List of mnemonics

This article contains lists of some common mnemonics.

Art

To remember the Elements of Art: Space, Form, Texture, Shape, Line, Value, Color.

Astronomy

Mean Very Evil Men Just Shortened Up Nature[1]
Mary's "Virgin" Explanation Made Joseph Suspect Upstairs Neighbour[2]
Many Very Educated Men Justify Stealing Unique Ninth
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos
obsolete:
My Very Educated Mother Just Said Uh-oh! No Pluto (Stephen Colbert's tongue-in-cheek mnemonic[3])
My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets[4]
My Very Easy Memory Jingle Seems Useful Naming Planets
My Very Earnest Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas
Mary Visits Every Monday Just Stays Until Noon Period

Biology

Business and Economics

To remember the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) "Principles of Professional Conduct" from the "Code of Professional Conduct" (Responsibility, The Public Interest, Integrity, Objectivity and Independence, Due Care, Scope and Nature of Services):

Chemistry

Group 17 in periodic table : Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Astatine (Friends Care Bestfriends Iove Always)

Chronology

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Save February, with twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine each leap year.

Computing

There are many mnemonics for the seven layers of the OSI Model in computing. Physical / Data Link / Network / Transport / Session / Presentation / Application

Because the layers are numbered from the bottom-up, many mnemonics have been developed in both directions, from the top down and from the bottom up:

  • People Desperately Need To See Pamela Anderson.
  • Please Do Not Throw Sausage/Salami Pizza Away - starts at layer 1 (the bottom),
  • Programmers Like Networks That Seldom Postpone Anything.
  • Another commonly used mnemonic starts with layer 7; All People Seem To Need Data Processing.

The protocol data units (PDUs) for the OSI model can be remembered using:

  • Do Some People Fear Binary? (Data, Segment, Packet, Frame, Bit)
  • Don't Stop Pouring Free Beer (Data, Segment, Packet, Frame, Bit)

The hard-to-remember PCMCIA standard was ironically encoded as "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms"

In the Linux kernel, a mnemonic to remember the Magic SysRq key sequence for safe reboot. unRaw / tErminate / kIll / Sync / Unmount / reBoot

  • Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring.
  • Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken.

In CSS, a mnemonic for remembering the order of the shorthand versions of some selectors like border, padding, and margin is TRouBLe (Top, Right, Bottom, Left; {margin: Tpx Rpx Bpx Lpx;} ).

Education

Engineering

Big brown rabbits often yield great big vocal groans when gingerly slapped [10]
Bad boys run our young girls behind victory garden walls[11]
Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well – Get Some Now
B.B.ROY (of) Great Britain (has a) Very Good Wife (wearing) Gold and Silver Necklace

Film

How to punish bad Daleks before many million earthlings truly see clearly.

Geography

Latus is Latin for "side" (latitude lines go from side to side, East-West). Longitude lines seem "longer" (top to bottom, North-South)
"Lat is Fat" (latitude goes around the equatorial belt).
"Latitude is FLATitude".
The "n" in longitude may stand for North (and South), the direction that Longitude lines cover on a map.
Arbitrary ordering: "HOMES" (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior)
Ordered by decreasing surface area: "Super Heroes Must Eat Oats". (Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario)
From west to east: Super Man Helps Every One (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario)
Always Eat An Apple, Says A Nurse!

Geology

  • Pregnant Camels Ordinarily Sit Down Carefully, Perhaps Their Joints Creak
For Talc(=1) Gypsum(=2) Calcite(=3) Fluorite(=4) Apatite(=5) Orthoclase(=6) Quartz(=7) Topaz(=8) Corundum(=9) Diamond(=10)
  • Toronto Girls Can Flirt And Only Quit To Chase Dwarves .
  • Terrible Giants Can Find Alligators Or Quaint Trolls Conveniently Digestible
  • Tall Girls Can Fight And Other Queer Things Can Do!

History

All Barons Should Carry Heavy Parcels. Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard, Parr.

