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?

Quite alot of equations.
Sin is a wave and cos is a bucket.

Little billy was a chemist
Little billy is no more
for what he thought wAs H2O
Was h2so4

@NeedToKnow101
I was able to tell a friend the other day, that the Farrow and Ball colour 'Bible Black' references'Under Milkwood'.
I'm sure she was impressed by my amazing knowledge.

Calculus - as far as I was concerned there was a logic step missing so the thing did not compute so just as well I never needed to use it. It was the last topic for O level maths so the time I wasted trying to understand it would have been better spent on revising something useful.

Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.

Le singe sur la table

A memorable sentence from my French class. Waste of time though as I have never come across any monkeys sitting on a table whilst in France!

‘The quality of mercy is not strained
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath’

And so on

’To be or not to be
That is the question
Whether ‘it’s nobler in the mind
To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or, by opposing, end them’

Excusez moi Madame, Je suis desolee d’etre en retard.

What I did learn, and has been useful, was how grateful I have been for a good education.

OIL RIG - Oxidation Is Loss, Reduction Is Gain from GCSE chemistry to describe the effect of the addition or subtraction of an electron.

I’ve never needed to work out the area of a circle.

I was going to ask you if we were in the same class because I too remember learning that poem by heart! But then I realised that I learned it half a century ago...

Iambic sodding pentameter. Degree in English Lit…

'Je ne comprehend pas. Parlez vous Anglaise?' was very useful when I was in Paris a few years back. I knew that CSE Grade 3 in French would come in useful.

In chemistry we had to learn the first 20 elements of the periodic table in order. I can still say them all!

I remember the To be or not to be from Hamlet, read for A Level English. That and 'Get thee to a nunnery.' Remember next to nothing about the story, except Hamlet's dad died, his mum then married her late husband's brother, and his dad's ghost was haunting the Palace of Denmark.

Ahh BODMAS, yes I do remember that and use it. There are 2 types of people in the world, those that use it properly and those that can't do maths.

I remember log books, haven't used one for over 40 years!

HairyMcLarie

Making a 3D dodecahedron

Is there a 2 D version?
😀

Random lines from songs nobody sings now:
"Who is Sylvia, what is she-ee?"
"Marianina, do not roam, come and turn us into foam..."
"Moonlight and melody, blending so pleasantly....."
It was a long time ago, though!

3.1415927

Wie gehe ich am besten zum bahnhof bitte?

"How I Wish I Could Calculate Pi"

3.141592

Just remembered this from Junior School. We spent hours every week learning our catechisms. This is the only part I remember by heart but there was much much more:

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting. Amen."

So many questions about this and I still don't know what half of it means - who or what was Pontius Pilate (I was sure he was a pirate); it refers to judgement of the "quick and the dead" - how fast do you need to run to be quick? I was at a C of E school so didn't understand the reference to the Catholic Church. It was all too confusing for an 8 year old child!

A song I learned at primary school 1960s

"Oh merrily, merrily, over the lea,
I run to the place where I most love to be.
Where birds and where beasts are so happy and free.
Far over the hills in my green wood".

Mine auspuff isn't kaput.

My exhaust pipe is broken.

I was thinking about this the other day! I was taught that too!

I have used Pythagoras’ theorem many times & area of a circle (use it for resizing cake recipes!)

I was taught that a department store directory was called a wegweiser in German - stuck with me. But never used it. Other then to tell my children whenever we’re in John Lewis!

I was taught this at guides not school. I have used it.

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived - order of wives of Henry VIII

Ich möchte eine Tasse Tee mit Milch bitte - I would like a cup of tea with milk

Also ….I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high over vales and hills, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils. Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.