This article contains a list of notable mnemonics used to remember various objects, lists, etc.
Astronomy
Order of planets from the Sun: (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
obsolete (per the IAU definition of planet): Most Vegetables Eat More Juice So Usually Never Pee My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Potatoes Many Vicious Elephants Met Just Slightly Under New Pineapples My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets Mark's Very Extravagant Mother Just Sent Us Ninety Parakeets Mother Very Eagerly Made A (Asteroids) Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest Many Volcanoes Erupt Molten Jam Sandwiches Usually Not Palatable Since the IAU change the definition of a planet and relegated Pluto to the status of minor planet, the following has gained popularity My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos Mary's Violet Eyes Make John Stay Up Nights Stellar classification sequence: O B A F G K M R N S Oh Be A Fine Girl/Guy, Kiss Me Right Now, Sweetheart!
Revised stellar classification sequence: O B A F G K M L T Y Old, Bald, And Fat Generals Kiss More Ladies Than You
Signs of the zodiac:James M. Russell, Never Eat Shredded Wheat: Weird Ways to Remember Things, Michael O'Mara Books, 18 Oct 2018 {| ||(Aries,||Taurus,||Gemini,||Cancer,||Leo,||Virgo,||Libra, |Scorpio,||Sagittarius,||Capricorn,||Aquarius,||Pisces) |- | A||Tense||Grey||Cat||Lays|| Very||Low, |Sneaking||Slowly,||Contemplating|| A||Pounce.
Biology
To remember the order of taxa in biology (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, [Variety]): "Dear King Philip Came Over For Good Soup" is often cited as a non-vulgar method for teaching students to memorize the taxonomic classification of system.E.D. Hirsch, Jr., The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Houghton Mifflin, 1993); E.D. Hirsch, Jr., "What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Fifth-grade Education" (Doubleday, 2005) p308Scott Hagwood, Memory Power: You Can Develop a Great Memory--America's Grand Master Shows You How (Simon & Schuster, 2007) Other variations tend to start with the mythical king, with one author noting "The nonsense about King Philip, or some ribald version of it, has been memorized by generations of biology students".Robert A. Wallace, et al., Biology, the Science of Life (Scott, Foresman, 1986) p398 Dear King Philip Claps Often For Good Science Dark King Prawns Curl Over Fresh Green Salad Do Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Silk? Dumb Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Greasy Spinach Do Kindly Place Cover On Fresh Green Spring Vegetables Darn Kernel Panics Crash Our Family Game System Do Keep Pond Clean Or Frog Gets Sick Dumb Kids Play Catch Over Father's Grave Stone Daniel Keeps Philip Cat On Friday Getting Salsa Dumb Kids Pushing Cups Over Feeds Growing Spite To remember the processes that define living things: MRS GREN: Movement; Respiration; Sensation; Growth; Reproduction; Excretion; Nutrition To remember the number of humps on types of camels:Psychology: Concepts and Connections, Spencer Rathus D in Dromedary has one hump; B in Bactrian has two To recognize poison ivy Leaves of three, leave it be. Hairy vine, no friend of mine. COWS stand for Cold Opposite Warm Same, which are the relation between the components of the Caloric reflex test To memorise DNA/nucleotide base pairs Tigers Are Great Cats, first letters of the word pairs (T-A, G-C) stand for base pairs. To memorise the types of antibodies GAMED: IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE, IgD To memorise the first six fields of sequence match records in a SAM file (Query, Flags, Reference name, Position, Mapping quality, CIGAR): Queen Felicity Rarely Plays Multi-dimensional Chess
Chemistry
To recall the names of the first 20 elements in the periodic table: Harry, he likes beer by cupfuls, not over frothy, never nasty mugs allowed. Since past six closing, are kegs cancelled?
(H, He, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, Ar, K, Ca.)
To remember the electrodes on which oxidation and reduction occurs (An Ox, Red Cat)
An Ox (Oxidation at Anode)
Red Cat (Reduction at Cathode)
To remember the different charges of the anode and cathode in electrolysis (PANIC): Positive Anode Negative Is Cathode
AN OIL RIG CAT: At the ANode, Oxidation Involves electron Loss. Reduction Involves electron Gain at the CAThode.
CHON: to remember the four most common elements in organisms Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen
CHNOPS: to remember the six most common elements in organisms Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Sulfur
Engineering
For the EIA electronic color code, Black(0), Brown(1), Red(2), Orange(3), Yellow(4), Green(5), Blue(6), Violet(7), Gray(8), White(9), Gold(5%), Silver(10%), None(20%)
Big brown rabbits often yield great big vocal groans when gingerly slapped Bad boys run our young girls behind victory garden walls B. B. Roy [of] Great Britain [has] Very Good Wife. A mnemonic to remember which way to turn common (right-hand thread) screws and nuts, including light bulbs, is "Righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey"; another is "Right on, Left off". For the OSI Network Layer model Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away correspond to the Physical, Datalink, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation and Application layers. For power in watts: Twinkle twinkle little star, Power equals I (current) squared R (resistance). "ELI the ICE man": E leads the I in an inductor, I leads the E in a capacitor. Useful in power factor correction.