The major Roman numerals: 50, 100, 500, 1000:

Languages

Grammar

"If it's how you are, or where you are, always use estar."

Onomasty

Francis (him) and Frances (her)
Don (son) and Dawn (daughter)

Pronunciation

Ah we soon get old (AIUEO)
Pa let me go too (AEIOU)

Law

Mathematics

Order of operations

PEMDAS- Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication & Division, Addition & Subtraction can be remembered by the phrase: "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally". In order from left to right. Multiplication then division which ever one comes first then, addition and subtraction which ever one comes first.

BEDMAS - Brackets (parenthesis), Exponents, Division & Multiplication, Addition & Subtraction

Quadratic equation

The articulation of the quadratic equation can be sung to the tune of various songs as a mnemonic device.[16]

Trigonometry

ASTC stands for All Students Take Calculus, which represents the trigonometric functions that are positive in each quadrant, beginning with the top right and continuing counterclockwise: All, sine, cosine, tangent.

Remembering the definitions of sine, cosine, and tangent can be done by memorizing SOHCAHTOA, which helps to encode Sine = Opposite over Hypotenuse, Cosine = Adjacent over Hypotenuse, and Tangent = Opposite over Adjacent. These mnemonics are more useful if they can be recited in three groups of three words.

Other ways to remember SOHCAHTOA are:

SOH-CAH-TOA can also be memorized directly, as the name of a fictitious Native American tribal chief or princess.

Other techniques group the abbreviations differently: SCT,O/H,A/H,O/A, which stands for Sine Cosine Tangent, Opposite/Hypotenuse, Adjacent/Hypotenuse, Opposite/Adjacent. This mnemonic, "SCTOHAHOA", can be committed to memory as "Sally Can Tell, Oscar Has A Hat On Always". Some students use "Hard On" as opposed to "Hat On", finding that sexual and humorous mnemonics are often easier to recall.

SPH-CBH-TPB (sine = perpendicular/hypotenuse, cosine = base/hypotenuse, tangent = perpendicular/base)

Another odd permutation:

Calculus

\frac{d}{d} \frac{high}{low} =\frac{ low\cdot high' -hi\cdot low' }{low^2 }

Another phrase that one may use is: "Bottom d Top, Top d bottom", where "d" stands for derivative (but this mnemonic does not include a reminder of the crucial dividing by the bottom squared).

A phrase memorable for sounding like a square dance call is "Low d high, Less high d low, Draw the line, O'er squared be low."

Pi (π)

Main article: Piphilology

The infinitude of digits in an expansion of the mathematical constant pi has inspired numerous literary and mnemonic writings. See the above referred article for many examples.

Medicine

Main article: List of medical mnemonics; See also Category: Medical mnemonics

'A OF A OF A'

Thenar (lateral to medial-palmar surface):

Abductor pollicis brevis
    Opponens pollicis
    Flexor pollicis brevis
    Adductor pollicis

Hypothenar (lateral to medial-palmar surface):

Opponens digiti minimi
    Flexor digiti minimi
    Abductor digiti minimi
Some Lovers Try Positions That They Can't Handle
She Looks Too Pretty Try To Catch Her
So Long To Pinky, Here Comes The Thumb
Simplly Learn The Positions That The Carpus Has
Send Louis To Paris To Tame Carnal Hungers
VINDICATE
List of mnemonics for the cranial nerves, their respective type and foramen
NERVE: Olfactory nerve Optic nerve Oculomotor nerve Pathic (Trochlear) nerve Trigeminal (dentist) nerve Abducens nerve Facial nerve Vestibulo-cochlear (Auditory) nerve Glosso-pharyngeal nerve Vagus nerve Spinal Accessory nerve Hypoglossal nerve
Ophthalmic Maxillary Mandibular
Mnemonic:
(for nerve)[18]		 OLd OPen OCeans TROuble TRIbesmen ABout Fish VEnom Giving VArious ACute / SPlitting Headaches
TYPE: Sensory Sensory Motor Motor Both (sensory + motor) Motor Both Sensory Both Both Motor Motor
Mnemonic:
(for type)[19] 		Some Say Marry Money, But My Brother Says Big Business Makes Money
FORAMINA: Cribriform plate Optic canal Superior Orbital Fissure Superior Orbital Fissure Superior Orbital Fissure Foramen Rotundum Foramen Ovale Superior Orbital Fissure Internal Acoustic Meatus Internal Acoustic Meatus Jugular Foramen Jugular Foramen Jugular Foramen Hypoglossal Canal
Mnemonics:
(for foramina)		 Cleaners Only Spray Smelly Stuff Right On Smelly Idiots In Jumbled Junkyards Juggled High
Carl Only Swims South. Silly Roger Only Swims In Infiniti Jacuzzis. Jane Just Hitchhikes.

