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First I want to congratulate Bill “T” on his winning entry from last week’s Word Wrap. We thought reintarnation - the phenomenon of being reborn as a hillbilly – was rather clever and creative, especially given Bill’s name: way to swap the T for the C, “T.”
Today I’m all about mnemonics. First of all, let me just say I’m passionately in love with any word that starts with a consonant followed by the letter “n.” I mean honestly, there needs to be more of them. Gnat, gnome, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Love it… thinking I’d like to name my own son Gnaeus someday, were I to have one. Of course, then there’s pneumonia, which I like a bit less, for the obvious reasons… but the word itself is still verbiage to my ears.
In case you don’t recall, mnemonics are words or rhymes, or formulas that help us remember things. Anyone who’s ever studied music knows “face” or “every good boy does fine,” for the notes F-A-C-E-G-B-D-F, right?
One of my favorite mnemonics comes from the original Bad News Bears: when Walter Matthau says, “Never ‘assume’ anything or you’ll make an ass out of you and me.” For those who have trouble spelling, mnemonics come in handy, for certain. “Spring ahead, Fall back” is another type of mnemonic, as is that great song my wife always sings when we’re trying to figure out which day to pay the rent: “30 days hath September, April, June, and November…”
So let’s hear some of your favorite mnemonics from when you were a kid growing up. Turn us onto some new ones, please!
Comments (112)
Comment
ELLBUMGAA - was a mnemonic I used in Geography in high school. It stands for the western-most former Russian provinces: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belorussia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Any duplicate letters run in alphabetical order, and the overall order runs from north to south. I’ve never forgotten that one, no comment on how long I’ve known that.
posted by Maria on 2-2-2007 at 7:53 am
My nickname is “Weiner” (pronounced wee-ner, not wine-er)and I have had a beard since the early 70’s. My friends often reverse the “i” and “e”, so my mnemonic I use is ” ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ and when it’s sounded ‘weird’ as in ‘Weiner’ and ‘beird’.
posted by Weiner on 2-2-2007 at 8:01 am
“C” is for cookie. That’s good enough for me.
And if it had not been for “Schoolhouse Rock”, I never would have remembered the preamble to the US Constitution.
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 2-2-2007 at 8:06 am
Thirty days hath September
April, June, and no wonder
All the rest eat peanut butter
Except Grandma,
She rides a bicycle.
posted by Miss Cellania on 2-2-2007 at 8:10 am
The one I will always remember is: King Phillip Can Only Find Girl Scouts (or Came Over From Germany Sailing). It’s used to remember the categories of taxonomy: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
I first heard in High School Biology (some 15-20 years ago), and, being an immature teenage male at the time, I liked to replace “Find” with a certain other four-letter word that starts with “F”. Surprisingly, it makes sense in the mnemonic as well.
posted by Dan H. on 2-2-2007 at 8:10 am
How about Roy G. Biv. The order of colors in the optic spectrum Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
posted by Victor on 2-2-2007 at 8:17 am
Point of clarification on the Bad News Bears reference. Walter Mathau may have spoken the quoted line in the movie, but it first appeared in one of the opening scenes when written on a board by the team’s original coach (whom Mathau replaced early in the movie) as he addressed the sad sack Bears team. I remember him underlining the parts of the word. Sorry, no mnemonic on this post.
posted by Doug Richardson on 2-2-2007 at 8:30 am
Many Very Educated Men Just Screwed Up Nine…
A good way to remember the names of the planets.
posted by Steven on 2-2-2007 at 8:30 am
Who can forget ‘my very educated mother just sent us nine pickles’ for the planets. Only problem is we need a new mnemonic. Without pluto it’s cut short. My first reaction is to change ‘nine’ to ‘nuts’. Anyone else have any ideas?
posted by Stew on 2-2-2007 at 8:33 am
“I Dig Punk Like My Aunt Lucie” for modal music scales.
Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Lochrian
posted by Edwin Stuart on 2-2-2007 at 8:37 am
My mom was a school teacher, she had thousands of these. The one that sticks with me is: “When two vowels go walking the first does the talking.” The rule isn’t even always true, but I love the rhyme.
posted by Scott on 2-2-2007 at 8:40 am
Doug: thanks for that! It’s been so long since I’ve seen the movie. Should I swap out the photo in the post???? Wow. That chalkboard scene…
posted by David on 2-2-2007 at 8:59 am
Keeping “desert” and “dessert” apart was always a pet peeve of my middle school geography teacher. She was forever reminding someone in her schoolmarm proper english “one always wants more dessert” thus the two s’s.
posted by Susan on 2-2-2007 at 9:26 am
Huh, I’ve always heard King Phillip Came Over From Great Spain for the different types of taxa. The sad bit is I study biology, am about to go to grad school to conduct primatologial research, and still have to run that mnemonic over in my head to remember the order they go in.
