James Cleveland-Tran
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jclevelandtran.com
James Cleveland-Tran
@jclevelandtran.com
570 followers 140 following 720 posts
Math Educator, Writer, Wonderer #MTBoS, he/him/his
Into making math games and political change
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jclevelandtran.com
How I just found the eggs in the fridge. (#howmany?)
A twenty-four carton of eggs, 4x6, with most of the eggs missing. Remaining eggs go diagonally inwards from the corners.
November 17, 2025 at 11:47 PM
jclevelandtran.com
I'm still iffy about probabilities involving infinite spaces, but my diagram to think about it is this, and I think the white space is greater than the red space (if you keep going), which would make concave more likely?
A triangle on a grid. In a cone out from each vertex is a white space. Fanning out from each side is a red space. The interior of the triangle is white.
November 13, 2025 at 8:31 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Here’s my write-up for n=even

Because n is the median, the middle two numbers must be n. To the left are some numbers, n/2 - 1 of them. To the right, n/2 - 2 numbers, then the max. Because we want to maximize the max, we want to minimize all those numbers to the right. Therefore they all equal n. We also want to minimize the numbers on the left. Because there are fewer of them than there are Ns, we can set them all to the min, called a, while keeping n the unique mode. a + n = max Because range =n (n/2 - 1)a + max + (n/2)*n = n^2 by mean = n an/2 -a +a +n +(n^2)/2 = n^2 Some more algebra a = n - 2 So Max = n - 2 + n = 2n - 2
November 6, 2025 at 1:33 AM
jclevelandtran.com
I laughed at this bit:
"...New York mayor, who spells "de" with a lowercase "d" and inserts a space between the two parts of his surname. (In DeBlasio's view, "low-class Italians use a little d.")"
October 30, 2025 at 2:47 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Behold, the quotient rule:
h(x) = f(x)/g(x) h'(x) = (f'(x) - g'(x)h(x))/g(x)
October 17, 2025 at 12:11 PM
jclevelandtran.com
I recently worked on a fun problem involved the Pokémon TCG. Here's a post about the problem and my thought process/solution. jclevelandtran.com/2025/10/15/s...
In the Pokémon TCG Pocket app, I would earn 10 points for winning a match and lose 7 points when losing a match. However, you also get a win streak bonus – the second win in a row gets a bonus of 3 points, the third gets 6, the fourth 9, and the fifth (and all subsequent) gets 12. Assuming I have a win rate of 50% (which I did at the time), what’s my expected value for playing n games? (How many games would I expect to play to earn x points?)
October 15, 2025 at 8:10 PM
jclevelandtran.com
We did a fun problem today. Suppose you have this Pairwise Matrix. (How to read: each cell shows how many points the row player gets against the column player. So in a match of A vs B, A gets 54 points and B gets 51, so A wins.)

Can you seed an 8-player bracket such that A will win? What about C?
Photo of data table which can also be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pflkRhCslWUs1MfpabUb0lhLer6Or7UVFaap1EsHwVs/edit?gid=0#gid=0 Empty 8-player tournament bracket
October 14, 2025 at 7:20 PM
jclevelandtran.com
The traditional fifth anniversary gift is wood, so Dũng got me a board game that is 100% wood - even the box.
The game Hexapolis, in a wooden hex box with stacks of wooden hex pieces. Our finished game state, with Dũng’s piece on a tall 4 tower surrounded by walls, with various other connected hexes. Dũng crossed arms visible in the background.
October 11, 2025 at 1:08 AM
jclevelandtran.com
Oh man, this is such a good math burn (though you need to know about the critiques of Newton's calculus for it to land.)
Except from Wikipedia on the Jefferson Method. "This pathology led to widespread mockery of Jefferson's method when it was learned Jefferson's method could "round" New York's apportionment of 40.5 up to 42, with Senator Mahlon Dickerson saying the extra seat must come from the "ghosts of departed representatives."
August 19, 2025 at 12:46 AM
jclevelandtran.com
I appreciate that this menu is in fractions.
A menu with things like "Additional sauce, 3/4." "Tavern Knots, 9 1/2"
August 17, 2025 at 4:35 PM
jclevelandtran.com
#vehiclechat #toychat? @triangleman.bsky.social
An exhibit in the Strong National Museum of Play with a recumbent bicycle asking "Is This a Toy?"
August 11, 2025 at 6:25 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Some lovely #mathart at the Milwaukee Domes, including the structure itself. #mathphoto
Three foxes made of small triangles. The triangles become spread out as you approach the tail, giving a sense of speed A tower with tiles stacked, each turned from the one below in a golden ratio-esque manner A spiral of maple blocks that reminds me of those potatoes you can get, although wider in the middle The roof of one of the domes from the inside. A pentagon inside a circle, with concentric circles around it, and arms spiraling out from that main circle both clockwise and counterclockwise, overlapping to make smaller triangles
August 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Picked up this fun mathy Venn diagram card game while on ky trip. Reminds me of Eleusis (@mathhombre). Can you guess the rules for each ring?

