Have you ever used mnemonics to learn information? What are they? Here are 2 of my favorites:

The 12 cranial nerves - On Old Olympus's tiny tops a Finn and German viewed some hops.
I Olfactory
II Optic
III Oculomotor
IV Trochlear
V Trigeminal
VI abducens
VII Facial
VIII auditory
IX Glossopharyngeal
X Vagus
XI (Spinal) accessory
XII Hypoglossal

Another is Roy G. Biv, the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, idigo, and violet.

"George Edwards old grandmother rode a pig home yesterday" was the mneumonic I learned in the fifth grade to help me spell "geography".

Take the first letter of each word twice in the following mneumonic to remember the order of streets in downtown Seattle, from south to north along 4th Avenue between Yesler Street and Olive
Way.

"Jesus Christ made Seattle under protest".

Jefferson
James
Cherry
Columbia
Marion
Madison
Spring
Seneca
University
Union
Pike
Pine

The order of major botanical taxa can be remembered by the question, "Did King David come over for good sex?"

Domain
Kingdom
Division
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

For some reason "division" is replaced by "phylum" in the animal kingdom. The mneumonic still works, though, if you substitute "Phillip" for "David".

Tinman

The mnemonic I use is "Richard of York gave battle in vain"

I also seem to remember "All cows eat grass" which is the order of the black (or is it the white) keys on a piano.I didn't bother to learn them all when I realised that my delicate little hands can't even span an octave and so there was little point in my trying to learn to play the thing!

Richard English

was a mnemonic my German teacher at school taught us for the pronouns taking the accusative case

durch, für, gegen, ohne, um, wider.

The only problem is that wider is so rarely heard as to be almost archaic and there are the much commoner bis and entlang missing from the list.

Strangely when I just tried to think of this mnemonic I remembered the pronouns in order and then had to work out what the mnemonic had been.

As mnemonics go this one seems to be an all round pretty useless one, doesn't it ?

Vescere bracis meis.

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

As a Chemistry teacher, I know loads, and have probably forgotten more.

Most Englishmen Possess Big Parrots is a good one for methane ethane propane butane then pentane, and they usually make the obvious substitution for parrots themselves within about 30 seconds.

Pre-takeoff checklist for pilots of small airplanes:

"Can I go for that redhead tonight"

(Controls instruments gas flaps tower runup traffic)

* ** *** ***** ******** ***** *** ** *

Periods in Paleontology

"Can others slide down my pretty pathway"

(Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Mississippian Pennsylvanian Permian)

[This message was edited by jerry thomas on Thu Apr 17th, 2003 at 15:38.]

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All cows eat grass

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Oh, Richard, you have definitely triggered my memory about piano mnemonics; there are more, but for the life of me.......

Shufitz, do tell how you remember all the states???? (I am in Atlanta, and poor Shufitz is fending for himself!) I'd post it, but I can't remember. It isn't a mnemonic, but it is a good method, if you can remember it!

P.S. to the apostrophe professors here: Note that I got the apostrophe correct in "Olympus's tiny tops". Interestingly, I checked a few Web sites, and nobody had it correct.

Most authorities suggest that names ending is "s sounded vowel s" (which are mainly historical names like Olympus, Ulysess, Jesus) can be apostriphised either way.

So both Olympus' and Olympus's are acceptable. I myself prefer to use the traditional apostrophisation as do you.

Richard English

FCGDAEB...Is the order of sharps (or is it flats?) in a key signature in music.

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Originally posted by Richard English:
So both Olympus' and Olympus's are acceptable. I myself prefer to use the traditional apostrophisation as do you.

Richard English

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Thank you, Richard.

Tinman

I see I forgot mention that, in addition to the "s sounded vowel s" rule, it is acceptabel for all Greek Proper nouns of more than one syllable to take the "s plus apostrohe form.

According the the 2003 "Times" style guide, this is their own preference.(Achilles' Heel).

Richard English

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Shufitz, do tell how you remember all the states???? It isn't a mnemonic, but it is a good method, if you can remember it!

