Memorization Tricks and Tips

[Darb]

Anyone have any unique and amusing ways to remember various odd tidbits of information ?

Here's one that just popped into my mind (something I worked out a long time ago, and which recurred to me because I recently purchased a deep-cycle gel battery).

AREA: Automotive

WHAT: What's the correct way to hook up jumper cables to use 1 car to jumpstart the dead battery of another ? (note: everyone invariably thinks it's +2+ & -2-, but that's actually incorrect - it will indeed jump a car, but after the latter is running it can trigger battery damage/explosion if left on more than a fairly short time)

MEMORY TRICK: "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust ... positive to positive and negative to ground." {I believe that basically hooks them in series, rather than in parallel}

Memory tricks abound in mixology (bartending) ...

AREA: Mixology

WHAT: Ingredients for a kamikaze

MEMORY TRICK: Kamikaze have Very Little Time ... Vodka, plus a little Lime juice and Triple sec.

I could rattle off a dozen of those with ease, even though I havent bartended with any degree of regularity in 10+ years.

[voralfred]

AREA: Speleology

WHAT: Stalactites and stalagmites, you know what they are, projections of calcium carbonates that go either down from the ceiling or up from the floor in caves. But which are which?

MEMORY TRICK: Unfortunately only works for french speakers: stalacTites "Tombent" (fall down), stalagMites "Montent" (go up).

Can anyone find and english equivalent? I am at a loss for words

[Kvetch]

There are a few variants I know:

Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling (and stalagmites might one day join up with them)

StalaCtites are attached to the ceiling, stalaGmites to the ground.

[laurie]

There are a few variants I know:

Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling (and stalagmites might one day join up with them)

That's the one I learned in grammar school.

[tollbaby]

AREA: Speleology

WHAT: Stalactites and stalagmites, you know what they are, projections of calcium carbonates that go either down from the ceiling or up from the floor in caves. But which are which?

MEMORY TRICK: Unfortunately only works for french speakers: stalacTites "Tombent" (fall down), stalagMites "Montent" (go up).

Can anyone find and english equivalent? I am at a loss for words

From the Berenstain Bears:

Stalactites and stalagmites, only caves have got'em.
Stalactites are on the top, and 'mites are on the bottom!

[nzilla]

I recently had to take a laughably simple geography test (scored 85/80 counting extra credit, BTW) and there were just a few things I needed mnemonics to help remember.

To distinguish the relative locations of Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake, I made allusions to U.S. history circa 1860.

For the locations of the Great Lakes between the U.S. and Canada, I just memorized the phrase "Sally must hate everyone." (From west to east, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario)

For the locations of Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and the Three Sisters in Oregon, well... that one got rather dirty and a bit disturbing.

[Greabo Girl]

Well, for me, the most important mnemonic is Big Elephants Can Always Use Scissors Easily. Actually, I've always found 'because' to be hard to spell (it's one of those things that *always* slips my mind, I dunno why).

Other than that, I use BIG BOTTOM TOP for fractions (BIGXBOTTOM/TOP and similar things to remind me when to divide and multiply and stuff) and DUST for calculating speed, distance and time (Speed= distance over time. When you put it into a triangle with D at the top, it almost spells dust).

I did have one for PPMCC but, right at the moment SATS preparation starts, I've forgotten it...

[nzilla]

I always just remember "be cause" as in "it be the cause."

[DairyPirate]

I use a few to remember some chemistry topics.

Me Eat Peanut Butter

Methane Ethane Propane Butane

That helps me remember the number of carbons in each (1 in methane, 2 in ethane, 3 in propane, 4 in butane).

Also a few other such as Red Cat which means Reduction occurs at the Cathode.

[daetara]

i always remember the seven deadly sins as WASPLEG:

Wrath
Avarice
Sloth
Pride
Lust
Envy
Gluttony

i also have various tricks for music-related stuff, but that tends to be useful only to people who perform/write music. heck, i hardly even use most of it.

[mccormack44]

Do they still teach Every Good Boy Does Fine for the lines in the Treble Clef Staff and Fanny Can Go Down And Eat Breakfast for the placement of sharps on that same staff? And I think it is BEAD for the placement of flats.

The first two have stuck with me all my life (I had my first piano lessons at age 5, but may have learned some of this even earlier from my father).

I don't truly know how useful these were, but the point of mnemonics is that they make the information stick! These certainly did.

Sue

[daetara]

yes, except that it's usually fred or frank that goes down for breakfast.

they helped me learn, that's for sure.

[voralfred]

Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me

lists the main sequence stars from hotter to cooler

[wolfspirit]

Our astronomy class has a X-rated version of that

Scott

[daetara]

Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me

lists the main sequence stars from hotter to cooler

okay, and that would be what?

