List of mnemonics
This article contains lists of mnemonics used to remember various objects, lists etc.
Art
To remember the Elements of Art: Space, Form, Texture, Shape, Line, Value, Color.
- Spaceships Fly Through Space Looking Very Cool
- The Fat Cat Sings Songs Very Loudly
Astronomy
- Main sequence of stellar classification: Oh Be A Fine Girl [or Guy], Kiss Me Right Now Sweetie): (O B A F G K M R N S)[1]
- Order of planets from the Sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)
- obsolete (per the IAU definition of planet):
- My Very Educated Mother Just Said Uh-oh! No Pluto (Stephen Colbert's tongue-in-cheek mnemonic[4])
- My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets[5]
- 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
- In his 1958 novel, Have Space Suit—Will Travel, Robert A. Heinlein included "prices" which represent the mean distances from the Sun of the then-known major orbiting bodies in the Solar System in astronomical units:
- I Eat Green Cows: The Galilean moons are the four largest moons of Jupiter—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They were discovered by Galileo Galilei around January 1610 and were the first group of objects found to orbit another planet. Their names derive from the lovers of Zeus.
Biology
- To remember the order of taxa in biology (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, [Variety]):
- "Dear King Philip Come Over For Good Spaghetti/Soup" is often cited as a non-vulgar method for teaching students to memorize the taxonomic classification system.[6][7] Other variations tend to start with the mythical king, with one author noting "The nonsense about King Philip, or some ribald version of it, has been memorized by generations of biology students".[8]
- Do Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Silk?[9]:69
- Do Kings Play Chess On Friday Golf Saturday?
- Dumb Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach[9]:69
- Do Kindly Put Clothes On For Goodness Sake
- Dumb Kids Playing Catch On Freeway Get Squashed
- Do Keep People Clean Order Free Green Soap
- Dirty, Kinky People Can Often Find Great Sex
- Do Kids Pass Chemistry Or Flunk General Science?
- Do Kindly Place Cover On Fresh Green Spring Vegetables[9]:69
- To remember the lifecycle of cells (Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, Cytokinesis):
- Idiotic Penguins Make Antarctica Too Cold
- I Pee More After Tea Consumption
- To remember the common functional groups (Hydroxyl, Carbonyl, Carboxyl, Amine, Sulfhydryl, Phosphate, Methyl):
- Hair Care Can Always Save People Money
- To remember the processes that define living things:
- To remember the roles of reproductive organs in flowers:
- Stamen are male; stigma (as in mother) are female
- To remember the number of humps on types of camels:[9]:67[11]
- To remember the 6 nutrients (Water, Carbohydrates, Proteins, Minerals, Vitamins, Lipids).
- What Car Protects My Vital Lips?
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):
- "Rude penguins irritate old dying seals."
- "Real pyros ignite objects during sex."
- "Risqué people invite others down stairs."
- "I Once Played Soccer with Drunk Rinaldo."
- "I S N O R T D." (T = The Public interest")
- "I D r o p s
- "Rest In Peace Old, Dead Squirrel
Formula for simple interest (Interest = Principal * Rate * Time):
- "I like Pretty Red Tomatoes."
Chemistry
- To remember the first 20 Elements of the Periodic Table (Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Chlorine, Argon, Potassium, Calcium):
- Harry He Likes Beer Bottle Cold, Not Over Frothy. Nelly's Nanny Might, Although Silly Person, She Climbs Around Kinky Caves; usually the first one or two letters represents the element's symbol.
- He Has Light Brain But Can Not Offer Full Nine Subjects, May All Senior Professional Scientists Come And Protect Chemistry.
- Hi Helen, Listen B.B.C. News On Friday N(e)ight. Naughty Maggie Always Sings Pop Songs. Clever Archie Kissed Cathy.
- "My Enormous Penguin Bounces Pretty High" to remember the series of alkanes : Methane, Ethane, Propane, Butane, Pentane, Hexane
- "Please Send Cats, Monkeys And Zebras In Large Cages Make Sure Padlocked" to remember the reactivity of metals : Potassium Sodium Calcium Magnesium Aluminum Zinc Iron Lead Copper Mercury Silver Platinum.
- "All Altruists Gladly Make Gum In Gallon Tanks" To remember which form (D or L) the 8 aldohexoses are in for Organic Chemistry; Allose, Altrose, Glucose, Mannose, Gulose, Idose, Galactose, Talose).
