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?

Never knew that!

How to process camera film. Our art dept had one if those fancy new digital cameras but our teacher was insistent it’d never catch on… I’m under 40!

Linear programming

If needing to draw a map of the UK then it's important to draw little blue lines pointing outwards all the way around the outside of the map so everyone immediately knows it is surrounded by the sea, I spent a lot of time in geography doing this.

Procrastination is the thief of time.
I can also tell you in French that the monkey is on the table, under the table, to the left or right of the table.

I learnt how to make 'authentic' ancient pirate maps, aging them with coffee and burning the edges.

Also learnt marbling (loved that one), spray-painting stencils and also using Marvin medium to preserve leaves.

I did go on to study art so any techniques learnt were valuable

Latin verb endings! I can't remember anything useful from my years learning Latin, but I can still quote "i, isti, it, imus, istis, erunt, bam, bas, bat, bamus, batis, bant" 😂

I use my maths education everyday nearly! Quite a bit of physics and a little chemistry. Have never needed to make a flashing reindeer badge out of thermoset plastic again though - more’s the pity!!

"Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres" - Julius Caesar. I've never needed to quote this or even needed to know that fact.

Oxbow lakes

Around the circle is Pie D, if the area is declared then you use Pie R Squared

never used it in my life

The periodic table and Lord of the Flies (horrible depressing book).

Except for in pub quizes I suppose.

I remember SO much rubbish from science/maths/history that I've never needed since.

Schools need to stop focusing on turning their pupils into walking memory banks and start teaching things that are actually useful - how to manage finances, how to cook (ok so lots of schools do that, but very simplistic lessons), how to change a plug, change a tyre..

My dad is a driving instructor and he has been employed by a private school to teach all their 6th formers to drive (assuming they want to) as a part of the curriculum, with all lessons and tests included in their school fees, so they will have a driving license by the time they leave school.

THOSE are the kinds of lessons people should learn.

That would be fab! And far more practical and useful than a lot of the stuff in the curriculum!

I was on a long run yesterday and for some reason my head started chanting group 1 Latin nouns "puella, puellae, pulleam, puellas" over and over again. I have not thought about that since I was 12 and I'm 41 now.

Contraception.

In citizenship I had to research a band called Mott the hoople for I think copy right issues, never been any use, not even in a pub quiz.

Bond enthalpies.

Iambic pentameter.

NeedToKnow101 · Today 10:33
I learnt how to make 'authentic' ancient pirate maps, aging them with coffee and burning the edges.
I did something similar-we had to do a copy of The Magna Carta!

Catullus poetry ‘odi et amo’ (I hate and I love) for Latin gcse… found it absorbing at the time and has stuck with me after all these years!

Newton’s 3 laws of motion too for some reason (although I have no interest in physics whatsoever!)

BODMAS recently came in handy when playing Nerdle.

Quadratic equations, I did however manage to quote from Candide during a discussion on housing at work. Don't ask!

VIrtually nothing I learned from Secondary school Maths has been useful. All the basic numeracy/maths I use in my job (accountancy), is stuff I learned at primary school, i.e. fractions, basic algebra, percentages etc. Never needed to solve a simultaneous equation, never need trig or pi. Accounting is really just lots and lots of basic numeracy rather than anything more advanced. Yes, averages etc are useful but even still, just at a very basic level. Never needed to work out standard deviation etc in adult life outside education! Most of the "useful" maths stuff is stuff I've learned "on the job" rather than in the classroom. Nothing I did at A level maths is remotely useful, I seem to recall most of the 2 years were spent on differentiation and integration which I've certainly never had need to use and if I remember rightly were painfully boring at the time!

Wow, that's brilliant - it's exactly what we need to be teaching our youngsters, i.e. skills for modern work/life.

Anything maths related - quadratic equations, sin cos tan, pi = 3.14 etc. Arithmetic, as opposed to maths, is different, I know that I use arithmetical skills on a daily basis. However, I failed maths, did an arts degree and established a career which essentially involves writing/politics and can honestly say I never use the mathematical 'skills' which teachers and my dad said I would need to get through life successfully.....

And what do you actually do with matrices?

The words of Silent Night in German.

I wish I could retain other information as well.

Also, Ou est le singe? Le singe est dans l'abre. Which I've never needed to say in real life.