h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Mnemonics - A2786321
Author: radioactiveBIGAL1 - on a different planet - U723247

Although there are Guide articles with the same/similar names, they do not cover the meaning of the word 'mnemonic' as explicitly as I have.

Also, I have caregorised my mnemonics into an alphabetic list of subject areas; i.e. Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry to make it more user-friendly.

I am intending to continually update this site as people send me new mnemonics.

That resistor colour-code one is going to have to go, because although it was popular thirty odd years ago, times have moved on. How about 'Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go: Birmingham Via Great Western?'

As for pi: 'How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics' generally does for most people.

Hello Felonius Monk,

I wondered whether the 'resistor' one might be too politically incorrect. In fact, the original one that I had was arguably even more so. I might change it.

As regards pi, I TRIED TO FIND A MNEMONIC THAT WAS NOT DESCRIBED ELSEWHERE ON H2G2. aLSO, GOOD MNEMONICS INCLUDE SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT THE MNEMONIC ITSELF IS ABOUT. Hence I favour, for example, 'My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets' for the solar system in orsder from the Sun.

Sorry about change to capials, I'm wrestling with a new keyboard whuich doesn't light up when I'm in capitals!

Stephen Jay Gould's book about the Burgess shale, "Wonderful Life", has a great one for the geological time scale, created by one of his students, and written in the form of a review of an adult art show:

"Cheap Meat" Performs Passably
Quenching The Celibate's Jejune Thirst
Portraiture, Presented Massably,
Drowning Sorrow, Oneness Cursed.


Cenozoic, Mezozoic, Paleozoic, Precambrian
Quaternary, Tertiary, Cretacious, Jurrasic, Triassic
Permian, Pennsylvanian, Missisipian
Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician, Cambrian.

PoSoCaMaAlZiIrTiLeHyCoMeSiGoPt (potassium sodium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, zinc, iron, tin, lead, hydrogen, copper, mercury, silver, gold, platinum).

We always used 'Peter says "Call my artheritic zebra 'The Lord High Chancellor'", Mum said "Good Peter".'

I'll include that.

It's a great Entry; but I have to query the quoting of so much of Tom Lehrer. In the first place, because it may be failed on copyright grounds, although that can be left to the Italics; in the second, because it seems odd to quote so much of it and then chop off the end ('And cadmium...').

Good otherwise, though.

Did I chop some off? - I'll have a look.

I wiondered myself about including so much of Tom Lehrer, especially as it's questionable whether his song is really a mnemonic. The reason I did is that I'm a chemist. I may try to find somehere elsewhere in 'My Space' where I can include it.

Hi

Here's something for the'circle of fifths', specifically the order in which sharps should be added to the key signature at the beginning of notation;

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle (F# C# G# D# A# E# B#)

and if you reverse it, it gives you the order of flats;

Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father (Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb Fb)

Hope it helps

Regret to say I don't understand music, so I don't really know what that meansd. Anyway, I'll definitely include it.

Why don't you link to A593110 (Periodic Table) instead of webelements.com? Also, I don't understand what is so mnemonic about the Tom Lehrer song...

Cheerio,

HELL

You've given a good introduction, defining Mnemonic and giving its origin, but you then go on to give lists of mnemonics, many of which are already in the existing Edited Entry on Mnemonics. It seems to me, you should be updating the original rather than writing a new one and duplicating a lot of what is in the original.

If this is intended for the edited guide, you'll have to take out the pictures.

Resistors are not fuses. Fuses have their own (diferent) colour scheme.

Your plug wiring is a bit suspect as well, since there is no red wire in modern plugs. The live wire is brown.

<smiley type ="Ta"> for those two points. I did think about editing one of the others but, although some of the entries are duplicated, wherever possible I've tried new ones.

Decided to rename this article as 'Categorised Mnemonics' as it describes more accurately ewhat I'm attempting to do.

Just added a new one which I heard on radio this a.m. - about how to recall the difference between a camel and a dromedary. I listed it under 'Biology'

Also, this was one of my earlier Guide Entries, and I've realised I haven't put the paragraph tags in correctly. I'll get around to this.

BigAl. Very nice overhaul! I like the chapters. Just one thing: I think you'll have to drop or change the 'mediterranean countries' list. Where's France, Spain, Lybia, Israel and Greece (not to mention Malta and Cyprus)? Since when is Hungary Mediterranean (it has no border with any major piece of water)? And since when is Sicily a country? C'mon... Let's face it, it's a nice word-play with boots and hunger and eating turkey... But as a mnemonic it's quite dodgy.



HELL

Yeah, I fear you're right. I might leave it in with a comment together with those provisos
(with some historical note), or I might drop it altogether.

P.S, Regarding Gnomon's comment (post 13), I've seen several E.G. articles which contain pictures or even 'blobs'.

The pictures are created *for* the Edited Entries during the Editing process. The Entries were originally without the pictures. (OK, unless they were from the collaborative, which already had a picture...) Anyways, It's not like there is a big picture bank and you can choose one - at least not if you want it to become Edited. Edited entries have their own individual picture. Well... At least that's how I understood the Guideline.

HELL