- "H.HeLi, B.BCNOF and NeNa MgAl SiPS ClArKCa" Another for the first 20 Elements of the Periodic Table
- "Have No Fear Of Ice Cold Beer" diatomic elements- H, N, F, O, I, Cl, Br (Beer(liquid), Ice (solid))
- "Really Great (and Noble) Kings Don't Forget (Ladies') Birthdays" - how to remember the products of fractional distillation of crude oil (refinery gases, gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, diesel oil, fuel oil, lubricating fraction and bitumen)
- "LEO said GER" - Losing Electrons is Oxidation, Gaining Electrons is Reduction
- "OILRiG" - Oxidation is losing electrons, Reduction is gaining electrons. 'I' in Oil stands for increase in Electronegativity Value.
- "Friends Care Bestfriends love Always" Group 17 in periodic table: Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Astatine.
Computing
There are many mnemonics for the seven layers of the OSI model in computing: physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application.
Because the layers are numbered from the bottom-up, many mnemonics have been developed in both directions. Here are some mnemonics that start from the bottom up:
- People Desperately Need To See Pamela Anderson,
- Please Do Not Throw Sausage/Salami Pizza Away and
- Programmers Like Networks That Seldom Postpone Anything.
From the top down: All People Seem To Need Data Processing.
The protocol data units (PDUs) for the OSI model (Data, Segment, Packet, Frame, Bit) can be remembered using the phrases Do Some People Fear Binary? and Don't Stop Pouring Free Beer.
The hard-to-remember PCMCIA standard was ironically encoded as "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms".[12]
In the Linux kernel, here is 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
- Bloom's Taxonomy (Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation): Keep calm at all sporting events.
Engineering
- For the EIA electronic color code, Black(0), Brown(1), Red(2), Orange(3), Yellow(4), Green(5), Blue(6), Violet(7), Gray(8), White(9), Gold(5%), Silver(10%), None(20%)
- A mnemonic to remember which way to turn common (right-hand thread) screws and nuts, including light bulbs, is "Righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey"; another is "Right on, Left off".[9]:165
Film
- To remember all of the actors who have played the Doctor in the BBC show "Doctor Who" in chronological order. (Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, Davison, Baker, McCoy, McGann, Eccleston, Tennant, Smith, Capaldi.)
- How to punish bad Daleks before many million earthlings truly see clearly.
- How to remember the Hope/Crosby “Road” pictures: Road to Singapore; Road to Zanzibar; Road to Morocco; Road to Utopia; Road to Rio; Road to Bali; Road to Hong Kong.
The Road Pictures: Seven Zany Movies Undertaken by the Renowned Bob Hope.
Geography
- Latitude and Longitude
- Latitude
- Latus is Latin for "side" (latitude lines go from side to side, East-West).
- "Lat is Fat" (latitude goes around the equatorial belt).
- "Latitude is FLATitude".
- Longitude
- The "n" in longitude may stand for North (and South), the direction that Longitude lines cover on a map.
- Great Lakes of North America
- 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)
- Street sequence running east and west in downtown Seattle, running south to north: "Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Pressure" (Jefferson/James, Cherry/Columbia, Marion/Madison, Spring/Seneca, University/Union, Pike/Pine)
- Compass directions, starting at the top and going clockwise (NESW, North, East, South, West): Never Eat Soggy Waffles (or Weetbix), Never Eat Shredded Wheat, Naughty Elephants Squirt Water, Never Eat Slimy Worms, Never Eat Soggy Wheat, Newt Eyes Swing Wobble, etc.
- Northern European countries, from West to East: "No Soup For Russia" (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia)
- Countries located around the Adriatic Sea (in clockwise direction): "Incredibly Slimy Cockroach Bit My Aunt" (Italia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania)
- Seven hills of Rome: "Can Queen Victoria Eat Cold Apple Pie?" (Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine, and Palatine)
- Seven continents (Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, Antarctica, North America):
- Always Eat An Apple, Says A Nurse!
Geology
- Geological periods: Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent (Holocene)
- For Talc(=1) Gypsum(=2) Calcite(=3) Fluorite(=4) Apatite(=5) Orthoclase(=6) Quartz(=7) Topaz(=8) Corundum(=9) Diamond(=10)
- Differentiating stalactites from stalagmites.[17]
- The 'mites go up and the 'tites come down. When one has ants in one's pants, the mites go up and the tights come down.[9]:66 (In a strict scientific sense, a mite is not an ant, although "mite" in common speech can refer to any small creature.)
