Mnemonics

Mnemonics are devices to help us remember (aide memoire or memory aide). They come in many varieties and flavours, and can aid memorisation of many types of information. This section concentrates on mnemonics related to words and numbers

Where there is something to remember, mnemonics can be put to use. You will find them in every discipline from music, medicine, biology, and electronics to spelling, physics, geography, and remembering telephone numbers! 

Spelling Acronyms
The following mnemonics are sentences or phrases in which the initial letters of the words spell out a word which many people find rather tricky to spell.

BECAUSE
Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants

ARITHMETIC
A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream

GEOGRAPHY
General Eisenhower's Oldest Girl Rode A Pony Home Yesterday

RHYTHM
Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move

NECESSARY
Not Every Cat Eats Sardines (Some Are Really Yummy)

ARGUMENT
A Rude Girl Undresses; My Eyes Need Taping!

OCEAN
Only Cats' Eyes Are Narrow


And a neat way to remember how to spell POTASSIUM: just remember one tea, two sugars. You can use a similar aide memoire to prevent confusion between DESERTS (like the Sahara) and DESSERTS (like Tiramisu) by remembering that the sweet one has two sugars.

List Order Acronyms
This is certainly one of the most popular mnemonic techniques.

Order of colours in the rainbow, or visual spectrum:
(Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.

Order of taxonomy in biology:
(Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach.

Order of geological time periods:
(Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent)
Cows Often Sit Down Carefully. Perhaps Their Joints Creak?
Persistent Early Oiling Might Prevent Painful Rheumatism.

Order of Mohs hardness scale, from 1 to 10:
(Talc, Gypsum, Calcite, Fluorite, Apatite, Orthoclase feldspar, Quartz, Topaz, Corundum, Diamond)
Toronto Girls Can Flirt, And Other Queer Things Can Do.

The order of sharps in music, called the "circle of fifths":
(F, C, G, D, A, E, B)
Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.
And in reverse for flat keys the mnemonic can be neatly reversed:
Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father.

The notes represented by the lines on the treble clef stave (bottom to top):
(E, G, B, D, F)
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.
And the notes represented by the spaces between the lines:
(F, A, C, E)
Furry Animals Cook Excellently. Or just the word FACE

The notes represented by the lines on the bass clef stave (bottom to top):
(G, B, D, F, A)
Good Boys Do Fine, Always.
And the notes represented by the spaces between the lines:
(A, C, E, G)
All Cows Eat Grass.

The order of planets in average distance from the Sun:
(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets.