Mnemonics

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Mnemonics

Mnemonics are simple to learn memory aids - called after Mnemosyne the goddess of memory.

The Colours of the Rainbow:

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

Richard of York gained battles in vain
Rowntrees of York give best in value

Though some prefer the simpler: ROY G BIV

The works of Gilbert and Sullivan:

Thespis      Trial by Jury     The Sourcerer      HMS Pinafore      Pirates of Penzance      Patience      Iolanthe
Thespian           jury                  shows                   him                       pirate                        pat's             Iolian
Princess Ida    Mikado        Ruddigore       Yeomen of the Guard    Gondoliers    Utopia Unlimited    Grand Duke
Princess,         Micky             Rudd                      guards                  gondoliers'         Utopian                Duke

The Heads on Mount Rushmoor:

Washington Jefferson Lincoln Roosevelt
We just like Rushmoor

The First American Presidents:

Washington Adams Jefferson Madison Monroe Adams Jackson van Buren Harrison Tyler Polk
Will a jolly man make a just but harshly treated president

The Middle American Presidents:

Taylor    Fillmore    Pierce    Buchanan    Lincoln   Johnson   Grant     Hayes     Garfield   Arthur   Cleveland
Taylor       felt         proud            but         Lincoln      just    grinned   happily,    gargling    and         could        hardly          contain       McKinley
Harrison    Cleveland    McKinley

American Presidents of the 20th Century:

T Roosevelt   Taft    Wilson      Harding   Coolidge      Hoover    FDRoosevelt   Truman   Eisenhower
Theodore      takes    Wilson's     hand          cooly       hoovering     Franklin's       true      experiences.
Kennedy    Johnson     Nixon     Ford     Carter      Reagan     Bush     Clinton
Ken,               justly      noted        for      candour,    ruled         but        cooly

The Seven Deadly Sins (Quibs):

Pride* Avarice** Lust Envy Greed*** Anger**** Sloth
PALEGAS

alternatives: (*Vainglory) (**Covetousness) (***Gluttony) (****Wrath)

The Seven Doctors Who (Quibs):

Hartnell     Troughton    Pertwee    Tom Baker    Davidson    Colin Baker    McCoy
Hartnell's       trout         permit         takes              daily            caught        mackerel
Hartnell's     troubles      pervert        Tom's            daily             computer     macros

Henry VIII's Wives (Quibs):

Aragon Boleyn Seymour Cleaves Howard Parr
Arrogant bull sees cleaners hair parted

and this was their fate:

Divorced beheaded died divorced beheaded survived

and their children:

Mary Elizabeth Edward none none none

Henry VIII's Chancellors (Quibs):

Thomas Wolsey Sir Thomas More Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cranmer

They are in reverse alphabetical order - and this was their fate:

Died on way to trial executed executed survived
(until burnt at stake by Mary)

The Taxonomic classification:

Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species
King Phillip came over from great Spain

The James Bond Themes (Quibs):

Dr No                                       James Bond Theme                            Monty Norman
Monty wrote No song for Dr No
From Russia with Love                                                                        Matt Monroe
Matt loves Russia
Goldfinger                                                                                           Shirley Bassey
Bassey is into gold and diamonds
Thunderball                                                                                        Tom Jones
Tom Jones thunders
You Only Live Twice                                                                           Nancy Sinatra
Nancy only lives twice
Diamonds are Forever                                                                        Shirley Bassey
Bassey is into gold and diamonds
Never Say Never Again                                                                       Lani Hall
Lani Hall never got asked again
Casino Royale                            The Look of Love                             Dusty Springfield
Dusty looks to love in the Casino
On HMSS                   We Have all the Time in the World                  Louis Armstong
Louis & Lazenby have all the time in the world for HM's service
Live and Let Die                                                                                 Paul McCartney and Wings
Wings let you live and die
The Man With the Golden Gun                                                           Lulu
Lulu likes golden guns
The Spy Who Loved Me                  Nobody Does it Better                Carly Simon
Nobody did it better than the spy who loved Carly
Moonraker                                     Where are You?                          Shirley Bassey
Third time Bassey is looking for You in the Moon
For Your Eyes Only                                                                            Sheena Easton
Sheena only has eyes for you
Octopussy                     All Time high                                                 Rita Coolidge
Rita hit an all time high on her Octopus
A View to a Kill                                                                                   Duran Duran
Duran had a view of the kill
The Living Daylights                                                                           A-ha
A-ha I see the daylight
Licence to kill                                                                                     Gladys Knight
Gladys got a licence to kill
Goldeneye                                                                                          Tina Turner
Tina turned her golden eye on Bond

And the principal James Bond Actors (Quibs):

Sean Connery
Doctor's Russian gold thunders twice forever; never-again!

