Mnemonics

Mnemonics are clever little pieces of verse intended to help us all remember certain things!

 

Spring ahead, Fall back
To remember how you adjust the time clocks for Daylight and Standard Time in many places.

30 days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31 (Except for February which has 28, DAMN!) And then there's leap year...
To remember the number of days in each month. OR:-

30 days hath September
April June and November
All the rest have 31
Except for February alone
Which has 28 days clear
or 29 on each leap year.

 

January brings the Snow, makes our feet and fingers glow
February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again
March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing Daffodil
April brings the Primrose sweet, scatters Daisies at out feet
May brings flocks of pretty lambs, skipping by their fleecy dams
June brings Tulips, Lilies, Roses, fills the children's hands with posies Hot
July brings cooling showers, Apricots and Gilli flowers
August brings the sheaves of corn, then the harvest home is borne
Warm September brings the fruit, sportsmen then begin to shoot
Fresh October brings the Pheasant, then to gather nuts is pleasant
Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast
Chill December brings the sleet, blazing fire and Christmas treat
by Sara Coleridge
To remember the months of the year.


Sir, I send a rhyme excelling
In sacred truth and rigid spelling
Numerical sprites elucidate
For me the lexicon's dull weight.

Counting the letters of each word gives you the value of pi to the 20th place.

May I have a large container of coffee?
Counting the letters of each word gives you the value of pi to 7 places.

The Old Arab Carried A Heavy Sack Of Hay
Tan = Opp/Adj; Cos= Adj/Hyp; Sin= Opp/Hyp

Tom's Old Aunt Sat On Her Coat and Hat
Tan = Opp/Adj Sine = Opp/Hyp Cosine = Adj/Hyp

Lucky Cows Drink Milk
The ascending order of Roman numerals: LCDM
(50, 100, 500, 1000)

M's "mille" (or 1000 said)
D's half (500 - quickly read!)
C's just a 100 (century!)
and L is half again - 50!
So all that's left is X and V
(or 10 and 5) - and I - easy!

To remember all the Roman numerals

I Am A Person
The 4 Oceans (Indian, Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific)

Eat An Aspirin After A Night time Snack
The 7 Continents (NOTE: The 2nd letter in the 1st 3 A words help to remember the A continents)
Europe, Antarctica, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America

Never Eat Shredded Wheat
To remember the directions on a map, place the first letter of each word in a clockwise circle starting at the 12 o'clock position:

Sam's Horse Must Eat Oats
For the Great Lakes in order of size: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario

Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest
This gives the order of the streets in downtown Seattle, south to north, two at a time.
They are: Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike and Pine.

Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.
A very commonly heard mnemonic for the six wives of Henry VIII.

In 1903, the Wright brothers flew free.
To remember the first successful flight

I before E except after C Except when the sound is "I"
To remember that 'i' most often goes before 'e'

Separate is A RAT of a word to spell
To remember to spell separate correctly, instead of "seperate".

When two vowels go walking the first does the talking
To remember for words like "oat" or "eat"

The silent 'e' makes the vowel say its name
To remember for words like cap/cape and hat/hate

The sailor's favourite boat was named "PAN CAP IV"
Parts of Speech: Pronoun, Adverb, Noun, Conjunction, Adjective, Preposition, Interjection, Verb

RAVEN
R emember
A ffect
V erb
E ffect
N oun

To remember when to use "affect" vs "effect"

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
To type or write every letter of the alphabet.

Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain
To remember the colours of the rainbow = Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

PPPPP
(Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance)"

ABC
(be Accurate, Brief and Clear)

Long-itude is the distance ALONG the Equator from Greenwich (in degrees)
and Lat-itude is the lateral (or sideways) distance North/South (in degrees) from it.

To remember the difference between Latitude and Longditude
Greenwich (London) is at 0' long. and 51''N. lat.