Music

Guitar

  • Every Average Dude Gets Better Eventually
  • Eggs Are Deliciously Good Breakfast Energy
  • Eddy Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddy
  • Every Adult Dog Growls Barks Eats.
  • Every Acid Dealer Gets Busted Eventually
  • Even After Dinner Giant Boys Eat
  • Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears
  • Every American Dog Gets Bones Easily

Thus we get the names of the strings from 6th string to the 1st string in that order.

Conversely, a mnemonic listing the strings in the reverse order is:

  • Every Beginning Guitarist Does All Exercises!
  • Elvis' Big Great Dane Ate Everything
  • Every Big Girl Deserves An Elephant
  • Easter Bunny Gets Drunk At Easter

Reading music

  • Every Good Boy Does Fine.[21]
  • Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (or Footie, Friendship, Fun, Fruit, etc.)
  • Every Green Bogey Deserves Flicking
  • Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips
  • Ernie Gave Bert Dead Fish
  • Good Boys Do Fine Always
  • Grizzly Bears Don't Fly Airplanes
  • Great Basses Dig Fine Altos
  • All Cows Eat Grass
  • All Cars Eat Gas
Key signatures of C♯ major or A♯ minor (left) and C♭ major or A♭ minor (right)
  • Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.[22]
  • Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds.
  • Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father.[22]
  • Before Eating A Doughnut Get Coffee First.

Philosophy

Physics

Main article: List of physics mnemonics

"Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain"
Roy G. Biv is also used as a fictitious name
Mnemonic for microwave frequency bands in the increasing wavelengths (decreasing frequencies), which are Ku band, X band, C band, S band, L band, respectively is given by, King Xerxes Can Seduce Lovely princesses"[23]

Religion

Bartholomew, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, James, John, James, Jude, Judas, Simon Peter, Simon, and Matthew
Pride, Avarice (greed), Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Anger (wrath), Sloth
Sloth, Lust, Anger (wrath), Pride, Envy, Greed (avarice), Gluttony
Spectacles (forehead), testicles (stomach), wallet (left shoulder - as when a man's wallet would be carried in the left breast pocket of his jacket), and watch (right shoulder - as when a pocket watch was carried in the right vest pocket)

Spelling

Characteristic sequence of letters

In most words like friend, field, piece,pierce, mischief, thief, tier, it is "i" which comes before "e". But on some words with c just before the pair of e and i, like receive, perceive, "e" comes before "i". This can be remembered by the following mnemonic,

I before E, except after C

But this is not always obeyed as in case of weird and weigh,weight,height,neighbor etc. and can be remembered by extending that mnemonic as given below

I before E, except after C
Or when sounded "A" as in neighbor, weigh and weight
Or when sounded like "eye" as in height
And "weird" is just weird

Another variant, which avoids confusion when the two letters represent different sounds instead of a single sound, as in atheist or being, runs

When it says ee
Put i before e
But not after c

Most frequently u follows q. e.g.: Que, queen, question, quack, quark, quartz, quarry, quit, Pique, torque, macaque, exchequer. Hence the mnemonic:

Where ever there is a Q there is a U too[28](But this is violated by some words; see:List of English words containing Q not followed by U)

For words like "oat" or "eat", here the second letter a is silent and first letter o and e respectively are pronounced in the examples