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Basically, you simply note how many begin with A, how many with B, etc., and memorize those numbers. Once you know that four state-names begin with A, it becomes much easier to dig those names out of your mind: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas. Also, while you're digging you know whether you have to continue digging, or whether you have them all and can stop.

US'ns will probably find that they can reel off most or all the states, with a bit of work, starting with these numbers:

A-4 (no B,E)
C-3
D,F,G,H-1
I-4 (no J)
K-2
L-1
M,N-8
O-3
P,R-1 (no Q)
S,T,V-2
U-1
W-4 (no X,Y,Z)

That's the basic method. Though there as sub-tricks (such as noting that of the four A's, two begin Al- and the other two begin Ar-), you really don't need them, except where one letter has a large number of states.

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FCGDAEB...the order of sharps (or is it flats?) in a key signature in music.

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It's the sharps. For the flats, all you do is read the list backwards!

The lines and spaces of the treble clef have "classical" mnemonics, too.
The lines are Every Good Boy Does Fine, and
the spaces are FACE.

I don't recall ever seeing a mnemonic for the bass clef, though... (Now _there's_ an invitation if ever there was one!)

Let's build an imaginary stack of imaginary items. The more ridiculous we make it, the easier it will be to remember.

We'll start with a DELicate china plate. Balanced, erect, in the center of the plate is a ball-point PEN, point downward. Standing with all four feet together on top of the pen is a JERSEY cow, and riding on her back is King GEORGE, who has cut his thumb. To ease the pain, (to CONNECT the CUT) he holds the sore thumb against a MASS of ice. we see Queen MARY running across the ice to catch a SOUTHbound ocean LINER. Only one of the ship's smokestacks is emitting smoke. The other is plugged .. with a NEW HAM that's wrapped in paper -- sheet music for "Carry Me Back To Old VIRGINNY." Pushing down on the paper is ..... the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, and balanced on its top is a NORTHbound ocean LINER, whose stack is plugged by a nest containing 13 eggs and guarded by a RHODE ISLAND red hen.

The original 13 colonies, in the order in which they ratified the Constitution:

1. DELAWARE 7 Dec 1787
2. PENNSYLVANIA 12 Dec 1787
3. NEW JERSEY 18 Dec 1787
4. GEORGIA 2 Jan 1788
5. CONNECTICUT 9 Jan 1788
6. MASSACHUSETTS 6 Feb 1788
7. MARYLAND 28 Apr 1788
8. SOUTH CAROLINA 23 May 1788
9. NEW HAMPSHIRE 21 Jun 1788
10. VIRGINIA 25 Jun 1788
11. NEW YORK 28 Jul 1788
12. NORTH CAROLINA 21 Nov 1789
13. RHODE ISLAND 29 May 1790

[This message was edited by jerry thomas on Sun Apr 20th, 2003 at 17:44.]

RE: The names of the states....

My daughter learned a song with all the names of the states in it when she was in about 2nd grade (about 8 years old). To this day, she can still recite it, and therefore, the names of the states.

Sometimes, putting things to music or rhythm makes it easier to remember, aside from mnemonics. When I was 10, I had to learn a clapping pattern for a song I had to perform. It was clapping, without music, but in rhythm. So we learned to clap on every syllable of: "Charlie Brown, is a naughty naughty boy." Can't forget that one!

Come to think of it, so did my kids. I think it may have been an Electric Company song. Or perhaps Zoom.

Zoom! Z double O M, Box 350, Boston Mass 02134---
send it to Zoom! I will always remember that address. And the Electric Company! I loved that show. Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman and Hector Elizondo; wow, what a cast!

Songs may help, but I doubt if this song would help me remember the names of the elements:

There's sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium
And also mendelevium, einsteinium and nobelium
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper,
Tungsten, tin and sodium.

(etc. Words by Tom Lehrer; music from Gilbert & Sullivan)

You can find the full lyrics on line.

Mnemonics Neatly Eliminate Man's Only Nemesis - Insufficient Cerebral Storage.