(Note: we’re playing on the train in the middle of nowhere North Dakota, which is relevant for the red clue)
A Venn diagram of three colors. Yellow is “word”, Blue is “attribute”, Red is “context” Yellow contains moon, pretzel, bell, museum, chalkboard, brick, field Blue contains moon, igloo, yoyo, pretzel, bell, pasta, pancake Res contains pancake, pasta, pretzel, bell, museum, field, brick, chalkboard, saw, robot, candle, microscope None contains gargoyle
August 8, 2025 at 5:31 PM
jclevelandtran.com
More hotel bathrooms need to have shower instructions like this. Very useful.

Although the good decision here is undercut by several other bad decisions in the design, such as having the towel rack be inside the shower.
Sign on hotel bathroom mirror with shower handle instructions. In the reflection can also be seen the towel rack inside the shower.
July 29, 2025 at 4:14 PM
jclevelandtran.com
I’m sure it’s not actually the first productive thing I’ve done this summer, but it might be.
Image of the shelf I put up im the kitchen with 6 pots and pans hanging from it
July 9, 2025 at 11:56 PM
jclevelandtran.com
A found (fictional) Talking Math with Kids scene from a book I just read. One reason I was happy with it, besides the rarity of such scenes in fiction, is that Ben (the adult) is not particularly good at maths, but he is good at encouraging children’s passions, and that’s sufficient. #tmwyk #tmwopk
An excerpt from “It Takes Two to Tumble” by Cat Sebastian "There's a gooseberry custard tart on the sideboard, but something went terribly wrong when Mrs. Morris sliced it," Ben said to no one in particular. "She cut it into eight slices." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jamie watch him intently. Jamie knew this as the preamble to one of his favorite games. "That's fine by me," Jamie said. "Peg won't get any if she launches those peas at me, which leaves two slices each for the rest of us." "Quite right, but she isn't going to launch peas or anything else." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Peggy rest her spoon on her plate. "One and three-fifths of a slice for each of us," Jamie said promptly. "But what if I decide to allocate the pie according to weight? That seems only fair. I'd say I'm about twelve stone, and so is your father." The mere estimation of what the captain might have beneath his clothes by way of sinew and muscle was enough to make Ben's cheeks heat. "You and Peggy are maybe four stone apiece and Ned's about seven." "That's about a tenth of the pie each for me and Peg." "Ah, but I don't have tenths, I have eighths." Jamie made an impatient sound. "Remove a quarter of an eighth and you'll have a tenth." "Which is grossly unfair because I don't even care for gooseberry tart and I don't see why I ought to have twice as much—" "Three times as much," Jamie corrected.
July 5, 2025 at 7:11 PM
jclevelandtran.com
My students pointed out that my bug got thinner and thinner as it went around the triangle. I guess it was quite a workout!
A diagram of a triangle with a hand-drawn bug at various points around it. The bug gets thinner as it goes counterclockwise from the lower left corner, point A.
March 7, 2025 at 2:51 PM
jclevelandtran.com
My calculus class doesn’t love the interval notations using parentheses, nor the one using inequalities, so we decided to use hearts instead. It’s kinda like two parentheses! #iTeachMath #MTBoS
Photo of the whiteboard with the below written: Increasing: (-infinity, 0) U (1, infinity) Decreasing: (0, 1) Inflection point: x= 0.75 Interval(s) where function Concave Up (0.75,inf) but in a heart Concave Down (-inf, 0.75) but in a heart
March 7, 2025 at 1:34 PM
jclevelandtran.com
The correct way to eat a slice of pizza (per my husband):