Letters of specific syllables in a word

Do not believe a lie.
A secretary must keep a secret[28]
The principal is your pal.
There is an ache in every teacher.[28]
Be sure of your measurements before you start work.[28]
A friend is always there when the end comes.
Fri the end of your friend[28]
When Friday ends, you go out with your friends.
The CIA have special agents[28]
Big Elephants Are Ugly[29]
Slaughter is laughter with an S at the beginning.
Pieces of a pie
As the sum of e = 2.718..., e is an irrational number.
Always smell a rat when you spell separate[28]
There was a farmer named Sep and one day his wife saw a rat. She yelled, “Sep! A rat – E!!!”[30]

Distinguishing between similar words

Advice, Practice, Licence etc. (those with c) are nouns and Advise, Practise, License etc. are verbs.

One way of remembering this is that the word ‘noun’ comes before the word ‘verb’ in the dictionary; likewise ‘c’ comes before ‘s’, so the nouns are ‘practice,licence,advice’ and the verbs are ‘practise,license,advise’.[31]
We hear with our ear.
complement adds something to make it enough
compliment puts you in the limelight[28]
Your principal is your pal
A rule can be called a principle[30]
A sculpture is a kind of picture[30]
Stationery contains er and so does paper; stationary (not moving) contains ar and so does car[28]
A for "at rest", e for envelope

First letter mnemonics of spelling

Dashing In A Rush, Running Harder (or) Else Accident!
Dining In A Rough Restaurant: Hurry, (otherwise)Expect Accidents!
Diarrhea Is A Really Runny Heap (of) Endless Amounts[29]
A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream[32]
A Red Indian Thought He Might Eat Tulips In Class
Not Every Cat Eats Sardines (Some Are Really Yummy)[32]
Never Eat Crisps, Eat Salad Sandwiches, And Remain Young![30]
Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants
Big Elephants Cause Accidents Under Small Elephants
Big Elephants Can't Always Use Small Exits
Big Elephants Can’t Always Use Small Entrances[32]
Because e Cannot Always (get) Under Smaller es
Mnemonics Now Erase Man's Oldest Nemesis, Insufficient Cerebral Storage[30]
George's Elderly Old Grandfather Rode A Pig Home Yesterday.[30]
Trails Of My Old Red Rose Over Window[29]
Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move[32]

Transportation

  • "Red, Right, Return" reminds the skipper entering ("returning to") an IALA region B port to keep red markers to the starboard of the vessel.
  • The phrase "there's always some red port (wine) left" is used to remember the basics in seafaring. "Red" refers to the color of navigation lights on the port (left) side of a vessel (as opposed to green on the starboard side).[33]
  • "Nuclear Restrictions Constrain Fishing and Sailing, People Say" is used to encode the "order of priority" for which vessels have right of way (earlier in the list has priority over later): Not under command; Restricted; Constrained by draft; Fishing vessel; Sailboat; Powerboat; Seaplane.[33]

  • pre-landing: GUMPS - Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Propeller, Speed.
  • pre-final: MARTHA - Missed (procedure), Altitude (limit), Radios (set), Time (limit), Heading (final), Airspeed (descent)
  • pre-high-altitude - FLOWER - Flow (enabled), Lights (test), Oxygen (charged), Water (humidity), Electricity (on), Radio (check)
  • pre-flight-paperwork - ARROW - Airworthiness (certificate), Registration, Required (charts), Operating (checklists), Weight and balance
  • night collision avoidance: Red, Right, Returning - Red nav light on Right implies target is Returning (closing)
  • radio loss Instrument course - CDEF - as Cleared, else Direct to last fix, else as directed to Expect, else as flight plan Filed
  • spin recovery - POKER - Power (off), Opposite (full rudder), Klean (flaps, ...), Elevator (briskly forward), Recover (from dive)

