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Can You Answer These Basic Math Questions Everyone Should Know?

By: Zoe Samuel
Image: Shutterstock

About This Quiz

Math is, sadly, one of the worst-taught subjects out there. There is no reason it needs to be dull or - below collegiate level - excessively difficult. What it needs is to be taught by enthusiastic teachers to students whose parents support them and understand that failing a lot in order to succeed once is a perfectly decent way to make it as a student. Unfortunately, far too many of us hit a wall and feel too embarrassed or stupid to say so, then we don't get the tools we need to realize that we can actually get over that wall and scale the giddy heights of numeracy.

Smartphones only make this problem worse, by masking mathematical illiteracy behind the veil of tip-calculating apps and suchlike. However, you do need to be able to do mental arithmetic and to know mathematical concepts and ideas without using anything that has an "on" switch. You need this because the language of math underlies everything we do. It helps keep your brain flexible and ready for work, and stops you having your life ruined by the errors of your accountant, bank or landlord. Math fluency is a vital life skill. Do you have it?

What is an angle?

What is the product of two negative numbers?

Which is the denominator in the fraction 11/12?

What is 35% expressed as a decimal?

Which of the below is NOT a prime number?

At what point does the graph for x^-1 touch the X axis?

What is chaos, mathematically speaking?

What is the sum of two complementary angles, in degrees?

What is the reciprocal of 1/x?

How many degrees is one radian, to the nearest integer?

What is the lowest common denominator of 4/10, 14/20 and 30/100?

What is an integer?

Which of the below is an improper fraction?

Which of these symbols means "greater than or equal to"?

Which of the below are the first five of the Triangular Numbers?

Who discovered the law of gravity?

What is cosine?

What is 5! (and do note that exclamation mark)?

To what is the sum of the square of the two shorter sides of a right-angled triangle equal?

What does differentiation measure?

Which of the below is the first five numbers of the Fibonacci Sequence?

How many vertices does a tetrahedron have?

What is a recurring decimal?

What is 0.125 expressed as a fraction?

By what name are the number of molecules in a single mole known (where a mole is a substance's molecular weight in grams)?

What is a the term defined by the following: "an expression of more than two algebraic terms, especially the sum of several terms that contain different powers of the same variable"?

Which of the below are an example of Cartesian coordinates?

What shape is the graph for x^2?

What graph looks like a perfect pattern drawn in sand by the progress of a snake?

Which of these is NOT a Pythagorean Triple?

Is Pi a rational number?

What is the sum of two supplementary angles, in degrees?

What is described by the formula x=(-b=/-√b^2-4ac)/2a?

What is the Golden Ratio?

Where is it NOT true that a^2 + b^2 = c^2 on a right-angled triangle?

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