- Stalactites hang tight, hang down like tights on a line; stalagmites might bite (if you sit on them), might reach the roof.[9]:66
- Tights hang from the Ceiling, and Mites crawling around on the Ground
- You need might to do push-ups (from the floor). You must hold tight doing chin-ups (off the ceiling).
- Stalactites are on the ceiling. Stalagmites are on the ground.[9]:66
- Stalactites cling tight to the ceiling; stalagmites might reach the ceiling.
History
- 543210 is a mnemonic for the date when prohibition was lifted in Finland: 5th April (4th month) 1932 at 10 in the morning (local time).
- Kings of England: Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee (etc.)
- Wives of Henry VIII manner of death: Divorced, beheaded, died / Divorced, beheaded, survived.[9]:104
- Wives of Henry VIII names: Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard, Parr
- All Boys Should Come Home Please[9]:103
- All Beheadings Should Carry Heavy Penalties
- The first eight United States presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren
- Will a jolly man make a jolly visitor?
- Royal Houses of England and Great Britain: Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Windsor
- No plan like yours to study history wisely
- Thirteen Chinese Dynasties: (Xia (Hsia), Shang, Zhou (Chou), Qin (Ch'in), Han, Jin, Southern & Northern, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing (Ching))
- She Shamefully Chose Chinese Hand Jingles and Sinfully Sweet Tango Songs: "You and Me, Chickadee!"
- The major Roman numerals: 50, 100, 500, 1000:
- Lovely Cadbury Dairy Milk (L, C, D, M)
- Lazy Cats Don't Move (L, C, D, M)
- Date when European explorer Christopher Columbus reached America: 1492
- "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue"
- Sequential order (Left to Right) of the Presidents as found on Mount Rushmore: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln
- Why Just Remember Lincoln?!
- Colors of the Olympic Rings: Blue, Yellow, Red, Black, Green
- Bring Your Record Breaking Guy/Girl!
Languages
Grammar
- Adjective order in English: OSASCOMP (Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Purpose)[18]
- Coordinating conjunctions in English: FANBOY (for, and, nor, but, or, yet).
- The distinction between the Spanish verbs ser and estar, both meaning "to be"
- "If it's how you are, or where you are, always use estar."
- The vowels used in Latin subjunctives can be remembered with "wE fEAr A frIAr", or "hEr brEAsts Are gIAnt".
- German word order: TeKaMoLo (Temporal (time), Kausal (reason), Modal (manner), Lokal (place)).
- French consonants that are pronounced at the end of some words are: CaReFuL (c, r, f and l).
- The verbs in French that use the auxiliary verb être can be memorized using the phrase "Dr. (and) Mrs. Vandertramp":
- devenir, revenir, monter, rester, sortir, venir, aller, naître, descendre, entrer, rentrer, tomber, retourner, arriver, mourir, partir[19]
Onomasty
- Given names (masculine and feminine):
- Francis (him) and Frances (her)
- Don (son) and Dawn (daughter)
Pronunciation
- The pronunciation and lexical ordering of the Japanese vowels:
- Ah we soon get old (AIUEO)
- Pa let me go too (AEIOU)
Law
- Common law felonies: Mrs. Baker: Murder, Rape, Sodomy, Burglary, Arson, Kidnapping, Escape, Robbery
- Felony Murder qualifiers in New York: BRAKES: Burglary, Robbery, Arson, Kidnapping, Escape, and Sex crimes
- Contracts which need to be in writing: My Legs: Marriage, Year (anything which can't be completed in a year), Land, Estates, Goods (sale of goods or services over $500), Surety
- Seven articles of the United States Constitution: Large Elephants Jump Slowly and Sink Rapidly: Legislative, Executive, Judicial, Statehood, Amendment, Supremacy, Ratification
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
BIDMAS - Brackets, Indices (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.[20]
Trigonometry
ASTC stands for All Students Take Calculus, and also pertains to the more simplified mnemonic Add Sugar To Coffee, which represents the trigonometric functions that are positive in each quadrant, beginning with the top right and continuing counterclockwise: All, sine, tangent, cosine. -All Science Teachers Are Crazy -All Silver Tea Cups -Annie Spewed Terrible Curses
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:
- Some Old Horses Can Always Hear Their Owner Approaching
- Some Old Horse Came A-Hoppin' Through Our Alley
- Silly Old Henry Can't Add Hundreds, Tens Or Anything
- Some Old Hags Can't Always Hide Their Old Age
- Some Old Hippie Caught Another Hippie Tripping On Acid
