Odd Mnemonics

[Callie]

I can't remember the direct conversion of kilometers to miles; however, I do remember that Earth's escape velocity is 11.2 km/s or 6.96 mi/s. Anytime I wish to convert SI units of length to English units of length (and vice versa), I do so in terms of escape velocities. It struck me that I probably have a unique mnemonic for said unit conversion and that other people might also remember things in odd ways. What odd mnemonics do y'all have?

[A less presumptuous name.]

I can only remember inches and centimeters, so if I want to work with larger units, I have to scale down and then back up.

[Cairo Jim]

1 inch works out about 2.5 cm, 30cm in a foot, 90cm in a yard and roughly 1.6klm is a mile.

[A less presumptuous name.]

I like to be exact in my conversions. One inch is exactly 2.54 cm. All the other approximations are fine, but I don't bother to memorize other exact conversions.

[Alorael at Large]

I've learned tons of mnemonics over the years. So many, in fact, that I have trouble remembering all of them.

 

—Alorael, who has been forced to create second-order mnemonics to keep track of all the mnemonics for information he might need to recall.

[Lilith]

when i was a really little kid, like 4 years old, i had the most ridiculously overcomplicated way of telling left from right ever

 

i had picked up somewhere that on a ship, starboard was right and port was left. and i had a little port-wine-stain birthmark on my left hand. so the side with the port-wine mark was the port side, which was the left side. and that's how i knew which way was left

[Jerakeen]

when i was a really little kid, like 4 years old, i had the most ridiculously overcomplicated way of telling left from right ever

 

i had picked up somewhere that on a ship, starboard was right and port was left. and i had a little port-wine-stain birthmark on my left hand. so the side with the port-wine mark was the port side, which was the left side. and that's how i knew which way was left

Lucky birthmark. It saved you from having to tattoo a star and a board on your right hand.

[Lilith]

the funny thing is i'm not even sure it was a port wine stain because they normally get a little bigger and darker with age whereas mine faded away on its own over the next few years

 

oh well. it was a red mark anyway

 

edit: aaaaand i just thought of a really good punchline to this post that's both completely appropriate and completely inappropriate for this forum

[Alorael at Large]

It could be worse. When I was little and first learning to play a wind instrument my teacher was frustrated that I kept reversing my hands for the fingering because I couldn't tell left from right. She pointed to a mole on my left arm and told me to remember that it was left. Except I had moles on both arms, so I went from confusion about left and right to confusion about which mole was which. Eventually a marker came out, and I had an artificial port-wine stain of sorts until I sorted myself out.

 

—Alorael, who didn't quite get a tattoo. It was just a purple dot, and came off quickly after it stopped being renewed daily.

[Cairo Jim]

I couldn't remember what left and right were until I was about 9. Associating phrases or terms to directions was quite annoying. Still is actually.

[Harehunter]

Lillith,

I never had trouble with left and right, I had trouble with port and starboard . It was not until I learned the origin of the word Starboard came from the contraction of Steering Board. In older sailing vessels, there was no centerline rudder. just a board on the right side of the vessel near the stern. OK, Starboard means Right. But why Port for the Left? Well that was the side always brought up to the port. Why ? Because you couldn't do that on the right side because the steering board was in the way.

 

Then there were the Latin words for right and left.....

[Student of Trinity]

My father explained to me once, when I was maybe six or something, which of my arms was left and and which was right. I was standing with my upper arms at my sides and my elbows bent so that my forearms stuck out forwards. I was facing the kitchen table, and looking down at my hands as my dad explained left and right. For years afterwards I would tell left from right by remembering that scene.

[Lilith]

wow you'd think we all grew up in nineveh or something

[Student of Trinity]

So that's why today we need strange mnemonics: overfishing.

[A less presumptuous name.]

Alo's reference to learning an instrument reminds me of an odd mnemonic that I learned under such circumstances. My first instructor was teaching me the order of flats and sharps. Flats run as B E A D G C F. Sharps run the opposite. I still remember the flat order as "bead juicyfruit".

[Dikiyoba]

They didn't have the finger trick for left and right when you guys were little (except for Lilith, because being able to remember left and right and port and starboard is just awesome)? Hold out your thumbs and index fingers while keeping the other fingers tucked down. The hand that forms the correctly-orientated L is the left hand (and the hand with the reverse L is the right hand, but really, you only need one).

 

Dikiyoba has trouble orienting east and west on a landscape and remembering the definitions of monoecious and dioecious plants. It always takes a few seconds for Dikiyoba to think it through, which is rather annoying.

[Questionably Legal]

I'm in the process of learning Japanese, and odd mnemonics are the whole premise of my Kanji learning software, Wanikani. For example, the kanji "industry" uses the radical "construction" and is pronounced "kou". So to remember this, Wanikani recommends thinking of the site(and associated blog) owner Koichi, in a sexy, sexy construction worker costume(overalls and a hard hat, shirtless).

(Not shown: sexy costume)

 

http://www.tofugu.com/

The image will never leave you.

[Rowen]

Two wrongs never make a right, but three lefts do.

[Randomizer]

Back in college I was taking a Civil Engineering course in statics where I had problems calculating an unknown force by adding up forces and torques. So while I wrote down equations with my left hand, my right hand was moving to figure out the torque's direction using the right hand rule of index finger for force, middle finger for direction arm and thumb for torque direction. At least until my roommate got tired of my flipping him off with my right hand.

[A less presumptuous name.]

I love the right hand rule. Sometimes, though, I find it inconvenient for a given orientation, so I insert a negative sign into a convenient term and use my left hand.