Geography Both names of the northern major circles of latitude (the Arctic Circle and Tropic of Cancer) have six letters; both southern ones (the Antarctic Circle and Tropic of Capricorn) have nine. The countries of South America in order of largest to smallest by area: Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay, Ecuador, Guyana, Uruguay, Suriname Boring, Average Politics Can Become Very Corrupt. People Everywhere Get Used Sometimes
The countries of Central America from North to South: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama Big Gorillas Eat Hotdogs, Not Cold Pizza Including Mexico, My Grandma's Bunny Eats Hamburgers, Not Canned Peas
The Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea including the eight independent nations and eight larger island territories (and excluding the "ABC" islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), in order generally from northwest to southeast: BUt Angry SaM's StuBborn KNights ABandon Money to Guard Dominant Marines and SteaL SteVe's Barrels of Green Tobacco (British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Martin/Sint Maarten, St. Barthelemy, St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago)
The Great Lakes in order of largest to smallest: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario Super Heroes Must Eat Oats And in order from west to east: Shake My hand Evil Octopus A more common mnemonic for the Great Lakes, disregarding order: Huron Ontario Michigan Erie Superior: HOMES
The principal factors affecting climate: LABDOWA Latitude, Altitude, Build, Distance from the sea, Ocean currents, Wind, Aspect
The countries bordering Germany (clockwise from top): Denmark, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands. Do Polish Checks Always Say "France Look Back Now"! The traditional six counties of Northern Ireland are Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Londonderry, Armagh, and Down. FAT LAD. The northernmost countries of the African continent, from west to east: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt. Most African Tourists Like Elephants. The southernmost provinces of Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland. BASMOQN, pronounced "Baz-Mock-Win"
Geology Geological periods: Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous; Post-Cretaceous Epochs: Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent (Holocene) Pregnant Camels Often Sit Down Carefully, Perhaps Their Joints Creak? Possibly Early Oiling Might Prevent Permanent Rheumatism Paleozoic to Cenozoic: Pregnant Camels Ordinarily Sit Down Carefully, Perhaps Their Joints Creak Post-Cretaceous Epochs: Please Eat Oats My Pretty Pet Horse (Holocene)
Mohs scale of mineral hardness 1-10: For Talc(=1), Gypsum(=2), Calcite(=3), Fluorite(=4), Apatite(=5), Orthoclase(=6), Quartz(=7), Topaz(=8), Corundum(=9), Diamond(=10) Tall Girls Can Fight And Other Queer Things Can Develop TAll GYroscopes CAn FLy APart ORbiting QUickly TO COmplete DIsintegration Toronto Girls Can Flirt And Only Quit To Chase Dwarves Terrible Giants Can Find Alligators Or Quaint Trolls Conveniently Digestible Tall Gene Calls Florence At Our Quarters To Correct Dumbness
Differentiating stalactites from stalagmites. The 'mites go up and the 'tites come down. When one has ants in one's pants, the mites go up and the tights come down. (In a strict scientific sense, a mite is not an ant, although "mite" in common speech can refer to any small creature.) Stalactites hang tight, hang down like tights on a line; stalagmites might bite (if you sit on them), might reach the roof. Tights hang from the Ceiling, and Mites crawl around on the Ground You need might to do push-ups (from the floor). You must hold tight doing chin-ups (off the ceiling). Stalactites are on the ceiling. Stalagmites are on the ground. Stalactites hang tightly ; stalagmites stand mightily.
History Chinese dynasties (simplified): Xia (Hsia), Shang, Zhou (Chou), Qin (Ch'in), Han, Jin, Southern and Northern, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing (Ching) She Shamefully Chose Chinese Hand Jingles (and) SiNfully Sweet Tango Songs: "You (and) Me, Chickadee!"
English dynasties (simplified): Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Windsor No Plan Like Yours To Study History Wisely.
Wives of Henry VIII (names): Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard, Parr All Boys Should Come Home Please Wives of Henry VIII (manner of death): Divorced, beheaded, died / Divorced, beheaded, survived. British nobility rank order (simplified): Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Barons Do Men Ever Visit Boston?
Assassinated US presidents and perpetrators: Lincoln by Booth, Garfield by Guiteau, McKinley by Czolgosz and Kennedy by Oswald. Losers Bearing Grudges Grieve Mainly Cowards Killing Orators
Languages
English
Characteristic sequence of letters I always comes before E (but after C, E comes before I) In most words like friend, field, piece, pierce, mischief, thief, tier, it is "i" which comes before "e". But on some words with c just before the pair of e and i, like receive, perceive, "e" comes before "i". This can be remembered by the following mnemonic,
I before E, except after C
But this is not always obeyed as in case of weird and weigh, weight, height, neighbor etc. and can be remembered by extending that mnemonic as given below
I before E, except after C Or when sounded "A" as in neighbor, weigh and weight Or when sounded like "eye" as in height And "weird" is just weird
Another variant, which avoids confusion when the two letters represent different sounds instead of a single sound, as in atheist or being, runs
When it says ee Put i before e But not after c
Where ever there is a Q there is a U too Most frequently u follows q. e.g.: Que, queen, question, quack, quark, quartz, quarry, quit, Pique, torque, macaque, exchequer. Hence the mnemonic: Where ever there is a Q there is a U too (But this is violated by some words; see:List of English words containing Q not followed by U)
Letters of specific syllables in a word BELIEVE Do not believe a lie. SECRETARY A secretary must keep a secret TEACHER There is an ache in every teacher. MEASUREMENT Be sure of your measurements before you start work. FRIEND Fri the end of your friendSPECIAL