Question

Dear Mitch,

It's been a while since you've posted any new questions and answers (actually almost three weeks!), which is not typical for your website.  I'll assume everything is fine at the site, but I also was wondering if you could post a few new ideas for Halloween costumes for math teachers or students interested in drsssing up with some kind of mathematical theme.  My family and I really enjoyed the ones you posted last year and even used one of them.  (And it received a lot of laughs and a great response from practically everyone who saw it!)

So, if you have any new ones, that would be great.  If not, we might even try a different one from last year!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Yours truly,

Stan Y.

Answer

Dear Stan Y.,

Sure, it would be my pleasure to post a few ideas for mathematical
Halloween costumes, especially since Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, ever since I was a kid! (And, somehow, I never even lost my love of candy the way so many adults I know seem to have!)

HERE GOES:

You could either buy an inexpensive pumpkin costume (or make some kind of round shape out of cardboard or foam rubber or something like that), then paint a number on the front and back in a circular, swirling style, and you'd be a...

ROUND NUMBER

(or)

You could dress up in a dapper suit, maybe get a tube of one of those artificial tanning products that some people rub on their face to darken their complection slightly, and you'd be a...

TAN-GENT

(I guess that one is limited to males, because of the 'gent' part.)

(or)

You could put a line of red or bright orange tape (such as electrical tape) vertically up and down your body, and then, somehow, with an application of yellow and orange tissue paper or some washable marker, etc., make the line that's going up and down your body appear as though it were on fire, and you'd be a LINE, which is, of course...

180 DEGREES (Ouch, that's hot!)

(or)

You could somehow create a costume of an ANGLE, but instead of creating it out of two nice, straight rays, make them all bent and broken-looking, and you'd be a...

RECTANGLE (Wrecked Angle!)

Okay, there's a few new ones to think about, and I promise to post more new ones with time enough before Halloweeen to give you and anyone else interested in such silliness plenty of time to assemble any one of them without spending an annoying amount of money.

Good luck!

Hope that helps,

Mitch

P.S. By the way, you are correct:  I did take some time away from this website to pursue other mathematically-related matters that I felt would benefit from immediate attention; they were all student-related, and they are ongoing, but I am also back to this website and am as interested as ever -- and as dedicated as ever -- to making it as interesting and helpful as I can!