I use SOH CAH TOA all the time at work. Right angle trig made simple.
SOH: The sine of an angle in the triangle is = opp. side length/ hyp. length.
CAH: cosine…adjacent/hyp
TOA: tangent…opp/adj.
For “Kingdom., Phylum, etc” we learned “King Phillip Came Over From Germany Stoned”. Was there a slightly different one, maybe for plants?
Richard of York gave battle in vain.
For the colours of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
The one I’ve heard was “King Philip Crossed Over From Geneva, Switzerland.”
Navigational light colors for vessels:
There’s no red port wine left.
The red light goes on the left of your vessel, and left is called “port”.
I don’t recall one, but the only difference in plant classification is the use of “Division” instead of “Phylum.” So you would just have to substitute a name beginning with “D” for Phillip.
Yes, and no,
King Philip Came Over For Great Sex.
It’s possible to use these methods with the actual elements you are trying to memorize. For instance, picture the winged sandals of Mercury on the feet of the Venus di Milo with her balancing Earth-From-Space on her head while she eats a Mars bar, etc. (I think they gave up on this and substituted unrelated mnemonics because they couldn’t tastefully give children a mental picture of Uranus ;).) I read about this system a long time ago and use it a lot. I remember it was suggested in the article or book I was reading that, as you mentioned, the most absurd combinations were the most effective.
I think the song and poem mnemonics like “Do, a Deer” or “Thirty Days Hath September” work because they engage other brain activities to support the memory. I think in visual images or lists of words, but I hear rhythm and melody. The more routes to the information you have, the more successful you’ll be at retrieving it.
King Henry Dreamt My Dog Caught Mumps.
Kilo, Hecto, Deca, Metre, Deci, Centi, Milli.
On the introduction of metric measurements. Gram and Litre could be suitably fitted in, I suppose.
The more common one is HOMES.
These are the letter names of the notes on the spaces of the bass clef.
The one I always use is in the reverse order: All People Seem To Need Data Processing.
I realize it’s an effective tool for memorization, but I beg to differ that these are arbitrary seeming lists of words. These are things you’re supposed to KNOW. Saying some nursery rhyme to help you memorize terminology isn’t learning, it’s just painting by numbers.
I never heard the King Philip mnemonic for taxonomy. Nowadays we have Domain above kingdom, so the mnemonics I’ve heard have had a D word appended to them.
(Dumb) Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Sand
(Dumb) Kids Play Catch Over Farmers’ Green Sections
(Dear) Kevin, Please Come Over For Gay Sex
(Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
Similarly:
Fat Charlie Gets Donuts After Eating Breakfast
Breakfast Eating After Donuts Gets Charlie Fat
Medical ones that actually stuck with me were the cranial nerves (dirty version but last two words are “Ah, heavenly” (Accessory, Hypoglossal), NAVaL (inguinal structures lateral to medial (Nerve, Artery, Vein, Lymphatic)) and US Runs Deep (nerves in the hand (ulnar-superficial, radial-deep)).
They absolutely are are arbitrary seeming when you first try to learn them, and, in many cases, they really are, to all intents, arbitrary, bearing no real relationship to the underlying structure of the knowledge domain. The fact (to take just one possible example) that the main spectral types of stars are in the order O B A F G K M is not something that follows from the underlying facts of astronomy, but rather is a convention that reflects the history of how the classification was arrived at. If astronomers were designating spectral types now, with our modern understanding of stellar physics and evolution, they would probably call the types, in order, A B C D E F G, but, as with the QWERTY keyboard, it is too late for that now. From the point of view of astrophysical theory, the ordering of the letters* is* completely arbitrary, and the only way to learn it is either by rote or by mnemonic. The mnemonic is much more efficient and reliable. (Heck! I am not an astronomer. I don’t need to know that information, yet I have remembered it ever since I first read about the mnemonic, about 50 years ago.)
Likewise, there is no particular reason why, in biological classification, one particular word for a group of similar things, such as order, or phylum, should be used to refer to a higher level grouping than some other word for such a group, such as family or genus. The way the terms are attached to the underlying hierarchical structures is essentially an arbitrary convention, and just has to be memorized. A mnemonic is a good tool for doing that.
Even in cases where there is an underlying meaningful pattern, as in the notes belonging to each line of the stave, it makes much more sense to memorize the mnemonic than to laboriously work it out from first principles each time. Of course, once you get to be an expert musical sight-reader, you do not need to recall the mnemonic all the time, but that in itself is just a matter of memory due to frequent use. In any case, it takes long time and practice to get to that point, and while you are getting there it is much more efficient to use the mnemonic than to try to rote learn (let alone to work it out every time).
You have to know these in aviation as well. The version I learned was Can Ducks Make Vertical Turns? Variation east, magnetic least, was a separate memory aide equivalent to the “add whiskey” portion of yours.
My simple memory aide for red/port/left is just that each of the words has fewer letters than its counterpart; red/green, port/starboard, and left/right.
The before take-off checks when I was learning to fly were Too Many Fat Flying Instructers Have Crash Landings.
[ul]
[li]T - Trims and throttle friction checked, temps and pressures green. [/li][li]M - Mixture rich[/li][li]F - Flaps set[/li][li]F - Fuel on and correct tank, contents checked, primer locked. [/li][li]I - Ignition on both, Instruments checked. [/li][li]H - Harnesses and hatches (doors/windows) secured. [/li][li]C - Controls checked. [/li][li]L - Lookout (here I come!) for aircraft and obstacles before moving.[/li][/ul]
Flight checks are now done as geographical scans backed up by a checklist, so rather than remembering a list of things to do, I remember a sequence of actions in the cockpit. The checklist is used to confirm the actions have been completed. If I want to remember the actions while not in the cockpit, I find I have to visualize the scan.
LOANS generator, FIRES fuel, and BFR are to help remember the services operated by the two hydraulic systems in the BAe 146 jet.
The green hydraulics operate the:
[ul]
[li]Landing gear[/li][li]Outboard ground spoilers[/li][li]Anti-skid[/li][li]Nose wheel steering[/li][li]Standby generator[/li][/ul]
The yellow hydraulics operate the:
[ul]
[li]Flap asymmetry brakes[/li][li]Inboard lift spoilers[/li][li]Roll spoilers (both)[/li][li]Emergency landing gear extension[/li][li]Standby fuel pumps[/li][/ul]
Both systems operate the:
[ul]
[li]Brakes[/li][li]Flaps[/li][li]Rudder[/li][/ul]
The BFR bit is easy to remember because a BFR, or biennial flight review, is a proficiency check that private pilots have to do. Most pilots are very familiar with the term even if they don’t have to do a BFR themselves.
Post edit window:
I’ve never managed to remember the number of days in each month. The rhyme has always seemed to be:
Thirty days hath… [list of months that I can’t remember]
All the rest have thirty one except February… [that we know all about anyway and don’t need to remember]
If I could remember the initial list of thirty day months I wouldn’t need the rhyme, but without remembering that line the rhyme is useless to me.
All you need for this is your fist (I was taught this when I was probably 2, and still use it)
Put your fist out, knuckles facing up. Start counting from leftmost knuckle, including the dips between knuckles. First knuckle is Jan - 31 days (up). Dip is February, 28/29 days (dip) Second knuckle is March - 31 days (up). Next dip is April - 30 days (dip) - until you get to rightmost knuckle - July - 31 days (up). Then you switch to the leftmost knuckle again - August - 31 days (up)… etc.
Thanks. I know the fist method, I meant to say that I’ve never been able to remember the number of days in the month using the rhyme.