posted by c on 2-2-2007 at 9:30 am
Two of my favorites from my Marine Corps days… Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children (USMC) and there was always “SNAFU”: Situation Normal All Fouled (or another F) Up.
posted by Susan on 2-2-2007 at 9:31 am
How about a mnemonic using hand signals? When you sit down to dinner with a group use the fingers of the left hand (index pressed to thumb, the others upright) to form a “b” and the fingers of the right hand (index pressed to thumb and the others upright) to form a “d”. Now you’ll know that the bread plate on the left is yours and the drinking glass on your right is yours. I suggest you do this discreetly so no one thinks you’re using gang signs.
posted by Alice on 2-2-2007 at 9:34 am
I’ve always loved “Elvis’ Guitar Broke Down Friday” instead of the classic “Every Good Boy Does Fine”.
posted by Beth on 2-2-2007 at 9:34 am
I know several slightly dirty ones designed to remember bones and muscles (ie the carpals) And there is HOFINBrCl, to remember the diatomic molecules of chemistry. I won’t even go into the crazy french ones for remembering verb tenses.
posted by Katie B. on 2-2-2007 at 9:40 am
But Please My Dear Aunt Sally - for the order in which you’re supposed to do math problems (brackets, parentheses, multiply, divide, add, subtract)
And for some reason, when I was learning state capitols, I always remembered Connecticut by saying “Hartford Fartford, Connecticut.” I hate that I still remember it, but it just stuck!
posted by Molly on 2-2-2007 at 9:40 am
She Made Harry Eat Onions…
Great lakes from West to East.
and another from the Marines…
FUBAR
Fouled (or the other F word) Up Beyond All Repair
posted by Scott on 2-2-2007 at 9:45 am
I always heard the order of operations as “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,” with the “E” standing for “exponent”
posted by Jack on 2-2-2007 at 9:49 am
I think this counts as a mnemonic.
Another way to remember which months have 31 days and which have less is to use your knuckles and the space between them. Months that fall on knuckles have 31 days. Months that fall between knuckles have 30 (or, in the case of February, 28 or 29).
Start with the knuckle of your index finger, that’s January. February is the space between your knuckles. March is the next knuckle and so on. When you get to the knuckle of your pinky (July), continue with the knuckle of your index finger (August).
posted by Peter on 2-2-2007 at 9:50 am
A lot of people used Never Eat Shredded Wheat to remember North, South, East, and West. I never really had a problem with north and south, so I’d just remember that west and east spelled WE from right to left. (And I still think about it sometimes, just to be sure.)
posted by Molly on 2-2-2007 at 9:53 am
The way I learned the biological classifications (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) was:
Kids Playing Chase On Freeway Get Squished.
posted by Bryan on 2-2-2007 at 10:06 am
I have a couple:
You mentioned FACE as the mnemonic for remembering the space notes in the treble clef in music, “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” is for the line notes. Other music mnemonics: BEAD Greatest Common Factor for the order of flats, Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Bread for the order of sharps. Edwin: I didn’t know that one for modal scales…interesting!
Non-music-related: HOMES for the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior). I know I have more, just can’t remember them right now, ha ha.
posted by Maggie on 2-2-2007 at 10:26 am
I remember a tape I listened to before starting school telling the story of a girl who couldn’t pronounce lady correctly (it came out A-E). She repeated her mother saying “Lady, I owe you some sugar” which came out “A-E I O U some sugar.” That was supposed to help you with your vowels.
posted by Jeremiah on 2-2-2007 at 10:26 am
When I was a kid, I couldn’t ever remember how to spell “tomorrow,” I knew it had two consonants in the middle, but I couldn’t ever remember which ones. So, when I told my dad that, he gave me a very simple way to remember: “Tom or row” - tomorrow!
posted by Ben on 2-2-2007 at 10:37 am
“On Old Olympus’ Towering Top, A Fat-A** German Vends Some Hops” was a favorite in anatomy class. It’s the order of the 12 cranial nerves - olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, auditory, glossopharyngeal, vagus, sensory, and hypoglossal.
posted by Donna on 2-2-2007 at 10:42 am
For math I always remembered “PEMDAS” for Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.
Are brackets the same as exponents?
posted by Rich on 2-2-2007 at 10:45 am
sometimes only humans can assist humans to overcome adversity (sin = opp / hyp, cos = adj / hyp, tan = opp / adj).
richard of york gave battle in vain = colours of rainbow
poem to remember kings & queens of england from william the conqueror until victoria:
Willy, Willy, Harry, Stee,
Harry, Dick, John, Harry 3,
One, two, three Neds, Richard 2,
Henrys 4, 5, 6, then who?
Edward, Edward, Dick the Bad,
Harrys twain and Ned the Lad,
Mary, Bessie, James the Vain,
Charlie, Charlie, James again.
