Maths Terms for 11-13 Yr Olds

A subset of a population. By carrying out a random survey of some school pupils for example, the pupils you survey would make up the sample, and all the pupils in that school would make up that population.

In statistics, samples are used to make inferences (estimated conclusions) about a larger population without having to survey the whole population.

Scalar quantities have magnitude (size) but no direction. Temperature, for example, is a scalar. This sets them apart from vectors, which have size and direction (for example gravitational attraction, which acts towards the centre of a mass (mostly the Earth) and varies in size depending how far you are from the Earth). 

A measuring device usually consisting of points on a line with equal intervals. Examples: a ruler is a type of scale, as is an axis on a graph.

For two similar geometric figures, the ratio of corresponding edge lengths.

A triangle with no two sides equal and consequently no two angles equal.

A graph on which paired observations are plotted and which may indicate a relationship between the variables. Example: The heights of a number of people could be plotted against their arm span measurements. If height is roughly related to arm span, the points that are plotted will tend to lie along a line.

A plane geometrical configuration formed by cutting a solid figure with a plane. Example: A section of a cube could be a triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon or hexagon according to the direction of the plane cutting it.

The region within a circle bounded by two radii and one of the arcs they cut. Example:

The smaller of the two sectors is the minor sector and the larger one the major sector.

1. The part of a line between two points.

2. Within a circle, the region bound by an arc and the chord joining its two end points.

The smaller of the two regions, is the minor segment and the larger is the major segment.

A succession of terms formed according to a rule. There is a definite relation between one term and the next or between each term and its position in the sequence. Example: for the sequence 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 etc., each term is the square of number of the term's position in the sequence.