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)
- Some People Have Curly Brown Hair Through Proper Brushing
- Some People Have Curly Brown Hair Turned Permanently Black
Another odd permutation:
- Oranges Have Segments, Apples Have Cores, Oranges Are Tangy
In Hindi, there is a funny mnemonic — Sona Chandi Tole Pandit Badri Prasad Har Har Bole, where:
- Sona = Pandit / Har (sine = perpendicular/hypotenuse)
- Chandi = Badri / Har (cosine = base/hypotenuse)
- Tole = Prasad / Bole (tangent = perpendicular/base)
The sines, cosines and tangents of the special angles in the first quadrant are obtained by simplifying
sin 0° = | √0/2 | , | sin 30° = | √1/2 | , | sin 45° = | √2/2 | , | sin 60° = | √3/2 | , | sin 90° = | √4/2 | , |
cos 0° = | √4/2 | , | cos 30° = | √3/2 | , | cos 45° = | √2/2 | , | cos 60° = | √1/2 | , | cos 90° = | √0/2 | , and |
tan 0° = | √3−∞ | , | tan 30° = | √3−1 | , | tan 45° = | √30 | , | tan 60° = | √31 | , | tan 90° = | √3∞ | . |
Calculus
- For remembering the order of taking the derivative of a quotient in calculus, the phrase "lo-di-hi minus hi-di-lo all over lo squared" can be useful, where lo means the bottom, hi means the top, and di means the derivative.
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)
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.
An excellent rational approximation of π is obtained by noting that 1 / π ≈ 1 1 3 / 3 5 5 .[21]
Medicine
- To remember the 10 organ systems of the human body:[22]
- NICER DRUMS (Nervous, Intergumentary, Circulatory, Endocrine, Respiratory, Digestive, Reproductive, Urinary, Muscular, Skeletal)
- Intrinsic muscles of hand[23]
'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
- Bones of the wrist:
Scaphoid bone, Lunate bone, Triquetral bone, Pisiform bone, Trapezium (bone), Trapezoid bone, Capitate bone & Hamate bone
- 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
- Simply Learn The Positions That The Carpus Has
- Send Louis To Paris To Tame Carnal Hungers
- Stop Letting Those People Touch The Cadaver's Hands
- Differential Diagnosis
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)[24] |
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)[25] |
Some | Say | Money | Matters, | But | My | Brother | Says | Big | Brains | Matter | More | ||
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
- Mnemonics are also used in remembering guitar string names in standard tuning.[26]
- 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
- Every Angel Does Good Before Evil
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
Ukulele
As for guitar tuning, there is also a mnemonic for ukuleles.
- Good Cooks Eat A-lot
- In the other direction it is Aunt Evy Cooks Grits
Reading music
- Musicians can remember the notes associated with the five lines of the treble clef using any of the following mnemonics, EGBDF: (from the bottom line to the top)
- Every Good Boy Does Fine.[27]
- 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
- Every Good Bird Does Fly
- Elvis's Guitar Broke Down Friday
- The four spaces of the treble clef spell out (from the bottom to the top) FACE
- The five lines of the bass clef from the bottom to the top
- Good Boys Do Fine Always
- Grizzly Bears Don't Fly Airplanes
- Great Basses Dig Fine Altos
- Goblins Bring Death For All
- The four spaces of the bass clef from the bottom to the top
- All Cows Eat Grass
- All Cars Eat Gas
- The five lines of the alto clef from the bottom to the top
- Fat Alley Cat Eats Garbage
- The four spaces of the alto clef from the bottom to the top
- Green Birds Do Fly
- The order of sharps in key signature notation is F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯, which can be remembered using the phrase
- Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket.[28]
- Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds.
- The order of flats is B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, and F♭ (reverse order of sharps), which can be remembered using the phrase:
- Blanket Exploded And Dad Got Cold Feet.[28]
- Before Eating A Doughnut Get Coffee First.
Philosophy
- THE LAD ZAPPA is a mnemonic for the first 11 (and most important) Ionian philosophers: Thales, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Leucippus, Anaximander, Democritus, Zeno, Anaximenes, Protagoras, Parmenides, Anaxagoras .
- THE PLAZA PAD is another mnemonic for the first 11 (and most important) Ionian philosophers: Thales, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Protagoras, Leucippus, Anaximander, Zeno, Anaximenes, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Democritus.