Will and Mary, Anna Gloria,
Georges 4, Will, Victoria
posted by enid on 2-2-2007 at 10:47 am
“Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away” for the OSI network layer model (going up): physical, datalink, network, transport, session, presentation, application.
posted by Tony on 2-2-2007 at 10:48 am
I still use “Righty tighty, lefty loosey” for tightening screws or checking whther I’ve tightened laundry-room taps.
To spell weird correctly, I remember “WE are weird.”
And the school principal is your PAL.
A secretary can keep a SECRET.
StationEry has Envelopes.
posted by Melanie on 2-2-2007 at 10:54 am
“Martha Visits Every Monday. Just Stays Until Noon. Period.” This used to work for the order of the planets in our solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth…) Now that Pluto is back outside of Neptune’s orbit it will work but only until “they” officially take Pluto off of the list of planets.
posted by Scott on 2-2-2007 at 10:58 am
when i was taught to play the guitar, my teacher taught me the the notes of the strings (EBGDAE) by remembering “Easter Bunny Gets Drunk After Easter”
it always stuck with me.
posted by mikey on 2-2-2007 at 11:03 am
I still remember the device we used to remember the biological order.
It was “Kings Play Chess On Fine Grain Sand”
Of course I can’t remember what it stood for.
There is also a rhyme that I came up with to help people with my last name Neagle. I tell people “Say it Neagle rhymes with Bagel spell, it Neagle rhymes with Beagle”
Everyone loves that my last name rhymes with bagel.
posted by Colin on 2-2-2007 at 11:19 am
I used to be a geologist. We used the following to remember the geologic time periods.
Can Otto See Down My Petroleum Pipes?
Thats Just Crazy!
Perhaps Every Other Man Peers Past Him?
Plus, I also learned how to sail. And to navigate, I remember having to add or subtract certain compass numbers from others. So we used:
Can Dead Men Vote Twice At Elections?
and
Two Virgins Make Dull Company Add Whiskey.
Now I only wish I could remember what they stood for. Oh well.
posted by Jessica on 2-2-2007 at 11:34 am
Well, some of those aren’t really mnemonics —
but Every Good Boy Does Fine (treble clef) goes well with the bass clef Good Boys Do Fine Always.
Include FACE for the full effect of the treble on the piano notes.
How about
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles?
new planetary mnemonic.
posted by WizardBoy on 2-2-2007 at 11:37 am
On a biology field trip I learned:
Sedges have edges and reeds are round.
Another music one, the FACE equivalent for bass clef: All Cows Eat Grass
posted by Emily Jane on 2-2-2007 at 11:52 am
I can’t believe it’s not here already:
George Eats Old Gray Rats And Paints Houses Yellow helped this boy in 5th grade remember how to spell geography.
If I ever become a teacher, I hope I’m like my 6th grade social studies teacher, Bruce Stevenson. He taught us more than the subject, but also how to learn by introducing us to these tricks. I used them from then on through college and on, passing the technique on to my kids.
MALE-T for the countries across the top of Africa.
MAC - Mexico Aztecs Cortez (the big mac was a new sandwich then)
PIP - Pizzaro Incas Peru
All this off the top of my head from a class I had in 1969-70. What a great teacher, huh?
posted by Bob Evans on 2-2-2007 at 11:54 am
Ours went Kings Play Cards On Fat Green Stools.
posted by Jeremiah on 2-2-2007 at 12:13 pm
Righty Tighty
Lefty Loosey
posted by Kit on 2-2-2007 at 12:31 pm
To help with spelling, my teacher used clever mnemonics. For instance, a cemetery lies in E’s. Or he’d point out the S in defense and tell us it’s like a wall defending the keep.
posted by Johnny Cat on 2-2-2007 at 12:51 pm
I think I used King Philip Came Over For Good Steaks for the taxonomy one.
Also, my Government teacher in high school used to remind us constantly of TINSTAAFL (pronounced tinstoffal) — There is no such thing as a free lunch.
I guess that’s not so much a mnemonic phrase, but I’ve always remembered it.
posted by Evan on 2-2-2007 at 1:04 pm
I just thought of another one from my dear Algebra teacher:
My Dear Algebra Students –
When doing algebraic calculations, remember to multiply and divide before you add and subtract. (If you do any algebraic calculations, please don’t let anyone know! LOL)
posted by WizardBoy on 2-2-2007 at 1:06 pm
I’ll never forget “never eat sour worms” for the directions on a compass (north, east, south, west).
and during elementary school, i always had trouble with my multiplication tables. my mom and i made up “6 times 4 is twenty four, so shut your mouth and say no more”
posted by nicole on 2-2-2007 at 1:42 pm
“Elephants And Donkeys Got Big Ears”
are the notes each guitar string is tuned to.
