Anniversary Presents

A 50th wedding anniversary is called a golden wedding, but there are lesser value gifts for smaller numbers of years.

1 year = paper

2 years = cotton

3 years = leather

4 years = linen

5 years = wood

Area of a Circle

The ancient Egyptians used this method for finding the area of a circle:

find the diameter

cut off 1/9 of it

square what you have left

This actually gives the value of pi as 256/81, or 3.16

A Roman walks into a cafe. He holds up two fingers and says, 'I'll have 5 coffees please'.

Symbols

The first mathematical symbol to be used was the horizontal line to denote division (like in a fraction). This was introduced in the 12th century, by Moroccan mathematician, Abu Bakr al-Hassar.

Square Root

The square root symbol is also called a Radical.

Without geometry, life is pointless...

Equipment

That funny triangular ruler in your maths set is actually called a set square, and can be used to quickly draw parallel lines, and certain angles (90°, 60°, 45°, 30°).

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A theory that is proven to be true becomes a theorem.

Translation

In Latin, and in English until around 1700, mathematics more commonly meant astrology. The meaning gradually changed to what we know today as maths from about 1500 to 1800.

St Augustine warned Christians to 'beware of mathematici', but he meant astrologers and fortune tellers, not mathematicians!