Things you remember from school but have never used

[Spidey66]

I left 40 years back, but to this day remember that the square of the hypotenuse on a right angle triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the other 2 sides aka Pythgoras thereom. I have never used this gem of information in my life.

I also remember "it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife" (the first line of Pride and Prejudice, which I read for O Level English Lit.) Tbf I enjoyed the book and the TV series (not so much the film) but funnily enough have not read another Jane Austen book!

Any other gems you remember?

Almost all O level physics.

How to make a poncho with fetching tassels going along the edges.

How to jump over those wooden horse things (ok I never mastered that)

"Vielen Dank für deinen netten Brief, der vor zwei Tagen bei unst angekommen ist"

The sentence you used to start the letter you wrote to your German penfriend to get the most points in GSCE German writing

Disclaimer - I remember the words but not the spelling or capitalisations!

Je vous prie d'agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de mes sentiments distingués.

How to sign off a formal letter in French, funnily enough I’ve never had the chance to use it…..

Ridiculously, the note sequence to trumpet voluntary.
D,E,Fsharp,G,Fsharp,E,E,D,A,A,A
I think I learned it for an assembly and it's just stuck with me.
No use at all.

I was going to say the hypotenuse one too.
Also that the German for tram stop is
Strassenbahnhaltestelle.

'Cover her face, mine eyes dazzle. She died young.'

Duchess of Malfi, A Level Eng Lit. Never needed that quote since.

I can remember the equation for photosynthesis. I can even balance it. My son who is taking GCSE Biology now is 😮

6CO2 + 6H2O + sun’s energy makes C6H12O2 + 6O2

To be honest, very little of what I learned from around 13 onwards has been actually helpful in life beyond better comprehension and vocabulary - I have a degree!

Circle theorems have never come up again- spent weeks learning the thrilling way you could know the angles in a cyclic quadrilateral. I thought that would be something all adults had to do at their office jobs.

We did take a walk near a river and our kids got treated to a very excited description of erosion from my husband when we found an oxbow lake. He moved on to the water cycle after that- I'm sure the kids were very glad he retained that from year 8 geography

How to wire a plug. From the way it was taught, I thought adults did a lot of plug wiring, but I've never had to!

I still have a slide rule, haven't used it for years.

'Oh grim look'd night, oh night with hue so black, oh night, which ever art when day is not. Oh night, oh night. Alack, Alack, Alack'

To be quoted at either DC when discussing Shakespeare to make me seem v clever.

• C6H12O6 😂 not easy writing equations on mumsnet.

You're telling me

National Association of Maternal and Child Welfare qualification. I never worked with pregnant women or children, didn't have any as I didn't want them and at some point immensely disliked anything under 5 years old.

"Today I caught 3 boars, and very fine ones at that." The first sentence of a piece of Latin A level translation of I think, Pliny.

A load of maths nonsense. I said at the time I would never use this crap in ‘real’ life and my mum (a maths teacher…) and I fell out about it at the time, lol. I have been proved right funnily enough..

Learnt this for assembly once. Never needed it again funnily enough.

It was red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose...

[I get a bit lost at this point - mumble some random colours]

...and purple and white and pink and orange and blue!

Ich habe einen kugelschreiber
Caecilius est in horto
Calculating how many coppers are needed to be able to see all streets and avenues in a matrix block.
Making a 3D dodecahedron

And other assorted tidbits

Logarithms and Algebra, that said I enjoyed school and use most other skills most of the time

Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation...... the word LASER is actually the above acronym. Obviously have never used that piece of knowledge since high school science!!!

I remember, from 1982, how to say in German that I have a headache and ask for something for it.
I think this is how it’s written -
Ich habe Kopfschmerzen, haben Sie etwas dagegen?

Great thread

the 12 sons of Abraham - still rings in my head

how to say my handbag bas been robbed (in German)

they are my two strongest memories

useful things I learned and use

wiring a plug
converting miles to km
how to cook
how to speak properly (school staff were strict on that even though it was an all girl’s comp not private )

1984: "YOU WONT ALWAYS HAVE A CALCULATOR IN YOUR POCKET!!"

Ummmm.