Physics
- Sequence of colors in a rainbow or visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet):
- "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain"
- "Riding On Your Granny's Bike Is Vile"
- Roy G. Biv is also used as a fictitious name
- Microwave frequency bands
- 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"[29]
- "We guarantee certainty, clearly referring to this light mnemonic" represents the speed of light in meters per second through the number of letters in each word: 299,792,458.[30]
Religion
- For the order of the Old Testament (Protocanonical) books of the Bible:
-
- God's Eternal Love Never Dies.
- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
- History Books
- Joshua Judges Ruth. Son 'a Sam Keeps Killing Career Criminals Every Nine Evenings.
- Joshua, Judges, Ruth. 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.
- Jesus Provides People Everlasting Strength.
- Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song.
- I Just Love Every Day.
- Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.
- Having Jesus Always Offers Joy. My New Happy Zookeeper Hosts Zebra Manicures.
- Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
- For the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, remember your BAPTISM (BAPTJJJJJSSM, using the ancient Hebrew letter I in place of the modern J):[31]
- Bartholomew, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, James, John, James, Jude, Judas, Simon Peter, Simon, and Matthew
- To remember the seven deadly sins:
- Use the phrase SLAP EGG
- Sloth, Lust, Anger (wrath), Pride, Envy, Greed (avarice), Gluttony
- Or use the phrase PALE GAS[32]
- Pride, Avarice (greed), Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Anger (wrath), Sloth
- Or to keep all the traditional words, including "Wrath", use the mnemonic "PEG'S LAW"
- Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Avarice (greed), Wrath
- The position of the hands when making the Christian sign of the cross can be remembered by the phrase:
- 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)
- To remember how many books are in both the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible, remember the following equation through the number of letters in each word: (Old Testament = 39 books, New Testament = 3 × 9 = 27 books)
- To recall the Five Pillars of Islam, remember the following sentence: Fast People Can't Feed Porcupines!
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
- Where ever there is a Q there is a U too
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[34] (But this is violated by some words; see:List of English words containing Q not followed by U)
- When two vowels go walking the first does the talking[30]
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
- BELIEVE
- Do not believe a lie.[34]
- SECRETARY
- A secretary must keep a secret[34]
- TEACHER
- There is an ache in every teacher.[34]
- MEASUREMENT
- Be sure of your measurements before you start work.[34]
- FRIEND
- Fri the end of your friend[34]
- SPECIAL
- The CIA have special agents[34]
- BEAUTIFUL
- Big Elephants Are Ugly[35]
- SEPARATE
Distinguishing between similar words
- Difference between Advice & Advise, Practice & Practise, Licence & License etc.
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’.[37]
- Here or Hear
- We hear with our ear.
- Complement and Compliment
- complement adds something to make it enough
- compliment puts you in the limelight[34]
- Principle and Principal
- Your principal is your pal
- A rule can be called a principle[36]
- Remedial and Menial
- Remedial work is meant to remedy.
- Menial work is boring but it's mean (-ial) to complain.
- Their, There and They're
- Theirs is not mine even though 'I' is in it.
- There is where we'll be.
- They're is a contraction of 'they are.'
- Stationary and stationery
- Stationery contains er and so does paper; stationary (not moving) contains ar and so does car[34]
- A for "at rest", e for envelope
First letter mnemonics of spelling
- DIARRH(O)EA
- 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[35]
- ARITHMETIC
- A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream[38]
- A Red Indian Thought He Might Eat Tulips In Class
- NECESSARY
- BECAUSE
- 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[38]
- Because e Cannot Always (get) Under Smaller es
- MNEMONICS
- Mnemonics Now Erase Man's Oldest Nemesis, Insufficient Cerebral Storage[36]
- GEOGRAPHY
- George's Elderly Old Grandfather Rode A Pig Home Yesterday.[36]
- TOMORROW
- Trails Of My Old Red Rose Over Window[35]
- RHYTHM
- Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move[38]
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).[39]
- "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.[39]
- Aviation[41] uses many mnemonics in addition to written checklists. See also Category: Aviation mnemonics
- 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
- Metric System - common SI Prefixes: kilo-, hecto-, deca-, unit, deci-, centi-, milli-, in descending order of magnitude.
- King Henry Died Drinking Chocolate Milk[42]
- Metric System - large SI Prefixes: exa-, peta-, tera-, giga-, mega- kilo-, hecto-, deca-
- Every person that gave me kisses has diarrhea.