Also, in history class I memorized the name of an Egyptian temple as belonging to “Queen Hate Sheep Shit.” I was then able to correctly identify the Temple of Queen Hatsepsut.
posted by Bunk Strutts on 2-2-2007 at 1:54 pm
Have no fear of ice cold beer. To remember the diatomic elements in chemistry (elements that can bond with themselves)
H, N, F, O, I, C, B
posted by James on 2-2-2007 at 2:25 pm
Easy one, but still helps ‘nobody eats soggy waffles. Helps you remember North East South West. going clockwise of course. :)
posted by Bruce on 2-2-2007 at 2:28 pm
When I took Astronomy, I learned the classifications of stars O, B, A, F, G, K, and M as Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me because, you know, the order is hard to remember.
And also, to spell together (with which I always used to struggle) I would say “To get her” in my head.
And for Wednesday, I (still!) have to say “Wed Nes Day.”
And I’m surprised no one mentioned the song with all of the states in alphabetical order. “Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticuit, doo doo doo, Delaware, Florida…”
And (okay, I have alot, but I just graduated from the public school system where they implant these in your head) when learning pronunciations of the Spanish vowels, there’s that poem:
A E I O U
El burro sabe mas que tu
And I have so much more, but I think I’m hogging web page space.
posted by Mallory on 2-2-2007 at 2:29 pm
I always used Keep Plugging Cookie Orders For German Spies in biology.
Plus, one I learned from Full House: “Double the c, double the s, and you’ll always have success.”
posted by Rachel on 2-2-2007 at 2:47 pm
FAN BOYS for the conjunctions: for and nor but or yet so.
STARLINE for the letters in scrabble which have the highest chances of giving you the ability to use all seven letters on your rack (to get 50 bonus points). See the book Wordfreak by Stephen Fatsis.
posted by andrej on 2-2-2007 at 3:18 pm
My math teacher in geometry had a long story about an indian named SOH CAH TOA. (sin of an angle is opposite over hypotenuse; cos is adjacent over hypotenuse; tan is opposite over adjacent)
posted by Jeremiah on 2-2-2007 at 3:27 pm
Anyone else ever get confused converting Fahrenheit to Celsius?
30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cold, and 0 is ice.
posted by emily on 2-2-2007 at 3:31 pm
For French, I learned the conjugations of etre (to be) to the tune of My Darling Clementine and avoir (to have) to the tune of London Bridge (not Fergie’s version, but the more traditional one :D ) Also, for verb confugation endings, I learned Super Sonic Toaster where je (I) verb conjugations generally end in -s, tu (you) conjugations end in -s, and il/elle (he/she) conjugations end in
-t.
posted by Rosalie on 2-2-2007 at 3:33 pm
Here’s an unusual one for the planets, Pluto included: Mary’s Violet Eyes Make John Stay Up Nights Plenty.
The order of sharps:
Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.
And the order of flats:
Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’s Father.
posted by Rachel on 2-2-2007 at 4:07 pm
Dr. Mrs Vandertramp is the acronym we use to remember all the verbs in french that are conjugated with etre in the past tense.
To remember the diatomic molecules there’s HOFBrINCl. (pronounced hoffbrincle)
although, these are really acronyms
And there’s also Father Charles goes down and empties bottle, bottle’s empty and down goes Charlie’s father. we have a poster in the band room…
posted by bronwen on 2-2-2007 at 5:02 pm
My high-school French teacher used “the house of etre” to help us remember which verbs had their past tense formed with etre rather than avoir. All the verbs that are things you can do to a house - go in, out, up, down, around, etc - use etre for their passe compose.
Spelling: “Macaroni” is too long and skinny to have double letters. “Committee,” on the other hand, groups up all the letters it possibly can.
Some trees: Spiky spruces and friendly firs. W-H-I-T-E pine has 5 needles, R-E-D pine has 3. And, at my marine-bio job, I learned to distinguish the two common seaweeds by remembering that Fucus is flat.
posted by Abby on 2-2-2007 at 5:28 pm
-apple pie are round, but pie are squared (πr^2)
for the area of a circle
-Roman Noodles Toss And Turn - Save Them
for the first seven Kings of Rome (Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius Superbus)
-Some Latin ones:
Bo, Bis, Boo
one and two
A and E
four and three
(in the future tense, the first and second conjugations have a bo, bis… ending, while the 3rd and 4th cs. change their vowels)
-after si, nisi, num, and ne, all the ali’s go away
(si quis instead of si aliquis for “if anyone”)
posted by Sarah on 2-2-2007 at 5:37 pm
in middle school orchestra I learned that “Fat Cows Go Down And Eat Buttercups”. It’s a mnemonic device for the circle of sharps: F, C, G, D, A,and B.
posted by Heather on 2-3-2007 at 12:21 am
As well as the french songs mentioned above, my class also has a song to the tune of the mexican hat dance to remember the order of direct and indirect pronouns “Me le, me la, me le–tu le, tu la, tu le…”
And in English when parsing sentences for grammar, to confirm a word is a preposition you place it in the blank in “The mouse goes ___ the box”. If the mouse can, it’s a preposition.