(1) Fold as normal.
(2) Eat about half of the slice.
(3) Unfold and then refold orthogonally.
(4) Eat the rest as you would a taco or hot dog.
A slice of pizza folded normally (that is, with the fold down the length of the slice) The same slice as before, half eaten. The half-slice is now folded so that the fold goes down the width of the slice. Me eating the slice like I would a taco
March 4, 2025 at 7:08 PM
jclevelandtran.com
That field guide to sabotage has some good pages. For example, this one could be thought of as a guide to Posting.
Simple Sabotage Field Manual 3. MOTIVATING THE SABOTEUR To incite the citizen to the active practice of simple sabotage and to keep him prac- ticing that sabotage over sustained periods is a special problem. Simple sabotage is often an act which the citizen performs according to his own initiative and inclination. Acts of destruction do not bring him any personal gain and may be completely foreign to his habitually conservationist attitude toward materials and tools. Purposeful stupidity is contrary to human nature. He frequently needs pressure, stimulation or assurance, and information and suggestions regarding feasi- ble methods of simple sabotage. (1) Personal Motives (a) The ordinary citizen very probably has no immediate personal motive for com- mitting simple sabotage. Instead, he must be made to anticipate indirect personal gain, such as might come with enemy evacuation or destruction of the ruling govern- ment group. Gains should be stated as specifically as possible for the area addressed: simple sabotage will hasten the day when Commissioner X and his deputies Y and Z will be thrown out, when particularly obnoxious decrees and restrictions will be abol- ished, when food will arrive, and so on. Abstract verbalizations about personal liberty, freedom of the press, and so on, will not be convincing in most parts of the world. In many areas they will not even be comprehensible. (b) Since the effect of his own acts is limited, the saboteur may become discouraged unless he feels that he is a member of a large, though unseen, group of saboteurs operating against the enemy or the government of his own country and elsewhere. This can be conveyed indirectly: suggestions which he reads and hears can include observations that a particular technique has been successful in this or that district. Even if the technique is not applicable to his surroundings, another's success will encourage him to attempt similar acts. It also can be conveyed directly: statements praising the effectiveness of simple sabotage can be contrived which will be pub- lished by white radio, freedom stations, and the subversive press. Estimates of the proportion of the population engaged in sabotage can be disseminated. Instances of successful sabotage already are being broadcast by white radio and freedom stations, and this should be continued and expanded where compatible with security. (c) More important than (a) or (b) would be to create a situation in which the citi- zen-saboteur acquires a sense of responsibility and begins to educate others in sim- ple sabotage.
February 11, 2025 at 12:49 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Doing my Tangent Line Art project in calculus today, one student had the idea to use a circle as the domain/range restriction, which led to cool things like this. #MTBoS #iTeachMath #mathArt
A circle of radius 3 centered at the origin. The function y=0.1x^2-1/x is contained within, as well as 120 tangent lines to that function in various colors.
February 5, 2025 at 6:50 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Today's Nancy is pretty #mathComic while also representing how I feel after giving what I think are fairly thorough and foolproof instructions to students

www.gocomics.com/nancy/2025/0...
Today's Nancy comic by Olivia Jaimes. Panel 1: Nancy holds a pizza cutter over a pizza, Aunt Fritzi says: "No funny business when you cut up the pizza, Nancy" Panel 2: Fritzi saying "Be symmetrical" Panel 3: Fritzi saying "Make the pieces the same shape" Panel 4: Fritzi saying "And make sure that Sluggo's slice takes up just as much room on the table as yours does" Panel 5: Sluggo frowning in front of the bottom half of the pizza, while to the side Nancy has fork in hand ready to eat the top half
January 12, 2025 at 4:27 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Feel like this graph accurately describes my experience grading exams, and I need to make sure my students know. #MTBoS #iTeachMath #EduSky
A graph of "likelihood of being 100% correct" vs "length of student response" which is in an upsidedown parabola shape
January 10, 2025 at 2:14 PM
jclevelandtran.com
Excited to get multiple colors of masks to match my multiple colors of shoes.
Six left shoes in a row with KN95 masks sitting in their openings: red, yellow, green, blue, purple, black
January 9, 2025 at 1:05 AM
jclevelandtran.com
I'm amused by these blocks my nephew got advertising the Pythagorean Theorem.
A box of Magic Tower blocks with a 3-4-5 triangle on the side
December 29, 2024 at 10:47 PM