Maths Terms for 11-13 Yr Olds

Information of a quantitative nature consisting of counts or measurements. Initially data are nearly always counts or things like percentages derived from counts. When they refer to measurements that are separate and can be counted, the data are discrete. When they refer to quantities such as length or capacity that are measured, the data are continuous. Singular: datum.

A means of storing sets of data, for example in an Excel spreadsheet.

Relating to the base ten. Most commonly used synonymously with decimal fraction where the number of tenths, hundredth, thousandths etc. are represented as digits following a decimal point. The decimal point is placed at the right of the units column. Each column after the decimal point is a decimal place. Example: The decimal fraction 0.275 is said to have three decimal places. The system of recording with a decimal point is decimal notation. Where a number is rounded to a required number of decimal places, to 2 decimal places for example, this may be recorded as 2 d.p.

Tenths, hundredths, thousandths etc. represented by digits following a decimal point. Example 0.125 is equivalent to 1/10 + 2/100 + 5/1000 or 125/1000 or 1/8

The decimal fraction representing 1/8 is a terminating decimal fraction since it has a finite number of decimal places. Other fractions such as 1/3 produce recurring decimal fractions.

These have a digit or group of digits that is repeated indefinitely.

In the measurement of angles, a unit of turn, usually clockwise.

One whole turn is equal to 360 degrees, written 360^o.

In the notation of common fractions, the number written below the line i.e. the divisor. Example: In the fraction 1/3, the denominator is 3.

The length of any of the chords of a circle or sphere that pass through it's centre. Compare with 'chord'.

The amount by which one number or value is greater than another, obtained by subtracting the smaller from the larger.

One of the symbols of a number system- most commonly the symbols 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Examples: the number 29 is a 2-digit number; there are three digits in 2.95. The position or place of a digit in a number conveys its value.

A clock that displays the time as hours and minutes passed, usually since midnight. Example: four thirty in the afternoon is displayed as 16:30.

Data resulting from measurements taken on a discrete variable, i.e. one that can't be divided up into infinitely small parts (examples: value of coins in pupils’ pockets; number of peas in a pod).

Discrete data may be grouped. Example: Having collected the shoe sizes of pupils in the school, the data might be grouped into ’number of pupils with shoe sizes 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, etc.

The property of being divisible by a given number. Example: A test of divisibility by 9 checks if a number can be divided by 9 with no remainder.

1. An operation on numbers interpreted in a number of ways. Division can be sharing - the number to be divided is shared equally into the stated number of parts; or grouping - the number of groups of a given size is found. Division is the inverse operation to multiplication.

2. On a geometric scale, one part. Example: Each division on a ruler might represent a millimetre.

A polyhedron with twelve faces. The faces of a regular dodecahedron are regular pentagons. A dodecahedron has 20 vertices and 30 edges.