- Metric System - small SI Prefixes: deci-, centi-, milli-, micro-, nano-, pico-, femto-, atto-
- Dairy cows make milk, not pink fruit, asshole.
See also
- Mnemonic
- List of firefighting mnemonics
- List of visual mnemonics
- Category: Science mnemonics
References
- ↑ "AST 101: The Great Mnemonic Contest". www.astro.sunysb.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
- ↑ Brown, Micheal. How I killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming.
- ↑ xkcd: Mnemonics
- ↑ All You Need to Know - Proper Condom Use - The Colbert Report - Video Clip | Comedy Central
- ↑ Feltonfleet School, Surrey - Where individuals really matter
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Scott Hagwood, Memory Power: You Can Develop a Great Memory--America's Grand Master Shows You How (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
- ↑ Robert A. Wallace, et al., Biology, the Science of Life (Scott, Foresman, 1986) p398
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Parkinson, Judy (2008). I before E (except after C) : old-school ways to remember stuff. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest Association. ISBN 978-07621-0917-3.
- ↑ "Life processes - MRS GREN". KS3 Bitesize. BBC. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
- ↑ Psychology: Concepts and Connections, Spencer Rathus
- ↑ "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
- ↑ ^ 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. https://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
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=ApXSoagqrxcC&pg=PA297&dq=resistor+color-code+mnemonic+"big+brown"&lr=&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=tzaiSZigOZvgkASsy6GNAg
- ↑ Mnemonic: Eras of Life
- ↑ Mnemonic: Mineral Hardness
- ↑ Mnemonic: Stalactites and Stalagmites
- ↑ Mnemonics in English Language Teaching
- ↑ Être Verbs - Mnemonic Devices
- ↑ "Quadratic formula song". Retrieved 22 April 2015.
- ↑ The first 3 odd numbers, repeated, with a division symbol in the middle.
- ↑ LBCC - Memory Tricks, Scott Brueckner
- ↑ Mnemonic- Intrinsic muscles of hand
- ↑ 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
- ↑ Caroline Bunker Rosdahl and Mary T. Kowalski, Textbook of Basic Nursing (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007) p194
- ↑ Welcome englishguitarschool.com - Justhost.com
- ↑ Every Good Boy Does Fine - What does EGBDF stand for?
- 1 2 Schonbrun, Marc (2005). The Everything Music Theory Book, p.68. ISBN 1-59337-652-9.
- ↑ chemistrydaily.com - chemistrydaily Resources and Information
- 1 2 http://s3.amazonaws.com/spacenookie/MentatHandbook.pdf Page No 40
- ↑ Duodecim Apostoli
- ↑ PALE GAS | The Stationary Missionary
- ↑ "Great Mnemonics". Fun-with-words.com. Retrieved 29 Aug 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 http://www.kidsandlearning.com/mnemonics.html
- 1 2 3 http://www.skillsworkshop.org/sites/skillsworkshop.org/files/resources/word/e1l2mnemonic.pdf
- 1 2 3 4 5 http://www.audiblox2000.com/spelling-mnemonics.htm
- ↑ Is it practise or practice? - Future Perfect
- 1 2 3 4 Mnemonics > Useful mnemonics
- 1 2 3 Kuenning, Geoff. "Definitions and Mnemonics for Sailors and Powerboaters". Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-02. Retrieved 2011-09-06. in the section "The coming in going out rule"
- ↑ Useful Aviation Mnemonics (published by Dauntless Software, Inc.)
- ↑ Schaeffer, Randy S. (April 16, 2007). "Math Mnemonics". Faculty pages for R.S. Schaeffer. Kutztown PA: Kutztown University. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
Further reading
- Evans, Rod L. (2007). Every good boy deserves fudge : the book of mnemonic devices (1st ed.). New York, N.Y.: Perigee. ISBN 978-0-399-53351-8.
- Parkinson, Judy (2008). I before E (except after C) : old-school ways to remember stuff. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest Association. ISBN 978-0-7621-0917-3.
External links
- List of hundreds of mnemonics belonging to several topics
- Medical mnemonics pdf (consisting of 22 pages full of) mnemonics on medical topics ordered alphabetically
- Medical mnemonics
- Searchable database of Medical mnemonics
- Mnemonics generator for numbers
- Collection of Mnemonics
- Collection of Mnemonics by Category
- Community website to collaborate and create new mnemonics