And along with that, the mnemonic BUT AL DOES lists the prepositions that don’t follow that rule.
posted by Courtney on 2-3-2007 at 12:33 am
How to remember the formulas for area and circumfrence of a circle: Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear, area equals pi r squared and twinkle twinkle little star, circumfrence equals two pi r. r being radius.
Also, Big Elephants Can Always Use Some Earmuffs, that’s from 2nd grade when no one could spell “because”.
And then there’s the quadratic equation song, sung to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel. X equals negative B plus or minus radical A squared minus four AC all over 2A.
posted by Alice on 2-3-2007 at 11:16 am
In Biology we use “Does King Phillip Consider Obese Female Gorillas Sexy?” [Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species]
To which the answer is invariably positive.
posted by Aemi on 2-3-2007 at 11:18 am
When my friend’s ten year old daughter was learning Latin, she had trouble remembering how to pronounounce “novum” and “decum” for numbers nine and ten. She wanted to say “no-vum and dee-sum” instead of “no-wum” and “dek-um”. Finally she came up with this clever phrase.: “Know ‘em, deck ‘em=Meet’em, hit ‘em.” I thought it was so cute!
posted by allison on 2-3-2007 at 5:32 pm
“A Rat In The House Might Eat The Ice Cream” reminded us how to spell ARITHMETIC. I think that’s from second or third grade.
There used to be “My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas”. But it seems to be that Mom is mad that Pluto got taken of the list, so now it goes “My Very Enraged Mother Just Served Us Nothing.”
posted by Amanda on 2-3-2007 at 10:20 pm
I felt VERY smart when I learned to spell the word * * Arithmetic * *
Back in the late 50’s early 60’s what 1st grader wouldn’t brag? It was easy
A * R * I * T * H * M * E * T * I * C
A rat in the house might eat the ice cream.
***
Learning right from left
This works for those who use their right hand to write
We write with the Right
We lean on the Left
***
The old standby - which way do I turn it?
Righty tighty
Lefty loosey
wish I had more - of all the things I’ve lost I miss my mind the most lol love to be mentally flossed
posted by Cathy Mathews on 2-4-2007 at 12:24 am
George Eats Old Gray Rats At Pappy’s House Yesterday
It’s slightly repulsive and changes tense grammatically, but it helped my brother learn to spell geography.
posted by Linda on 2-4-2007 at 9:52 pm
When I first moved to Seattle, the easiest way to remeber the streets down town was.
Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest.
Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, Univiersity, Union, Pike, and Pine
posted by Rp on 2-5-2007 at 1:59 am
I’ve got a couple that weren’t mentioned…
For the R5 Train stops out of Philadelphia to my college my mom taught me
Old Maids Never Wed And Have Babies
(Overbrook, Merion, Narberth, Ardmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr) - My friend made up a new one freshman year - One More Night With Another Horny B****
To spell “friend” my mom told me to remember that we are friends to the “end”. Someone already mentioned that the principal is your PAL.
BAGS is another one for learning French - it’s types of adjectives that go before the verb instead of after (adjectives relating to Beauty, Age, Goodness, and Size)
posted by Line on 2-5-2007 at 11:49 am
For physics - DMV, as in Department of Motor Vehicles, for Density = Mass over Volume
In math - King Henry Died Monday Drinking Chocolate Milk, (mnemonic for metric units of measure, Kilo, Hecto, Deka, Meter, Deci, Centi, Milli )
posted by Nat on 2-5-2007 at 1:53 pm
Chemistry:
The periodic table–
Group 1: Hicks Nab Kittens, Rob Cats’ Fur.
(H, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Fr)
Group 2: Bum Mugs Cat, Strangles Bald Rat.
(B, Mb, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra)
Or the first ten elements in order:
“Hell! Here’re Little Beatniks Brandishing Countless Numbers Of Flick
kNives.”
or
Happy Henry Likes Beer But Can Not Often “Find N-E.”
(H He Li Be B C N O F Ne)
For diatomic elements:
Horses Need Oats For Clean Bright Incisors.
(or I Broke Clare’s Foot On Ned’s Head.)
(H2, N2, O2, F2, Cl2, Br2, I2)
The Lanthanide series:
Little Cute People Need Plenty Sex Every Given Time Despite having Enough Through Young Love. (La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Th Yb Lu)
The periodic blocks:
spdf
(”some people don’t f***” or “spud farm”)
———————–
Electrochemistry:
LEO the lion goes GER!
