Mnemonics You Use

[touchingcloth]

Well that's that joke ruined for me :-(

Don't listen to MJ - every single Sunday has 24 hours, but twice a year we change whether we are taking notice of GMT's or BST's 24 hour periods.

[Johnny Yesno]

Don't listen to MJ - every single Sunday has 24 hours, but twice a year we change whether we are taking notice of GMT's or BST's 24 hour periods.

You're right. We just shift the template back and forth.

Hooray! It's a brilliant joke again.

[Ambient Sheep]

Treble clef lines: Every Good Boy Deserves Football
Treble clef spaces: Face

Bass clef lines: Good Boys Deserve Football Always
Bass clef spaces: All Cows Eat Grass


Yes, our music teacher used "Football" rather than "Favour" or "Fruit".  That made him very hip in the mid-1970s, although I have to say seeing as I'm not fond of football I couldn't agree with the sentiments therein.  Still remembered it though. :-)

[thenoise]

I our school it was Every Gay Boy Deserves Flogging.

Homophobic or just really kinky?

[Attila]

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain -

Battles have been fought in this household over that one -- it's Roy G. Biv, ffs.

[thenoise]

Battles have been fought in this household over that one -- it's Roy G. Biv, ffs.

What are the 3 colours at the end?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I our school it was Every Gay Boy Deserves Flogging.

Homophobic or just really kinky?

Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly

And it's racist counterpart, i suppose technically speaking it is less ambiguous.

[Mr Brightside]

I use these ones . . .

Rainbow colours - Richard of York Gave Blowjobs in Vienna
Treble clef lines - Every Gay Boy Digs Felching
Treble clef spaces - Great Big Dicks Feel Awesome
Bass clef lines - Flatulent Aliens Crap Everywhere
Bass clef spaces - Amy Childs Eats Gash
North, South, East, West - I just fucking remember it. Not hard, is it?

[Ambient Sheep]

For me, the colours of the rainbow was the made-up word "VIBGYOR" in some childhood book or other I had, and "Roy G. Biv" at school. 

I never had any trouble remembering the order of the planets: seeing Neil Armstrong do his thing when I was four-and-a-half and consequently growing up in the Space Age, I was so surrounded by books and wallcharts that it all sunk in totally naturally.  It's only in the last twenty years or so that I've realised just how much of an astronomy geek I inadvertantly am, due to the sheer number of otherwise intelligent (and sometimes not-so-intelligent) people I've met who know fuck all about it.

I just remembered that as Black, Brown, then the spectrum colours (minus the silly one), then Grey and White.  No mnemonic required.

I also can't believe people using one for the points of the compass, surely the effort required to remember whether you're going round the clock or reading left-to-right, top-to-bottom (i.e. N,W,E,S) just makes it redundant.

I'm actually struggling to think of any mnemonic I've ever used apart from the musical staves ones.  I thnk there was a computer-y one at some point around twenty years ago that was useful, but it escapes me now.

I tell you one that I could have done with though: the order of the snooker balls.  Despite watching a lot of Pot Black in the 1970s it took me a long time to remember it, not least because they bore no relation to the spectrum and/or the resistor colour code (both of which I knew in single figures age; my older brother was an amateur radio enthusiast).  Let's have a go... R,Y,G,Brown,Blue,P,Black... yeah, I can see why it's almost impossible to make one now.  Far too many Bs...

[Sebastian Cobb]

I can remember north, south, east, west without a mnemonic; but if you asked me to cross myself I'd probably have to resort to 'spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch', even if I didn't, I'd likely do it anyway for my own personal amusement.

[hamfist]

SOH CAH TOA

still comes to mind to remember which trig function to use to work out triangles.

Sine = opposite / hypotenuse

Cosine = adjacent / hypotenuse

Tan = opposite / adjacent

[touchingcloth]

Reggie Yates, Gordon Brown, Blue Peter: blacks.

[touchingcloth]

SOH CAH TOA

still comes to mind to remember which trig function to use to work out triangles.

Sine = opposite / hypotenuse

Cosine = adjacent / hypotenuse

Tan = opposite / adjacent

The problem I have there is that I've forgotten what the opposite and adjacent sides are.

[Brundle-Fly]

Slight tangent, but at your school did anyone in your class make the claim that ADIDAS was secretly an acronym for All Day I Dream About Sex? I got a big laugh for swiftly countering this bollocks by saying it actually meant, A Dog Is Doing A Shit.

No doubt a smart alec here will point out that John Junkin made the same joke on ISIHAC in 1979 or something?

[touchingcloth]

Adidas forwards and then backwards was: after dinner I did a shit, soon after dinner I did another. Reebok was nothing.

[touchingcloth]

Mirror, signal, road ahead, mirror, road, indicate, mirror, road, mirror, mirror, road, wing mirror, indicator, mirror, road, mirror, mirror, signal, slowly pull away from the kerb.

[Attila]

What are the 3 colours at the end?

We were taught

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

This also leads to arguments at the house. The long winter evenings just fly by.

Slight tangent, but at your school did anyone in your class make the claim that ADIDAS was secretly an acronym for All Day I Dream About Sex?

Yep -- got that at school, too (US, late 70s, so when I was in 7th and 8th grades).

[hamfist]

WUFDOG

Wider
Um
Für
Durch
Ohne
Gegen

= German prepositions which take the accusative

[touchingcloth]

Is Roy G. Biv an actual person's name that has been used because it matches the colour sequence, or is it just the initial letters of the sequence for some reason split into three and with a full stop added? If the latter, how are you supposed to remember Roy G. Biv in the first plave, never mind what it stands for?