Great one, TrossL, because I completely misspelled it when I started this thread. I spelled it "pneumonics" and was quite happy that I had the foresight to to look it up first, instead of making a total fool of myself! Of course, I may have done that now in telling this story!

I have a question that some of you linguists might be able to clarify (elucidate?? no, clarify )

How are acronyms and mnemonics related? For example, I am thinking for APGAR, which is an acronym (right?) for rating the health of newborn babies. The letters remind you that you need to look at activity, pulse, grimacing, appearance, and respiration. That is, an acronym helps you to remember the words, while a mnemonic also helps you to remember words.

How are _acronyms_ and _mnemonics_ related? For example, I am thinking for APGAR, which is an acronym (right?) for rating the health of newborn babies. The letters remind you that you need to look at activity, pulse, grimacing, appearance, and respiration. That is, an acronym helps you to remember the words, while a mnemonic also helps you to remember words.

I wouldn't consider APGAR to be an acronym, since the five features you referred to by it aren't a phrase in their own right. It's more an abbreviation.

You can use an acronym to be a mnemonic if you want to by making the letters represent something you need to know, but that's not the definition of acronym. (You don't consider "NYC" a mnemonic to help you remember New York City. I hope.)

I would say acronym and mnemonic refer to independent aspects of whatever collection of letters is under discussion, and they aren't related at all, unless you contrive it so. There are even mnemonics that aren't word-related at all - consider the strategy some memory counselors advise of associating a silly image with a person to recall the name in the future.

(Executive summary: some acronyms are mnemonics, and some are not. The two words aren't related except coincidentally.)

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Thu Apr 24th, 2003 at 18:39.]

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Originally posted by tinman:
The order of major botanical taxa can be remembered by the question, "Did King David come over for good sex?"
Domain
Kingdom
Division
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
For some reason "division" is replaced by "phylum" in the animal kingdom. The mneumonic still works, though, if you substitute "Phillip" for "David".

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Actually its "phylum" that is replaced by "division" in the plant kingdom
I learned it this way: King Phillip Chews On Funny Ginger Snaps. I never heard of a Domain (in this sense).

Welcome to the Forum robb! Hope you enjoy your time here.

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Originally posted by robb:

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For some reason "division" is replaced by "phylum" in the animal kingdom.

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Actually its "phylum" that is replaced by "division" in the plant kingdom
I learned it this way: King Phillip Chews On Funny Ginger Snaps. I never heard of a Domain (in this sense).

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Welcome aboard, robb! You're right, of course. It was "phylum" first and the botanists decided to change it to "division" for plants. Why, I don't know.

BioTech Life Science Dictionary definition of "domain":

"The highest level of biological classification, superseding kingdoms. The three domains of biological organisms are the Bacteria, the Archaea, and the Eukarya."

At one time all life was considered to be in one of two kingdoms: Animalia or Plantae. Not all life seemed to fit neatly into one of these two categories, and in 1866 zoologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel proposed a third kingdom, Protista. In 1959, R. H. Whittaker devised a five-kingdom classification, which was later refined by Lynn Margulis. Today the five-kingdom classification is generally accepted, though there are other proposed systems which contain as many as eight kingdoms.

The more I learn, the less I know.

Tinman

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Originally posted by tinman:
Today the five-kingdom classification is generally accepted, though there are other proposed systems which contain as many as eight kingdoms.

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I have proposed 17 kingdoms but does anyone listen to me?? No-o-o-o-o-o!

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Originally posted by Morgan:
Welcome to the Forum robb! Hope you enjoy your time here.

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Yes, robb, welcome, but Morgan, what do you mean by "your time here"? Was robb sentenced to do community service on this board?

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Have you ever used mnemonics to learn information? What are they?

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When learning Dutch, we have to remember which verbs take a D and which a T in the past tense.

Those verbs that take a T contain any of the consonants in "'t kofschip", though there's a slightly ruder version (though not nearly as rude as it appears in English) which is "'t fokschap" -- a "fokkerij" is a stud farm and it's perfectly polite Dutch.

Stephen.