Inverse Memes

Genius mathematical wordplay at work! The flags of Cuba and Puerto Rico look nearly identical but with inverted colors—just like a function f(x) and its inverse f -1 (x) are mathematical reflections of each other. In calculus, when you take a function and flip it across the line y=x, you get its inverse function. Similarly, Cuba's flag has a red triangle with blue stripes, while Puerto Rico's has a blue triangle with red stripes. Whoever created this spotted a perfect mathematical metaphor hiding in plain sight in Caribbean vexillology. The relationship between these nations just got exponentially more interesting!

Patrick Star from SpongeBob finally understanding basic math operations is the perfect mascot for mathematical confusion. The beauty here is that he's actually right - exponentiation (X n ) is indeed multiplying X by itself n times, while its inverse "Noitaitnenopxe" (X n ) would logically be dividing X by itself n times. The fact that we don't actually use this notation in formal mathematics makes it even funnier. This is precisely why half my students think math is just making things unnecessarily complicated when they could just write things out in plain English. Spoiler alert: those students usually don't make it to calculus.