List of visual mnemonics

Last updated July 14, 2023

Visual mnemonics are a type of mnemonic that work by associating an image with characters or objects whose name sounds like the item that has to be memorized.

Examples

Digits

Digits can be memorized by their shapes, so that: 0 -looks like an egg, or a ball; 1 -a pencil, or a candle; 2 -a duck, or a swan; 3 -an ear; a pair of pouted lips. 4 -a sail, a yacht; 5 -a key; 6 -a comet; 7 -a knee; 8 -a snowman, or a pair of glasses; 9 -an apostrophe, or comma.

Biochemistry

Biochemical cycles (i.e., the urea cycle or the citric acid cycle) and their metabolites can be represented by means of hands and fingers (visual imagery mnemonics) which are associated to tales (narrative mnemonics). A hand, depending on its characteristics (e.g. having or not having a fingernail or a nail lunula), represents a biochemical structure and its associated chemical term.
A visual mnemonic for the drug hydralazine could be represented as "lazy hydra" that is lying on a beach holding a sign "NO more work". "NO" in the above case symbolizes Nitric oxide, which is related to the drug's mechanism of action.
The symbols for the thirteen macronutrient elements in biology spell CHOPKINS CaFe Mg NaCl, or C. Hopkins Cafe [food tastes] m[ighty] g[ood] with salt (NaCl). Note however, that this popular and useful mnemonic^[1] is typical in that it is neither comprehensive nor context-free. Classification of some elements, such as Na, Cl and Fe, as macro- or micronutrients is arbitrary; it depends on the organisms in question, and there are several biologically important micronutrients not mentioned.

Zoology

An African elephant's ears are large and shaped like Africa, while an Asian elephant's ears are small and shaped like India.

A Bactrian Camel's back is shaped like the letter B. A Dromedary's back is shaped like the letter D.

:A Bactrian camel
:A Dromedary camel

The species of salmon can be remembered through the fingers on the hand: chum is the thumb, sockeye is your index finger (like poking someone in the eye), king is your middle finger (the largest of the fingers), silver is your ring finger, pink is the pinky finger. ^[2]

Calendar

Knuckle mnemonic Knucklemnemonic.jpg — Knuckle mnemonic

A mnemonic for the number of days in each month uses the knuckles (and the dips between them) of two fists, held together, moving right from the left pinky knuckle. The raised knuckles can be seen as the 31-day months, the dips between them as the 30-day-months (and February). The gap between the hands ignored. (Thus: left-hand-pinky-knuckle = January, dip = February, left-hand-ring-knuckle = March, dip = April, and so on to left-hand-index-knuckle = July; then continue with right-hand-index-knuckle = August, dip = September, etc.).
The order of leap years in the Hebrew calendar can be compared to white keys on a keyboard. In the key of C, white keys represent leap years if every half-step between white key indicating 1 whole year between leap years and a whole-step between white keys indicates two complete years between leap years. For a total of 7 leap years for every 19 years beginning with C as year 0/year 19 in the cycle.

Phases of the Moon

"DOC" represents phases of the Moon by shape as viewed from the northern hemisphere: "D" is the waxing moon; "O" the full moon; and "C" represent the waning moon.
A simple English saying is "Dog comes in (the room), Cat goes out".
Holding one's hand up vertically against the crescent moon, the "baby" or waxing moon will form a lower-case "b", and the "dying" moon will form a lower-case "d".
In the Southern Hemisphere, the moon phases appear in reverse, with the sequence being "COD" - "C" is the waxing moon; "O" the full moon; and "D" the waning moon.
From an astronomical point of view, remember the alternative name "Charles' Wain" for the Big Dipper- "wain" being pronounced just like "wane".

Other languages

A Lithuanian mnemonic is that the waxing moon at its first (lith:priešpilnis) quarter phase looks like a 'p', and the waning moon at its last (lith:delčia) quarter looks like a 'd'.
A French mnemonic is that the waxing moon at its first (fr:premier) quarter phase looks like a 'p', and the waning moon at its last (fr:dernier) quarter looks like a 'd'. A more childlike mnemonic explains that the moon is a liar: the waxing moon looks like an upper-case D, which would correspond to the French verb décroître (meaning: to shrink) but since she (the moon) is une menteuse (a liar) she is in fact doing the opposite: growing. The waning moon looks like a(n upper-case) C, corresponding to the word croître (meaning: to grow), but will be a lie and therefore mean that the moon is 'shrinking'.
In Germany, the curve of the moon was traditionally compared to the beginning stroke of the handwritten small letters a (Abnehmen = waning) and z (Zunehmen = waxing), but since this really makes sense only when thinking of the obsolete German handwriting it is rapidly falling into disuse.
A more modern German version compares the moon to a pair of round brackets (German: Klammern):

