Newsman Debate Column: Is Math Red or Blue?

Graphic by Newsman.

Welcome back to the Newsman Debate Column. Our next topic to debate is a very controversial one, “What color is math?” The Newman community is very divided on this question. With 49 responses, the Newman community has spoken, and math’s color is… tied for red and blue. Green came in second, and gray came in third. 

Before getting to the heated debate about red and blue, there were some comments defending other colors. Leo Margalit ‘28 said that “Math is yellow, because the coloring of parchment paper is yellow. Pencils are also used in math, never pens, and standard pencils are yellow, too.” Defending the color green, Kat Knauf ‘23 stated that “Math is the first science acquired in school, hence the green.” Another  student stated that green is peaceful, like math. One comment uniquely defending gray reflected on the polarity of the color, and said “math can either be fun or confusing/stressful just like gray is a mix of black and white.” Another student was in between red and blue saying, “When written, math is a nice shade of maroon while when spoken it's more of an ocean blue.”

Now onto the real debate. Both red and blue had 40.8% of people agreeing with that color. Starting off with blue, one student said “it feels blue which oftentimes represents calmness, and math can sometimes be calming.” Other blue-favoring comments included “if anyone says it is red they are wrong, any other opinion is viable” and “No defense required.” Naya Shalish ‘27 agreed that math is “Blue - no one can say otherwise.” One comment made by Nia Jablenski ‘25 – perhaps the most adamant one from the blue crowd – said that “IT’S BLUE BECAUSE MY 6TH GRADE TEACHER SAID SO.” Yep, all caps.

Next is red. Lucy Keesbury ‘25 said “I do not care what anyone says, red is truly the only acceptable color for math. Here's my reasoning: green is science, blue is English, purple is humanities, yellow is spanish and no other colors matter. I legit do not want to hear any other colors as math. This is truly the only correct answer.” Gemma Pyritz ‘28 stated that “Red is math. Math seems like it identifies as red. All the other colors are taken.” Other comments made were even more firm about  red being the only valid color for math, like the comment “I don’t have to defend a correct statement” by Niall Powers Ozyurt ‘23, and “I mean... come on, it's clearly red. Just look at it!” by Holt Sievers ‘25. We have to give a spotlight to one very unique comment made by Molly Pyritz ‘28:“Count your bricks. We have had twenty bricks fall onto us but Sonny Dude throws two more bricks at us. How many bricks have sent us to the hospital now? Correct! Now we've been sent to the hospital on twenty-two different occasions, all from bricks. Great math! Just in case you got brain damage from the amount of concussions you've experienced, I'll remind you why you now associate math with the color red! The majority of bricks are red and after all that math you had to do to figure out if you could pay for your hospital bills you just naturally think math is red. If you don't remember that this happened you should probably talk to Sonny Dude and tell him to stop aiming at your head.” 

The people have spoken and it seems that the Newman community feels very strongly about what color is math. You decide, is math red or is it blue? The class with the most responses was 8th grade. Thank you for your responses and keep an eye out for the next debate. 

Pie chart showing responses.