# Looking for clever mnemonic devices **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702 "2006-11-16T17:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/21 "2006-11-16T21:19:32Z")
My grandmother taught me one to remember how to spell “geography”: “George Earl’s Oldest Girl Rode A Pig Home Yesterday”. Still makes me smile. There’s “a rat” in “separate”. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/22 "2006-11-16T21:30:08Z")
A few of us artsies had to learn some neuroanatomy for our psychology class. We were having some trouble differentiating between the cerebellum and the basal ganglia. For our purposes all we needed to remember was that the cerebellum is for rapid movements (I remember birds have big ones) and the basal ganglia is for slow, deliberate ones. So my friend said “Cerebellum” really fast (try it! it’s fun) and “Baaaassssllooooooow ganglia.” Now I will never, ever forget. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/23 "2006-11-16T21:41:18Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] My = Mercury Very = Venus Energetic = Earth Mother = Mars Just = Jupiter Served = Saturn Us = Uranus Nine = Neptune Pizzas = Pluto Got any more? [/QUOTE] I learned it as, “Mary’s Violet Eyes Made John Stay Up Nights Playing.” ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/24 "2006-11-16T21:48:26Z")
[QUOTE=An Arky] I also remember the thingy where you use your knuckles and the gaps between to represent the months that have 31 days vs. the ones that don’t, but that’s not exactly a mnemonic, I reckon. [/QUOTE] I still have to recite 'Thirty days hath September, April June and November", and work it out by elimination. And yes, these are mnemonics, they’ve not restricted to acrostic rhymes. Anything which assists the memorising of a specific piece of knowledge is a mnemonic. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/25 "2006-11-16T21:49:08Z")
In navigation, for uncorrecting (going from a true course to a compass or magnetic course): True Virgins Make Dull Companions At Weddings True (course) Variation Magnetic Deviation Compass Add West So, 145T + 2W (var) = 147M - 1E (dev) = 146C When correcting: Can Dead Men Vote Twice At Elections Compass Deviation Magnetic Variation True Add East ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/26 "2006-11-16T21:52:44Z")
My Catholic-school-educated aunts learned the mnemonic “ **W** ill yo **U** **C** ome **F** or **K** itchen **P** ans **F** riday?” for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost (Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of the Lord). In a magazine article about Scrabble, one player was quoted as saying “KA takes BETSY” (the word KA, a term from Egyptian mythology, can be extended into five acceptable three-letter words, namely KAB, KAE, KAT, KAS, and KAY). ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/27 "2006-11-16T22:35:35Z")
From electronics school: Eli the ice man. E (voltage) leads current (i) in an inductor (l) current (i) leads voltage(e) in a capacitor © ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/28 "2006-11-16T23:05:06Z")
[QUOTE=SpectBrain] From electronics school: Eli the ice man. E (voltage) leads current (i) in an inductor (l) current (i) leads voltage(e) in a capacitor (c) [/QUOTE] Which reminds me of one for wiring multiple batteries together: Save Pay (SAV PAA) Series adds volts; Parallel adds amps ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/29 "2006-11-16T23:47:52Z")
I pinched my aunt Thelma. That’s a mnemonic for… um… something biological. Eventually, lo and behold, it came dribbling back to me: interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase - the stages of mitosis. I had a different one for kingdom, phylum, etc. Kings pick cherries off fine green saplings. You can sort of tell my high school biology teachers were middle-aged women, can’t you? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/30 "2006-11-17T02:04:05Z")
soh cah toa A pretty common mnemonic for trigonometry, but to make it a little more interesting, a classmate extended it to “sailors often have certain anal happiness to oppose anger”. The odd time I need to use trig I remember the first, but the second always seems to pop into my mind a minute later! I had a couple from my first biochemistry course that I made up (and don’t make that much sense) which have come in handy about amino acids: “History likes Argentina because it’s basically positive” (Histidine, Lysine and Arginine are basic molecules and positively charged) “I ate acid and it was a negative experience” (Glutamate and aspargate are negatively charged acids) I had one from grade 7 or 8 science which was abbreviated as TACO but I don’t remember what it could be. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/31 "2006-11-17T02:37:29Z")
