22 entries

Maths words beginning with P

Parabola: The symmetrical U-shaped curve that is the graph of a quadratic function.
Parallel: Straight lines that stay the same distance apart and never meet.
Partial product: One of the smaller multiplications you add together to get the full product.
Pattern: A set of shapes, numbers or objects that follows a rule. In a repeating pattern a short part, called the core, is used again and again.
Percentage: A number expressed as a fraction of $100$ , shown with the $\%$ symbol.
Perimeter: The total distance around the outside edge of a two-dimensional shape.
Perpendicular: Meeting at a right angle, $90^\circ$ .
Pi (π): The ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter, approximately $3.14159$ . Its decimal expansion never ends or repeats.
Pictogram: A chart that uses symbols to show data. A key says how many each symbol stands for.
Pie chart: A circular chart divided into sectors, where the angle of each sector is proportional to the share of the total it represents.
Place value: The value of a digit based on its position in a number. Each place is worth ten times the place to its right.
Polygon: A closed, flat shape made of straight sides. Triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons and hexagons are all polygons.
Price: The amount of money you pay for something.
Prime number: A whole number greater than $1$ whose only factors are $1$ and itself.
Principal: The original amount of money saved, invested or borrowed, before any interest is added.
Prism: A solid with the same cross-section all the way along its length.
Probability: A number from $0$ to $1$ describing how likely an event is, where $0$ is impossible and $1$ is certain.
Product: The answer to a multiplication.
Profit: The money made when something is sold for more than it cost: selling price minus cost price.
Proper fraction: A fraction whose numerator is smaller than its denominator, so it is less than one whole.
Protractor: A half-circle tool, marked in degrees, for measuring and drawing angles.
Pythagoras’ theorem: In a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides: $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$ .