[wolfspirit]

the sequence of tempature from hottest to coolest.

In actuality A -> Z order of that same sequence is the strength of the lines of hydrogen emission for a star.

Scott

[Evaine]

Police constables attending traffic accidents (in the Met, at least, twenty years ago) had a mnemonic for the order of things they should ask the drivers of the cars. The menemonic was PRIMROSE, and I'm pretty sure the I was Insurance (as in, have you got any?), but I don't remember the rest.

[Noddy]

Evaine, completely off-topic (sorry everyone!) but was looking at your blog and noticed you had a dog called Islay - any connection to the Scottish island?

[daetara]

the sequence of tempature from hottest to coolest.

okay, give me SOME credit for intelligence, here! i was looking for specifics. like when i said i remembered the seven deadly sins by WASPLEG...i didn't leave it at that, i spelled out the sins in that order. so what does O mean, and B mean, etc?

[wolfspirit]

the sequence of tempature from hottest to coolest.

okay, give me SOME credit for intelligence, here! i was looking for specifics. like when i said i remembered the seven deadly sins by WASPLEG...i didn't leave it at that, i spelled out the sins in that order. so what does O mean, and B mean, etc?

They were from a previous classification system. At first, they were classified on the strength of the hydrogen emission lines. This would be putting the letters in A -> Z order. Once the astronomers figured out that this ordering had nothing to do with the actual temperature of the stars, they worked on combining the catagories into the actual tempature ranges, and then they ordered them in order from hottest to coldest.

So really, O mean F***ing hot, M means not so hot. Nothing more.

Scott

[voralfred]

Our astronomy class has a X-rated version of that

Scott

Please PM it to me (or post it in TVR, that would be fun)

[voralfred]

Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me

lists the main sequence stars from hotter to cooler

okay, and that would be what?

Well the hottest stars in the sky, that look blueish to the eye, are "O"; a bit cooler, whitish, ones, are "B" like Rigel (Orions's right foot) or "A" like Vega, yellowish ones are "F" or, like our own sun, "G", still cooler, orange ones, like Arcturus are "K" and reddish ones like Antares or Betelgeuse (Orion's left shoulder) are "M".

See, for instance ,Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_class

I always thought Rigel was "O" but Wikipedia told me I was wrong, it is only "B". If you know how to recognize Orion, a quadrangle of four bright stars, not quite a rectangle, slightly tilted, with a "belt" of three medium-bright stars across the middle, with the upper left and lower right stars even brighter than the two others, well even with the naked eye you see that the "shoulder" is reddish (Betelgeuse, "M") while the "foot" is very white, even blueish (Rigel, "B")

Unless you live in Australia, of course. Curiously, Orion looks much the same, there, it is practivally the unique constellation to do so. But now the left shoulder is bleuish-white, and the right foot is reddish! I always was fascinated by Orion, when I went to Australia.

Edit: and in NZ, too, of course, apologies to our Kiwi friends for having forgotten to mention them, as well as anyone else from down below... but Australia is the only place south of the equator I ever went.

[tollbaby]

Can anybody give me a trick to remember what I did five minutes ago?

[DocKurtz]

I've had to recall a lot of these over the past few years now that I have kids in school:

This one's a little racey. Too racey to share with my younger children yet:

Spoiler: show

Need to remember Horizontal and Verticle - which is which ... whores lay on their backs alot (my dad told me that one and I've only passed it on to my 13 year old to date).

Which months have 31 days w\o remembering the poem (that was harder for me to remember than the months themselves)? Name them off on the knuckles of one closed fist. The first knuckle is January (it's tall so it's a 31), the dip between the first and second is Feb (its a valley so it doesn't have 31), March is the next knuckle (31) and April is another valley (30) ... when you get to July you start with the first knuckle again (August) thus addressing the arrogance of the Caesars. It works wonders.

There is also one for the planets that almost escapes me but I think is: My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and (I still count) Pluto.

Of course there is the everlasting ROY G BIV for the colors of the rainbow.

Spring ahead and fall back for Day Light Savings time.

The final one that comes to mind is easy for me to remember (my RL name is Michael). Need to remember which comes first, Memorial Day or Labor Day? Just think of me. The M comes first in Michael and the L comes at the end (Memorial Day at the beginning of summer and Labor Day at the end).

-Doc

[DocKurtz]

The final one that comes to mind is easy for me to remember (my RL name is Michael). Need to remember which comes first, Memorial Day or Labor Day? Just think of me. The M comes first in Michael and the L comes at the end (Memorial Day at the beginning of summer and Labor Day at the end).

Rereading this reminds me ... a lot of people can't remember how to spell Michael; they confuse the a and e ... those that care to remember just need to remember it is alphabetical

-Doc