Units of measure

Stands for: kilo-, hecto-, deca-, unit, deci-, centi-, milli-, in descending order of magnitude. As in centigram, deciliter, meter, etc. Mnemonic's acronym is KHDUdcm.
King Henry Died Unusually Drinking Chocolate Milk[36]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Brown, Micheal. How I killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming.
  2. ↑ xkcd: Mnemonics
  3. ↑ All You Need to Know - Proper Condom Use - The Colbert Report - Video Clip | Comedy Central
  4. ↑ http://www.feltonfleet.co.uk/departments/science/Resources/mnemonics.pdf
  5. ↑ E.D. Hirsch, Jr., The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Houghton Mifflin, 1993); E.D. Hirsch, Jr., "What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Fifth-grade Education" (Doubleday, 2005) p308
  6. ↑ Scott Hagwood, Memory Power: You Can Develop a Great Memory--America's Grand Master Shows You How (Simon and Schuster, 2007)
  7. ↑ Robert A. Wallace, et al., Biology, the Science of Life (Scott, Foresman, 1986) p398
  8. ↑ "Life processes - MRS GREN". KS3 Bitesize. BBC. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  9. ↑ http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/documents/1158_01.pdf
  10. ↑ ^ Jack G. Ganssle, Tammy Noergaard, Fred Eady, Lewin Edwards, David J. Katz, Rick Gentile, Ken Arnold, Kamal Hyder, and Bob Perrin (2008). Embedded Hardware: Know It All. Newnes. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7506-8584-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=HLpTtLjEXqcC&pg=PA17&dq=resistor+color-code+mnemonic+%22big+brown%22&lr=&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=tzaiSZigOZvgkASsy6GNAg
  11. ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=ApXSoagqrxcC&pg=PA297&dq=resistor+color-code+mnemonic+"big+brown"&lr=&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=tzaiSZigOZvgkASsy6GNAg
  12. ↑ Mnemonic: Eras of Life
  13. ↑ Mnemonic: Mineral Hardness
  14. ↑ Mnemonic: Stalactites and Stalagmites
  15. ↑ Mnemonics‏ in English Language Teaching
  16. ↑ "Quadratic formula song". Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Mnemonic- Intrinsic muscles of hand
  18. ↑ Textbook of Basic Nursing by Caroline Bunker Rosdahl and Mary T. Kowalski (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007) p194; Medical Terminology for Dummies by Beverley Henderson and Jennifer Dorsey (For Dummies, 2008) p327
  19. ↑ Caroline Bunker Rosdahl and Mary T. Kowalski, Textbook of Basic Nursing (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007) p194
  20. ↑ Welcome englishguitarschool.com - Justhost.com
  21. ↑ Every Good Boy Does Fine - What does EGBDF stand for?
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Schonbrun, Marc (2005). The Everything Music Theory Book, p.68. ISBN 1-59337-652-9.
  23. ↑ http://www.chemistrydaily.com/chemistry/Mnemonic_device
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 http://s3.amazonaws.com/spacenookie/MentatHandbook.pdf Page No 40
  25. ↑ Duodecim Apostoli
  26. ↑ PALE GAS | The Stationary Missionary
  27. ↑ "Great Mnemonics". Fun-with-words.com. Retrieved 29 Aug 2011.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 28.6 28.7 28.8 28.9 28.10 http://www.kidsandlearning.com/mnemonics.html
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 http://www.skillsworkshop.org/sites/skillsworkshop.org/files/resources/word/e1l2mnemonic.pdf
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 http://www.audiblox2000.com/spelling-mnemonics.htm
  31. ↑ Is it practise or practice? - Future Perfect
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 Mnemonics > Useful mnemonics
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 Kuenning, Geoff. "Definitions and Mnemonics for Sailors and Powerboaters". Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  34. ↑ http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/imarine/19240.asp in the section "The coming in going out rule"
  35. ↑ Useful Aviation Mnemonics (published by Dauntless Software, Inc.)
  36. ↑ Schaeffer, Randy S. (April 16, 2007). "Math Mnemonics". Faculty pages for R.S. Schaeffer. Kutztown PA: Kutztown University. Retrieved November 26, 2011.

Further reading

External links