Note: The definitions included here are those that are used in the Saskatchewan Education document "Mathematics 6-9: A Curriculum Guide for the Middle Level".

Various mathematics dictionaries may have different definitions. These definitions are designed to be meaningful to middle level mathematics teachers.

parallelogram

• a quadrilateral with both pairs of opposite sides parallel.

percent

a ratio where the second term is 100.

perfect square

• a whole number that is the square of an integer. e.g. 25 is a perfect square because 5 X 5 = 25.

perpendicular

• two segments or lines that intersect to form right angles.

pi

• the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of any circle.

plane of symmetry

• a plane that divides a 3-D object into 2 parts, each a mirror image of the other.

  polygon

• a closed plane figure bounded by line segments.

  polyhedron

• a 3-D object that has polygons as its faces. The intersection of any two faces forms an edge.

  polynomial

• an expression consisting of one or more terms, including some variable(s).
  E.g. 3 x² - 2 x + 1.

  population

• in statistics, population refers to the entire group about which data are being collected.

power

• see exponent.

primary data

• data obtained directly using methods such as a survey or an experiment.

  prime number

• an integer greater than 1 whose only positive factors are itself and one.

prism

• a geometric solid with two bases that are congruent, parallel polygons and all other faces are parallelograms. It is referred to as a right prism if the faces are rectangles. A prisms is named according to the shape of its bases. e.g. triangular prism

proper fraction

• a fraction whose numerator is less than its denominator.

proportion

• an equality of two ratios. e.g. 5 : 8 = 10 : 16.

protractor (circular)

• a circular device subdivided into 360 equal parts and used for measuring angles.

protractor (semi-circular)

• a half circle subdivided around the edge in degrees and used for measuring angles.

Pythagorean Theorem

• in any right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other 2 sides.

c2 = a2 + b2.

pyramid

• a geometric solid with one base that is a polygon and all other faces are triangles with a common vertex.
  

quadrant

• when the axes are drawn in a coordinate plane, the plane is divided into 4 sections called quadrants.

quadrilateral

• a polygon with four sides.

• any one of the values in a frequency distribuion that divides the distribution into four parts of equal frequency. The first quartile is the number below which 1/4 of the values are found.