Roger Moore
Live man spy moons for-your octopus kills

Moh's Hardness Scale:

Talc   gypsum calcite fluorite appetite orthoclase quartz topaz corundum diamond
Toronto girls      can      flirt       and          only        quit     to       chase       dwarves
or
Terrible giants   can     find   alligators       or       quaint tigers conveniently digestible

The Royal Houses of Britain:

Norman Plantagenet Lancaster York Tudor Stuart Hanover Windsor
No plan like yours to study history wisely

The Planets:

Mercury   Venus   Earth     Mars (a) Jupiter   Saturn   Uranus   Neptune   Pluto
My          very      easy     method         just        set          up          nine      planets
or, including the Asteroid Belt (W Barnett):
Many       very      early      men   (ate)    juicy      steaks      using       no       plates

Stella classification (Henry Russell):

O B A F G K M
Oh be a fine girl, kiss me

Monotonous Stations:

Kings Cross Marylebone Fenchurch Liverpool St
King makes fencing lively

The Metric System.........

Kilometer hectometer decameter meter decimeter centimeter millimeter
King Hector died miserable death - caught measles

Resistor colour codes:

Black brown red orange yellow green blue violet grey white gold silver none
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly - get some now

The Geological Ages:

Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carboniferous Permian Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous
Camels       often           sit         down         carefully;      perhaps    their     joints       creak.
Palaeocene Eocene Oligocene Myocene Pliocene   Pleistocene   Holocene
Possibly,      early       oiling        might      prevent     premature    hollowing

The first eight decimal places of Pi

3. 1 4 1 5 9 2 6
May I have a large container of coffee

Calculus - the Positive Quadrants (Andrea Wong)

All Students Take Calculus
All Sine Tangent Cosine

Calculus - the Operators (Andrea Wong)

SOH CAH TOA
Sine = Opp/Hyp Cos = Adj/Hyp Tan = Opp/Adj

The bones of the skull:

Occipital parietal frontal temporal ephnoid spenoid
Old people from Texas eat spiders

The medical profession is probably the greatest source of mnemonics and there are some excellent specialist sites on the web - see the links page for details.

Guitar strings:(David DeWeese)

E B G D A E or E A D G B E
Every bible gets dusty after Easter / Eat all dead gophers before Easter

Order of the Sharps in Music: (Dave Kimble)

F C G D A E B
Father Charles goes down and eats bananas

Order of the Flats in Music:(Dave Kimble)

B E A D G C F
Battle ends and down goes Charlie's father

Spaces on the bass clef:

A C E G
All cows eat grass

Lines on the bass clef:

G B D F A
Good boys do fine art

Lines on the treble clef

E G B D F
Every good boy deserves furniture

Points of the Compass:

N E S W
Nabisco extrude shredded wheat

Roman Numerals:

1     5           10                50       100        500      1000
I     V           X                  L          C           D         M
I veered   across (but) Lucy     can't     drink     milk

Reactivity Series for Metals: (M Fall)

Potassium sodium calcium magnesium aluminium zinc iron lead mercury copper
Kittens not cats make a zoo for poor hungry children

Celsius:(Scientrix)

30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cold, zero is ice

The Electro-magnetic Spectrum:(Rik Deitsch)

Cosmic gamma X-rays ultra-violet visible infra-red microwaves radio television
Cary Grant expects unanimous votes in movie reviews tonite

The Zodiac:(Rob Johnson and Quibs)

Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces
A tense grey cat lay very low, sneaking slowly, contemplating a pounce
Anti tank gun cleaner lets virgin's little scooter sag capriciously after pouncing

The Great Lakes (in order):

Superior Huron Michigan Erie Ontario
Super heroes must eat oats

Days in each month(Quibs):

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November
All the rest have thirty one except for February, which will don
An extra leap if you remember, twenty eight is all it's on

and some traditional alternatives:

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November
All the rest have thirty one, excepting February alone
And that has 28 days clear and twenty nine in each leap year

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November
All the rest have thirty one, excepting leap year
Thats the time, when February’s days are twenty nine

But thirty days November hath, April, June and September
February hath but twenty eight without a leap attender

Work this one out for yourself (Donovan Loucks):
Joan found Mark and Mike jumping Janet and Susan outside Nora's drugstore

The Confederate States:

South C Louisiana Georgia North C Alabama Arkansas Virginia Mississippi Florida Tennessee Texas
Susy lay groaning nearby, always aware virginal men frequently take time

The Clocks:

Spring ahead but Fall back

Sides of a ship:

Portand Left both have 4 letters
Portis always passed round the table to the left
PortWine is Red (the colour of the port side light) (Roy W Muwaw)

Excretory organs of the body:

Skin kidneys intestines liver lungs
S K I L L

Mathematical operators:

Parenthesis exponents multipliers dividers adders subtractors
Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally

The Disciples:

This is the way the Disciples run
Peter, Andrew, James and John
Philip and Bartholemew
Thomas next and Matthew too
James the less and Judas the Greater
Simon the Zealot and Judas the traitor

Rings on the Olympic Flag

Black Yellow Blue Green Red
BYBGR

The OSI Model for System Development

Application presentation session transport network datalink physical
All people seem to need data processing
(which explains why computer projects are always late - they've forgotten the manufacturing phase)

Trigonometry:

Tan = opp / adjacent Cos = adjacent / hypotenuse Sine = opposite / hypotenuse

The old Arab carried a heavy sack of hay

Thanks to Val Davies and her contributors for many of these

Last Updated 11/05/1999