(Loss of Electrons is Oxidation; Gain of Electrons is Reduction)
or OIL RIG
(Oxidation is Loss; Reduction is Gain)
A simplified order of metal electronegativity:
Kill Nasty Cats,
Mangle All Zebras,
Feed Snarling Plump Hyenas.
Curse Hogs Again Audibly Please
(K, Na, Ca, Mg, Al, Zn, Fe, Sn, Pb, H, Cu, Hg, Ag, Au, Pt)
And the reactivity series of metals:
Pop Stars Can Make All Zombies In Town Love Human Cheeks Marinated in Slimy Guts.
(Potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, zinc, iron, tin, lead, hydrogen, copper, mercury, silver, gold.)
—————————–
Solubility:
If a soluble salt you wish to provide,
You first on the acid settle;
Then neutralize with the proper oxide, hydroxide, carbonate or metal.
But if the salt will not dissolve,
A simpler means you’ll try:
Precipitate it, you resolve,
Then filter, wash and dry.
—————————–
Hydrocarbon Mnemonic:
“Mother Eats Phone Books, Pink Hats, Suffers Oxygen Nitrogen Discomfort”
Methane, Ethane, Propane, Butane, Pentane, Hexane, Septane, Octane,
Nonane, Decane.
—————————–
Thermodynamics:
Goldfish are Heck without Tartar Sauce
(delta G = delta H - T delta S)
posted by Rachel on 2-6-2007 at 9:25 pm
HOMES was drilled into me at a young age- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. I’m from Chicago, we have a little thing about the Great Lakes.
posted by erin on 2-13-2007 at 4:48 pm
Dumb Martians Just Sit Nervously Eating Tender Noodles.
If you were born in the late 60s/early 70s, this might have been as important for you as it was - nay, IS - for me. The birth order of the bountiful Bradfords (Eight is Enough): David, Mary, Joanie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, and Nicholas. Nicholas shared this with Abby to help her on her way to becoming their stepmother. What was in it for him? One can only assume he wanted her sweet MG (car).
posted by elizabeth on 2-15-2007 at 8:17 pm
Be my little general
For generals’ ranks in the armed forces
Brigadier General
Major General
Lieutenant General
General
posted by Bed on 2-16-2007 at 11:53 am
my very easy method just speeds up naming planets: mercury venus earth mars jupiter saturn uranus neptune, pluto
posted by peen on 2-26-2007 at 12:12 pm
The one I always use to remember trigonometry is:
Some Old Hags
Can’t Always Hide
Their Old Age
Sin = Opp/Hyp
Cos = Adj/Hyp
Tan = Opp/Adj
It’s always stuck with me!!
posted by Nat on 3-5-2007 at 9:51 pm
I have always remembered how to divide fractions by this little rhyme: “when dividing, don’t ask why, flip the second and multiply.” Referring to the reciprocation of the second fraction.
Also, in elementary school, I would use both of my hands to figure out the 9’s multiplication table. Starting with my left pinky finger and putting it down, this would indicate multiplying 9×1 ( 1 being my first finger) and then counting the fingers I had left up, which is nine. So 9×1 equals 9. Then going to my left ring finger and putting it down, counting the one finger to the left of it and the eight fingers to the right of it. 1-8 or 9×2=18 and so on. This trick works with all ten fingers, going all the way up to multiplying 9 by 10.
posted by Lauren on 3-22-2007 at 5:01 pm
sometimes only humans can assist humans to overcome adversity (sin = opp / hyp, cos = adj / hyp, tan = opp / adj)
posted by bruce on 4-19-2007 at 12:44 pm
Some very good ones I am gonna use. I didn’t know someone else remembered WEDNESDAY as Wed-Nes-Day. I thought it was just me. I sometimes ponounce February: Feb-Rua-Ry just to remember it. Oh well, never mind. Some I find useful.
Chemistry:
The Periodic table;
Hydrogen. He Likes Big Black Cats Not Old Fusspots. Ne Na (Nina) Maggie Al Si P S (sips) Chlorine. Ar K Ca (arca, [like an arc]).
Reactivity Series:
Please Charles Send Monkeys And Zebras In Lead Hard Cage with Maximum Security Guard.
or
Pop Stars Can Make All Zombies In Town Love Human Cheeks Marinated in Slimy Guts.
Maths:
Bless My Dear Aunt Sally.
Backets, Multiplication, Division, Add, Subtraction.
Others:
Open - Close
Who on earth watches the OC and forgets this?!?
posted by Jamester on 4-23-2007 at 11:03 am
A mnemonic to remember how to find the imperative of latin verbs- (Sung to the tune of “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”)
To make the imperative
first take the infinitive
singular takes off -re
plral then adds on -te
crazy third works differently
plural -i, singular, -e
posted by Ltngrl on 5-9-2007 at 7:18 pm
i learnt for physics
big toe - boyle’s law for temeperature
cold pot - charles’ law for pressure
penis and vagina - pressure law to find volume
posted by Suzie on 5-21-2007 at 5:11 pm
This one is not very PC, but it helped me remember the resistor color codes in electronics class.
Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly.
Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Grey, White.
posted by Mike on 7-9-2007 at 10:22 am
I some how rember the domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species by this riddle
Dumb Kittens Purr Crazyly Over Fish Gut Sandwiches
wierd i know but it is a memory trigger
posted by Marissa on 9-15-2007 at 7:05 pm
When I was a kid I had trouble remembering which side “port” and “starboard” are. I realized that when you’re on a boat in the water, you’ve “left port.” I’m sure someone else has come up with that, but for an eight-year-old I was pretty pleased with myself. :-D
posted by Seth on 11-1-2007 at 2:22 am
How about:
I wish I could determine pi,
Eureka cried the great inventor,
Christmas pudding, christmas pie
Is the problem’s very center
The number of letters in each word stands for each number in pi (following the 3) up to the 20th decimal place.
3.14159265358979323846
posted by Nerak on 11-1-2007 at 2:24 am
Division Algorithm
Dangerous
Monster
Suck
Cold
Blood
for
Divide
Multiply
Subtract
Check
Bring-down
posted by Mr. G on 11-1-2007 at 4:22 am
Stalactites had to hold on “tight” and stalagmites “might” reach the ceiling.
posted by JAG on 11-1-2007 at 6:04 am
My mom taught me “A Rat In The House Might Eat The Ice Cream” to remember how to spell “Arithmetic”, and I still use it today; plus, I teach it to my fifth grade students every year.
posted by Tommy on 11-1-2007 at 6:42 am
Don’t know if this counts as a mnenomic, but when my son was younger he came home from school with this trick to learn the 9 times table. I thought it was very cool!
Hold up both hands (palms facing out) and count each finger from one to ten starting on the far left. Let’s say you want to know what 9 x 7 is. Bend down the 7th finger counting from the left (which is the index finger of your right hand). To the left of the bent finger are the “tens” and to the right of the bent finger are the “ones”. So the answer is 63 (six fingers on the left…three fingers on the right.
posted by Sheila on 11-1-2007 at 6:46 am
Do you remember the movie “Night Shift” with Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton…. the scene where Keaton uses a blackboard to explain to a bunch of hookers what the word “prostitution” means…. not a mnenomic but a very funny scene….’pros-tit-u-tion’….
posted by Bill on 11-1-2007 at 6:51 am
In printing shop we learned the order of type in the trays. Theonly one I rember is- Never Park Elephants in Small Ford Garages. The K, or King, rode on the elephant. I knew some of the aforementioned, I hadn’t used the knuckles in years.
posted by gus on 11-1-2007 at 6:52 am
My high school economics teacher (who also teaches government and uses “TINSTAAFL”) taught us “dippy the yield kitty” for finding the yield for stocks. dippy was D over P, or dividend over price.
posted by Andrew on 11-1-2007 at 8:09 am
For the planets we always had: “My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pies.”
Now I guess she just sends us nine…
For piano lessons, the Treble Clef was “FACE” for the spaces, “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” for the lines. Bass Clef was “All Cows Eat Grass” for the spaces and the lines were “Good Books Don’t Fall Apart.”
For Sine/Cosine/Tangent functions all we had to do was remember Chief “Soh Cah Toa,” or to remember the mnemonic, what to do when you drop a hammer on your foot: “Soak a Toe-a.”
For remembering the difference between cellular divisions mitosis and meiosis: “My toes are repaired by mitosis.”
posted by Katherine on 11-1-2007 at 8:32 am
Great stuff here… I’m not particularly proud of it, but
Lenin Stays Krusty By Anally Checking Goats
will give you the Soviet premiers in order.
(Lenin, Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev, Adropov, Chernyko, Gorbachev)
And yes, I probably need some sort of mnemonic to recall how to correctly spell some of those.
posted by Roger on 11-1-2007 at 8:46 am
My brother, a closet biologist and an avid gardener, used to say this one about plant identification - I just think it’s funny:
Sedges have edges; grasses, like a$$es, have holes.
posted by George on 11-1-2007 at 9:31 am
As a young sea cadet I used this frequently - not necessarily a mnemonic but it helped
PORT = LEFT = RED
STARBOARD = RIGHT = GREEN
All the short words were grouped together and all the longer words were grouped together.
posted by Cyd1st on 11-1-2007 at 11:14 am
I was taught this to remember the difference between “desert” and “dessert”: The desert is sand [one ’s’] and a dessert is sugar and spice [two ’s’s].
posted by E on 11-1-2007 at 12:11 pm
King Henry Died U Didn’t Care Much
kilo- hecto- deka- *UNIT* Deci- Centi- Milli-
(where *UNIT* can be grams, meters, etc)
it’s interesting to see all the variations
these are repeats, but these are the ones I knew:
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally - PEMDAS - (parentheses, exponent, multiply, divide, add, subtract)
SOH CAH TOA (trig functions)
“30 days hath september…”, RoyGBiv, FACE, Every Good Boy Does Fine
gotta love Full House teaching yo how to spell success
& the ones about dessert/desert, princiPAL, friEND, I knew those also
I wish I could remember how we learned taxonomy! I know it was something about King Phillip …
& I wish I knew all the clever chem/bio/physics ones!! that would have made my hs/college career a little less stressful!