NAM-MI YACH-Y
To remember the longest rivers in order of their length.
Nile (Africa) - 4,145 miles
Amazon (S.America) - 4,050 miles
Mississippi-Missouri (USA) - 3,760 miles
Irtysh (Russia) - 3,200 miles
Yangtse (China) - 3,100 miles
Amur (Asia) - 2,900 miles
Congo (Africa) - 2,718 miles
Huang-Ho (or Yellow) (China) - 2,700 miles

Susan Mitchell Has Eight Oranges
The Great Lakes in order going West to East ( rather than size etc )

Can Queen Victoria Eat Cold Apple Pie?
To remember the seven hills of Rome
(Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine, Palatine)

EARs
To remember the correct order for Admiral Lord Nelson's injuries
(Eye, Arm, Right [x2])
Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) is the greatest tactician in naval history, and is chiefly remembered for defeating Napoleon's fleet off Cape Trafalgar, where he died of a shot wound during the height of the battle. Nelson was seriously injured in several earlier battles however. At the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1793 he was made Captain of the battleship Agamemnon and given command of operations against the French island of Corsica where, during seven months of hard fighting ashore, he partially lost the sight in his right eye in 1794. Three years later in 1797 as Rear Admiral Nelson he lost his right arm during an assault on the Spanish base of Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands. He also received a severe head wound at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, after which he spent two years recuperating in Naples (where he met and began a very public affair with Lady Hamilton). None of these injuries caused his career to suffer. In fact he used his injuries to advantage on occasion, most famously at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) where, ordered by Admiral Parker to cease a daring harbour attack on the Danish fleet because of early losses, Nelson raised a telescope to his blind eye and announced "I really do not see the signal", before going on to destroy the fleet (preventing its use by Napoleon). His remark is now often paraphrased in seafaring comedies as "I see no ships - only 'ardships!"

No Plan Like Yours
To Study HISTORY Wisely

To remember the Royal Families of England
(Norman (1066-), Plantaganet (1154-), Lancaster (1399-), York (1461-), Tudor (1485-), Stuart (1603-), Hanover (1714-1901), Windsor (1901/1917-present))

The squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sum of the squaws on the other two hides
To remember the Greek mathematician's (PYTHAGORAS' THEOREM ) formula governing the lengths of each side of a right-angled triangle:

Peter, Andrew, James and John
Philip and Bartholemew
Thomas next and Matthew too
James the less and Judas the greater
Simon the zealot and Judas the traitor

To remember the 12 disciples

And when burning forewood  - 2 pieces of verse, a choice, one with 13 woods:-
Beech-wood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year;
Store your beech for Christmastide
With new-cut holly laid beside;
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for years 'tis stored away;
Birch and fir-wood burn too fast
Blaze too bright and do not last;
Flames from larch will shoot up high,
Dangerously the sparks will fly;
But ash-wood green and ash-wood brown
Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown.
Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold;
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold;
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread -
So it is in Ireland said;
Apple-wood will scent the room,
Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom;
But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry
A King may warm his slippers by.


And one with 11 woods:_
Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year;
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long 'tis laid away;
Make a fire of elder tree,
Death within your house shall be;
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for Queen with crown of gold.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last;
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread;
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould
E'en the very flames are cold;
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for Queen with golden crown.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense like perfume;
Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winter's cold;
But ash wet or ash dry
A King shall warm his slippers by.


And for Marine Traffic Rules:-
If, to your STARBOARD, RED appear
It is your duty to keep clear;
To act as judgement says is proper,
To starboard - or port - back - or stop her.
But when, upon your PORT, is seen
A steamer's starboard light of GREEN,
There's not so much for you to do,
For Green to Port keeps clear of you.

For Port and Starboard lights
Port wine should be left alone when it is red
(port (left) red, so starboard (right) green).

For remembering which side is Port and which is Starbaord
When on deck and facing the front of the ship, the "port" side is always to the left, just as after dinner port wine is always traditionally passed around the table to the left.
The "port" light is always red, just as port wine is always red.
Other simple ways to recall port and starboard sides are:
StaRboaRd is Right." (ie. 2R=Right)
or
The ship's left port
or
Port has less letters than Starboard as does Left have less letters than Right