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?

Qui est entré tard?

Le gros monsieur est entré tard.

Ou est la banque

Polymethylmethacrylite

🤷‍♀️

Wir komme ich am besten zum bahnhoff?

Haha, I was literally about to type this!

Unicorn1919
We learned the Nicene Creed in church, but it was a very high Anglican church. www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjpxY-6_vH7AhUnREEAHW0DCC4QFnoECA0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fd2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net%2F9352%2Fdocuments%2F2016%2F1%2FNICENE%2520CREED%2520MMR-1.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0vVC2dJ5OhteX-XvelrQUi

The shorter version is the "Apostles' Creed"! (Happy to explain any of it if you really want...)

Most useless is all the words for "the" in German with the relevant cases. I forgot to revise for a test and learnt them in the ten minute break before the lesson.

35 years later and I can still recite them!

I printed out a table of case endings. One day, I lost it and could no longer string a sentence together. I’m with Mark Twain. The Awful German Language

haha great thread OP.

Interesting to see so much excellent German and French retained <applauds> (MFL specialist here).

I remembered how to find the circumference of a circle (Pi D) which was actually useful when deciding which binbag size to buy in Asda once. I had measured the diameter of the bin but the binbags told me the circumference needed!). Just for reference, I gave Pi a (very rough) value of 3 for this maths. It seemed to answer the case. But I do know it to about 10 decimal places for some reason.

Wie komme ich am besten zum kirchhaus bitte?

I can still play Colours of Day on the recorder, and to the bemusement and bafflement of my DC, my best friend and I often sit and play cats cradle when she comes to visit.

I struggled with trigonometry at school and didn't see its relevance until I started work in the offshore survey industry.

I then had to use it to position equipment, which was towed close to the seabed and to calculate the heights of objects on the seabed. After about two days, I had it sussed.

All the words to all three verses of We Plough the Fields and Scatter, which I had to learn for a harvest assembly at primary school.

I sing it to myself every September just to check I still know it.

I can't actually remember how to solve a quadratic equation, but I do remember the hours and hours it took to learn. Utterly pointless. I had an argument about it recently with DH and DM (both maths teachers), who still think it's very very important. Which it may be for many science/engineering professions, but definitely not mine.

This is the thing isn't it? That when there's a need for it these things are picked up much more quickly than when it's just for the sake of sitting an exam.
My DH was the same. He doesn't have GCSE maths but worked for a time writing software for oil and gas that required a lot of maths coding into it.

Gehen Sie geradeaus bis zur ampel und nehmen Sie die erste strasse links

go straight on to the traffic lights and take the first street on the left.

Requires a very specific situation for that sentence to come in useful. 22 years on I'm still waiting😂

Types of cloud formations, in particular cumulonimbus. Never really used that information ever

Ich bin funfzehn jahre alt

Totally useless now 😂

How to write 'I have several large desks I need moving' in shorthand

Buzzinwithbez

That when there's a need for it these things are picked up much more quickly than when it's just for the sake of sitting an exam.

I think that is exactly right, there have been a few things I thought I'd never need, semi forgot and then ended up needing to be able to do. As long as you have a use for it, it seems useful!

I'm slightly scorching as, having Googled, I've realised Polymethylmethacrylite should actually be Polymethylmethacrylate.

I'm so sorry to have let everybody down

If it's any consolation I can confirm it is also known as Acrylic glass, I'm sure that is a useful titbit of info we can all hold dear for years to come.

I came here to write this! It's stuck with me all these years yet I've never needed to use it either.

The French for wasp is la gueppe
How to play the theme to van Der valk on the recorder

"Eye Level". My sister could do that too.

That you absolutely WILL get pregnant if you go anywhere near a penis, at any time of the month, unless you use six types of contraception at once.

🤨

Yes, @sueelleker Eye Level, that’s right! It starts on a G on the recorder and I could probably play it now even though I learned it at primary school and am now 53!

I remember that "the principal focus of a cited convex lens is the point on the optical axis through which all rays initially parallel and close to the optical axis pass after refraction through the lens".

Thank you Mr Sanderson and V(I) physics class but I have never needed to use this little nugget of info since.