Edit: and the "three letters at the end" were a reference to the "ffs" I think. Fawn, flamingo, shamrock.

[Ambient Sheep]

SOH CAH TOA

still comes to mind to remember which trig function to use to work out triangles.

Oh yes!  I'd forgotten about that one, yeah, we were taught that one too, and I've even used it once or twice as an adult.

The problem I have there is that I've forgotten what the opposite and adjacent sides are.

Yeah, that took me ages.  But it's no biggie really... the "opposite" is the side, well, opposite the angle that you're interested in (so it has no corners touching it), and the "adjacent" is the one along the bottom.
                   
                   /|
                 /  | O
               /    | p
             /      | p
           /        | o
         /          | s
       /            | i
     /              | t
   /                | e
  '---------------
     Adjacent

Where the angle of interest is the one on the bottom-left.

The other side is, of course, the hippopotamus.

[Ambient Sheep]

Is Roy G. Big an actual person's name that has been used because it matches the colour sequence, or is it just the initial letters of the sequence for some reason split into three and with a full stop added? If the latter, how are you supposed to remember Roy G. Biv in the first plave, never mind what it stands for?

It's the latter.  Shit, isn't it?

WUFDOG

Wider
Um
Für
Durch
Ohne
Gegen

= German prepositions which take the accusative

Fucking hell, I could have done with that 38 years ago.

[touchingcloth]

Oh yes!  I'd forgotten about that one, yeah, we were taught that one too, and I've even used it once or twice as an adult.


Yeah, that took me ages.  But it's no biggie really... the "opposite" is the side, well, opposite the angle that you're interested in (so it has no corners touching it), and the "adjacent" is the one along the bottom.
                   
                   /|
                 /  | O
               /    | p
             /      | p
           /        | o
         /          | s
       /            | i
     /              | t
   /                | e
  '---------------
     Adjacent

Where the angle of interest is the one on the bottom-left.

The other side is, of course, the hippopotamus.

If the angle you're interested in is the one bottom right, then the hypotenuse is also the opposite. Ahhhhh.

(Don't worry, I do at least know why this is wrong.)

[Cloud]

If I ever saw the temporary chemistry teacher I had, I'd have to thank him for teaching us the 'phrase' "Ha helly bebcernof, nee-nah mug al sipsickle, ark car" (spelt "H-heli bebcnof, ne na mg al sipscl, ark ca").  It's helped with a few pub quizzes.

The classic "30 days have September April June and November" is quite useful also

[Steven]

Deoxyribonucleic Acid.

I remember the above molecule using my own handy mnemonic - DNA.

[Ambient Sheep]

If I ever saw the temporary chemistry teacher I had, I'd have to thank him for teaching us the 'phrase' "Ha helly bebcernof, nee-nah mug al sipsickle, ark car" (spelt "H-heli bebcnof, ne na mg al sipscl, ark ca").  It's helped with a few pub quizzes.

What the fuck?  I'm guessing this is maybe some kind of organic chemistry progression thing, but no real idea.

Oh, it's the start of the periodic table!  Duh!!  Dunno if that might be a bit tenuous for me...

The classic "30 days have September April June and November" is quite useful also

I have to confess that I always found that utterly useless.  I was probably well into my twenties, if not thirties, before I could remember it was April not March that had the 30 days near the start of the year.

I actually wish I'd noticed the basically-alternating pattern when I was a kid, rather than when I was in my early-40s, it would have helped a lot...

31 28 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31

...in other words,  apart from February being 28 rather than 30, and August breaking the pattern with an extra 31, they kinda just alternate between 31 and 30 throughout the year.  It's a bit convoluted, but for me that would have been easier to remember than a stupid rhyme that doesn't actually rhyme and you have to remember the month names in it anyway, which kinda defeats the object.

[Cloud]

Thought I'd see if anyone spotted what it actually was. Well done for eventually getting it!

Somehow the months rhyme just "worked" for me.  Much like "divorced beheaded died divorced beheaded survived" but that has proven unhelpful in most quizzes so far as they ask for their names... (Henry VIII wives, though I'd imagine most know that one!)

[thenoise]

I always used to start singing the month names to the tune of the alphabet song 'January February March April May....' and then fizzle out as I remember that is the alphabet song not the month naming song.

[Sebastian Cobb]

What the fuck?  I'm guessing this is maybe some kind of organic chemistry progression thing, but no real idea.

Oh, it's the start of the periodic table!  Duh!!  Dunno if that might be a bit tenuous for me...


I have to confess that I always found that utterly useless.  I was probably well into my twenties, if not thirties, before I could remember it was April not March that had the 30 days near the start of the year.

I actually wish I'd noticed the basically-alternating pattern when I was a kid, rather than when I was in my early-40s, it would have helped a lot...

31 28 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31

...in other words,  apart from February being 28 rather than 30, and August breaking the pattern with an extra 31, they kinda just alternate between 31 and 30 throughout the year.  It's a bit convoluted, but for me that would have been easier to remember than a stupid rhyme that doesn't actually rhyme and you have to remember the month names in it anyway, which kinda defeats the object.

The septics do some weird shit with their knuckles to work this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Ma0D-fN38

I find it more baffling than the rhyme.

[Mr Banlon]

SOH CAH TOA

still comes to mind to remember which trig function to use to work out triangles.

Sine = opposite / hypotenuse

Cosine = adjacent / hypotenuse

Tan = opposite / adjacent
[/quote
Some Old Houses Constructed Any How Topple Over Always


A cute triangle

[Small Man Big Horse]

Treble clef lines: Every Good Boy Deserves Football

It was fudge when I was a kid, probably Cadbury's trying to influence people's diets. And it worked!