What Color is Math/English?

Here’s a controversial question: What color is Math/English? This question has been a massive argument starter for years, and an answer has yet to be agreed on. Reasoning behind each answer varies, from the imagery of the subject to the correlation between favorite colors/subjects.

Junior Noelia Neal strongly believes that Math is red. “Math is red because it frustrates me very much.” Like most who believe Math is red, she thinks English is blue. “English is yellow or blue because it’s a happier color and I enjoy the color blue.”

In contrast, another junior Ariel Martol believes Math is blue. “I think Math is blue because when I think of Math, one of the things that comes to mind is calculators which are commonly a shade of blue.” She also believes English is red due to similar reasoning. “I think English is red because English makes me think of books and that classic shade of dark red that’s seen in more traditional books comes to mind for me.”

This notorious debate has also reached teachers of said subjects. AP Pre-calculus teacher Carly Cairo speaks on how she loves this topic. She says, “As a math teacher it hurts my feelings that most students think red is the angry color of math”. Interestingly, her final answer differs from common answers like reds and blues. “Personally, my math notebook was either a different shade of green than science or was a special Lisa Frank notebook!” With this opinion, she also states how green is her favorite color. Cairo believes English is yellow, as “every English teacher I know has a sunny disposition, and it just makes sense!”.

Similarly, English teacher Tara Armour is intrigued by this debate. “I use this question as an intro activity a lot in English II! I think it’s fun, and I am curious about the science behind why so many students have similar color/subject associations.” Ultimately, Armour’s side in this debate aligns with many others. “For me, Math is red, and English is blue because blue is my favorite (color), and so is English!” She also says, “History was always yellow, and Science was green.”

People’s opinions on this topic stay divided, still causing arguments to this day. Fortunately, I think we can all agree on one thing: Science is GREEN!

Graphic by Miku Mizushima using Canva