole lot of graduate students who play NCAA sports (which would necessarily mean finishing their undergraduate degrees in three years or less), let alone play at an exceptionally high level, which pursuing an advanced degree in a field as demanding as statistics.