 

For cardinal directions, I remember back in elementary school learning Never Eat Soggy Worm/Waffles.

[Edgwyn]

I remember learning variations of Kings Play Chess on Fat Girls Stomachs for taxonomy (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genius, Species) and My Very Elegant Mother Just Ate Nine Pies for the traditional 9 planets of the solar system. What's nu, c over lambda for the relationship of frequency to wave length. Roy G. Biv for the colors of the visible light spectrum. Knuckle method for the number of days in a month and the 30 days have September rhyme for the same thing.

[Lilith]

My Very Elegant Mother Just Ate Nine Pies

 

Just Served Up Nine Pies, surely

[Sudanna]

They didn't have the finger trick for left and right when you guys were little (except for Lilith, because being able to remember left and right and port and starboard is just awesome)? Hold out your thumbs and index fingers while keeping the other fingers tucked down. The hand that forms the correctly-orientated L is the left hand (and the hand with the reverse L is the right hand, but really, you only need one).

 

A cousin of mine still has to do this every time he needs to know right from left. He's in his early twenties and did a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

[BMA]

Just Served Up Nine Pies, surely

 

Our variant was "Just Showed Us Nine Planets" (prolly coz we don't make pies).

[VCH]

Just Served Up Nine Pies, surely

 

surly

[Jerakeen]

Mother Very Easily Made Jam Sandwiches Using No Peanuts.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Jerakeen
And I'd never heard of Roy G Biv until recently - I learned the spectrum in the other direction, sans mnemonic.

[Lilith]

indigo isn't even a real colour anyway, it's only there because a lot of early optics researchers were weird mystics who liked the number seven

[Cairo Jim]

Just Served Up Nine Pies, surely

 

Shouldn't it be Just Serving up Now?

[Dikiyoba]

We do need a new mnemonic for the planets (as well as for the colors of white light), but that one doesn't really work. My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Up Noodles, perhaps?

 

Dikiyoba.

[Aran]

"My very educated mother just said, 'Uh-oh! No Pluto'."

 

(From Colbert, I think.)

 

 

My Very Elegant Mother Just Ate Nine Pies

Just Served Up Nine Pies, surely

 

Saturn and Uranus are an astronomy hoax. In actuality, there's just one planet between Jupiter and Neptune, which is called Aturn.

 

I mean, seriously... "Uranus"?

 

 

[Khoth]

When I need to tell which direction is left, I just grab some cobalt-60 and watch the beta decay.

[Harehunter]

Khoth,

Ouch!

 

Good one.

[Kelandon]

Saturn and Uranus are an astronomy hoax. In actuality, there's just one planet between Jupiter and Neptune, which is called Aturn.

 

I mean, seriously... "Uranus"?

The rings of Saturn and the might god Ouranos shall make you tremble, impudent mortal!

[Student of Trinity]

When I need to tell which direction is left, I just grab some cobalt-60 and watch the beta decay.

 

Can you see electron spin, or do you just let the cobalt decay for a while and then see what's left?

[nikki.]

Mother Very Easily Made Jam Sandwiches Using No Peanuts.

 

My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets! It's good because it's about planets, so you don't need to remember which one it's for.

 

For the rainbow I use 'Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain'. I guess because I'm English?

[Edgwyn]

I haven't heard the Richard of York one, so it being because you are English would make sense. We of course renamed certain things in the colonies such as "My country tis of thee" replacing "God Save the King".

 

My problem with letting the Cobalt-60 decay for a while is that while I do not mind the Beta burns, the gamma burns are a lot to ask to get a left handed chunk of nickel.

[Harehunter]

SoT,

 

Ouch, Again !!!

 

Uwhen you find hav e your post is gone

[VCH]

Kids Play Catch Over Farmer Green's Shed.

 

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

[A less presumptuous name.]

Dear King Phillip, Come Out For Goodness Sake.

 

Domain, Kingdom, ...

[Xaiya]

Every

Astronaut

Did

Good

But

E

 

I don't know what the last E in the mnemonic is, and I really don't care. Good enough as is to remember. I'll let people figure it out/be cripplingly curious. Don't be a chihuahua and spoil it.

[Triumph]

I can't remember, what is this thread about?

[Student of Trinity]

1 3 5 7

This is odd mnemonic heaven.

[ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε]

Every

Astronaut

Did

Good

But

E

 

I don't know what the last E in the mnemonic is, and I really don't care. Good enough as is to remember. I'll let people figure it out/be cripplingly curious. Don't be a chihuahua and spoil it.

or google

[Balladeer]

Every Good Boy Does Fine - for the musically inclined. That would be the treble clef lines from bottom to top. FACE for the spaces in between.

[Harehunter]

Beetle Bailey runs over your general before very good witnesses

 

Resistance is Futile.

[Callie]

Beetle Bailey runs over your general before very good witnesses

 

Resistance is Futile.

Do the Borg, as cybernetic beings, need mnemonics? Or do they just assimilate everyone else's mnemonics?

[Mistah Q]

In a Physiology class we had a mnemonic to remember the layers of the epidermis:

 

Corneum

Lucidum

Granulosum

Spinosum

Basale

 

Cheryl likes guys' sexy butts.

 

I got through a structural chemistry course by using the Konami Code to remember how to allocate electrons, too.

[Triumph]

I got through a structural chemistry course by using the Konami Code to remember how to allocate electrons, too.

 

This mnemonic just won the entire thread.

[Callie]

I got through a structural chemistry course by using the Konami Code to remember how to allocate electrons, too.

This mnemonic just won the entire thread.

The Pauli exclusion principle is useless to me now.