What about when you were little & couldn’t tell your right from your left - hold your hands flat, palms down, thumbs at 90degrees - your left hand makes an “L”
posted by sd on 11-1-2007 at 12:25 pm
K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple, stupid.
posted by Heidi on 11-1-2007 at 12:25 pm
Don’t know if its really a mneumonic, but Watch Out Jeffs Mad always helped me remember the first 5 presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison)in grade school.
posted by Helen on 11-1-2007 at 12:26 pm
Oh yeah!
P.I.T.A. = Pain in the ass
i.e. “She was being such a PITA!” or “that job was a PITA!”
posted by Heidi on 11-1-2007 at 12:32 pm
When teaching computer applications at the local community college I posted this on the wall to help students SAVE their work.
SIOLI
Save It Or Lose It
Probably more of an acronym but maybe it helped.
posted by Mike on 11-1-2007 at 12:46 pm
righty tighty , lefty lucy
posted by Sandy on 11-1-2007 at 1:22 pm
My music students have the best mnemonics.
Spaces in bass clef: “All Chupacabras Eat Goats”
Spaces in treble clef: “Fat Albert Can Eat”
Order of sharps: “Four College Guys Drunk At Every Bar” (I learned “Fat Cats Get Down At Eddie’s Barbecue”)
Order of Flats: “BEAD Girls Can Fight”
Order of modes: “In Denmark, Peter Likes Men and Ladies” (But I learned it as “In Dark Places, Love Making Always Lurks”)
Back in the day, there was a Babysitter’s Little Sister book where Karen uses mnemonics for a spelling bee, which I still use: “There is a LIE in the middle of believe” and “There is A RAT in the middle of separate.”
And I came up with one myself in college to remember Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives: “Kent, Clark. Always A Superhero Everyday.” Knowledge, comprehension, analysis, application, synthesis, evaluation.
posted by Liz on 11-1-2007 at 3:35 pm
Planets: My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas was the old way; now I guess it’s My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nothing. Of course, my 11-year-old tells me that Ceres is now a dwarf planet, like Pluto, and don’t we have Sedna and Xena floating around out there?? *sigh*
Seven Deadly Sins: WASPLEG (wrath, avarice, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony).
Linnean Classification: Please Come Over For Great Sex (phylum, class, order, family, genus, species).
posted by Liz Sigal on 11-1-2007 at 5:11 pm
While not strictly a mnemonic I think Robert A. Heinlein’s “TANSTAAFL” deserves a place in this compendium.
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!
posted by Ken David on 11-1-2007 at 5:57 pm
It’s not really a mnemonic, but since I saw someone mention “50 Nifty United States” above…
My teacher when I was in school gave us a song to remember the 13 colonies.
Virginia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts for a start,
Then Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island had a part.
The Carolinas, North and South, and York and Jersey New,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Georgia, too.
posted by Stephanie on 11-1-2007 at 11:51 pm
Sulfuric acid formula
Johnny was a good boy
Johnny is no more
What he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4
posted by Dave Davis on 11-10-2007 at 10:23 pm
We were taught “King Paul Cries Out for Good Soup” in Biology. Of course, the 7th grade boys used the word sex instead of soup.
posted by Leigh on 11-18-2007 at 6:54 pm
BRASS mnemonic for Breathe, Relax, Aim,Stop (breathing), Squeeze.
How to fire a rifle accurately without jerking the sights off target
posted by big mike on 12-7-2007 at 6:13 am
I remember part of one the Chicago Tribune published in the 1940’s. I’ve lost it now, but it covered all the Presidents at the time.
Washington and Jefferson met many a jeer,
What a shame to have lost the rest!
posted by Oliver on 3-2-2008 at 1:03 pm
I remember having spelling test and one girl in my class could never spell ‘together’. So someone else suggested saying ‘to get her’. Its not very impressive, but it stuck!
posted by Alice on 4-30-2008 at 1:56 pm
I learned the first part of the president’s poem in 9th grade from a wonderful history teacher:
“Washington and Jefferson met many a jeer. Van Buren had troubles plenty to fear.”
I wish I could find the rest to teach to my grandchildren.
posted by Marilyn on 8-7-2008 at 5:17 pm