Of course, mnemonics aren’t limited to phrases based on initial letters. My all-time fave, which I use A LOT, is “Right tighty, lefty loosey.” There was a thread during the demotion of Pluto brouhaha about how “My very excellent mother served us nine pizzas” should be altered. The hands-down winner, IMHO, was “My very economical mother served us nothing.” ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/32 "2006-11-17T02:54:02Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly. Black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey, white Resistor value color code. Evidently invented before there were as many female electrical engineers as there are today. [/QUOTE] I learned the same, appended with “Get some now”, for Gold, Silver, and no band, relating to percentage of resistor tolerance. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/33 "2006-11-17T03:01:06Z")
[QUOTE=freckafree] There was a thread during the demotion of Pluto brouhaha about how “My very excellent mother served us nine pizzas” should be altered. The hands-down winner, IMHO, was “My very economical mother served us nothing.” [/QUOTE] Jupiter got demoted as well? 😛 (I assume you meant to type “My very economical mother **just** served us nothing.”) **mnemosyne** : I can’t help you with the TACO mystery, but your mention of it reminded me of my seventh-grade science teacher’s use of the terms CHO and CHON to signify the **C** arbon- **H** ydrogen- **O** xygen composition of carbohydrates and the addition of **N** itrogen to form proteins. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/34 "2006-11-17T03:04:16Z")
[QUOTE=Dervorin] Stellar classification, which is something I just dug up from studying it ages ago: Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me! I don’t think the letters actually stand for anything; the classes are O, B, A, F, G, K and M. [/QUOTE] In my astronomy lecture at Michigan in 1987, we had a _contest_ about this. My entry (which lost out to something much less clever): _ **O** ut **B** ack **A** ustralians **F** avor **G** rilled **K** angaroo **M** eat._ ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/35 "2006-11-17T03:20:13Z")
[QUOTE=PoorYorick] “How I need a drink, alcholic of course:” The first few numbers of pi (count the number of letters in each word). [/QUOTE] May I have a large container of coffee? ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/36 "2006-11-17T03:25:48Z")
[QUOTE=dwc1970] Does anyone have a mnemonic for classifying animals and plants? If I remember correctly, it goes: Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species. [/QUOTE] My favorite, from back in high school: Kinky Percussionists Come Over For Great Sex Yeah, I hung out with a lot of band nerds. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/37 "2006-11-17T03:47:34Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > Yeah, I hung out with a lot of band nerds. Then you’ll remember the order of sharps and flats mnemonic – _the only one I know_ that works BOTH forward and backward: **#**** F **at** C **harlie** G **ets** D **onuts** A **fter** E **ating** B**reakfast _ **b** _ **B** reakfast **E** ating **A** fter **D** onuts **G** ets **C** harlie **F** at ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/38 "2006-11-17T03:50:04Z")
[QUOTE=lazybratsche] My favorite, from back in high school: Kinky Percussionists Come Over For Great Sex [/QUOTE] I learned it as Kings Play Chess On Fuzzy Green Squares. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/39 "2006-11-17T03:57:27Z")
As seen in a recent Sky and Telescope magazine editorial: Many Very Egotistical Malcontents Just Screwed Up Nomenclature ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/40 "2006-11-17T03:57:55Z")
Resistor color coding: _Bad Boys Ravish Only Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly_. Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Gray White Roy G. Biv is Mr. Rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo & Violet. From math: _How I wish I could recollect pi easily today._ The number of letters of each word gives us 3.14159265 The planetary Mnemonic, I never used, I just memorized the order very young. The Mnemonic needs to be altered now that Pluto has finally been demoted. Jim [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702.md?page=3)