( = Klammer auf–> Abnehmen = waning

) = Klammer zu–> Zunehmen = waxing

Another Northern Hemisphere mnemonic, which works for most Romance languages, says that the moon is a liar: it spells "C", as in crescere (Latin for "to grow") when it wanes, and "D" as in decrescere ("decrease") when it waxes. Alternatively, it is said that ancient Romans explained that Gods looked at the vault of heaven from above (behind), so they read the letters mirrored.
In the Southern Hemisphere, in Spanish-speaking countries, the C represents "Creciente" (waxing) and D "Decreciente" (waning).
In the Polish language and Czech language, the D and C can be interpreted as verbs describing the Moon's action: Księżyc się ... (The moon is ...) Dopełnia (waxing) and Cofa (waning); in Czech Měsíc ... (The moon is ...) Dorůstá (waxing) and Couvá (waning). Also, in Polish one might remember that Księżyc będzie ... (The moon will be ...) Duży (big) or Cienki (thin).
A Russian mnemonic is that the waxing moon is right part of letter 'Р', which is the first letter of word растущая (growing), and the waning moon looks like 'C' which is first letter of the word стареющая (getting old).
A Norwegian mnemonic is "When it looks like a comma, it's coming!" (nor: Når han ser ut som et komma, så kom'an / kom'ern!).
In Hebrew the shape of the letter is also correlated to what the rising and waning moon. It is rising when it looks like the cursive ז which is also the first word in זורח (to rise) and the moon is waning when it looks like the cursive ג which is also the first work of גורע (to take away).

::Beginning
::Descending

Right/left hand mnemonics

When both hands are held up palm out, thumbs stuck out perpendicular to fingers, the Left hand is the one that makes the shape of the letter L.
In electromagnetism, right and left hand rules are used to find the direction of force and current respectively. Here the hands are used as an aid for remembering the directions of force and current.
The right hand thumb rule is another hand mnemonic. Here the curled hand is used and the fingers points in the direction of magnetic field when thumb points the direction of current through the conductor.

Fleming's right hand rule
Fleming's left hand rule for motors
Right hand thumb rule
Determining the direction of induced currents

Related Research Articles

A month is a unit of time, used with calendars, that is approximately as long as a natural orbital period of the Moon; the words month and Moon are cognates. The traditional concept arose with the cycle of Moon phases; such lunar months ("lunations") are synodic months and last approximately 29.53 days. From excavated tally sticks, researchers have deduced that people counted days in relation to the Moon's phases as early as the Paleolithic age. Synodic months, based on the Moon's orbital period with respect to the Earth–Sun line, are still the basis of many calendars today, and are used to divide the year.

A mnemonicdevice, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.

In mathematics and physics, the right-hand rule is a common mnemonic for understanding the orientation of axes in three-dimensional space. It is also a convenient method for quickly finding the direction of the cross product of two vectors. Rather than a mathematical fact, it is a convention, closely related to the convention that rotation around a vertical axis is positive if it is counterclockwise and negative if it is clockwise.

Piphilology comprises the creation and use of mnemonic techniques to remember many digits of the mathematical constant $π$ . The word is a play on the word "pi" itself and of the linguistic field of philology.

In the sport of cricket, a slower ball is a slower-than-usual delivery from a fast bowler. The bowler's intention is to deceive the batsman into playing too early so that he either misses the ball completely or hits it high up in the air to offer an easy catch. It is analogous to a changeup in baseball.

Several manual alphabets in use around the world employ two hands to represent some or all of the letters of an alphabet, usually as a part of a deaf sign language. Two-handed alphabets are less widespread than one-handed manual alphabets. They may be used to represent the Latin alphabet or the Cyrillic alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hook 'em Horns</span>

Hook 'em Horns is the chant and hand signal of The University of Texas at Austin. Students, alumni, and fans of the university employ a greeting consisting of the phrase "Hook 'em" or "Hook 'em Horns" and also use the phrase as a parting good-bye or as the closing line in a letter or story.

The PLUM keyboard is a keyboard layout which varies from the traditional QWERTY keyboard in both physical key layout and letter arrangement. Unlike most keyboards, the PLUM keyboard organizes keys in a square grid, as opposed to the staggered rows of a typewriter. Though the Plum Keyboard is currently off-line, it is still being promoted.

The sign of the horns is a hand gesture with a variety of meanings and uses in various cultures. It is formed by extending the index and little fingers while holding the middle and ring fingers down with the thumb.

In medieval music, the Guidonian hand was a mnemonic device used to assist singers in learning to sight-sing. Some form of the device may have been used by Guido of Arezzo, a medieval music theorist who wrote a number of treatises, including one instructing singers in sightreading. The hand occurs in some manuscripts before Guido's time as a tool to find the semitone; it does not have the depicted form until the 12th century. Sigebertus Gemblacensis in c. 1105–1110 did describe Guido using the joints of the hand to aid in teaching his hexachord. The Guidonian hand is closely linked with Guido's new ideas about how to learn music, including the use of hexachords, and the first known Western use of solfège.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleming's right-hand rule</span> Mnemonic for the direction of induced current in a moving magnetic field

In electromagnetism, Fleming's right-hand rule shows the direction of induced current when a conductor attached to a circuit moves in a magnetic field. It can be used to determine the direction of current in a generator's windings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleming's left-hand rule for motors</span> Mnemonic to determine motion direction

Fleming's left-hand rule for electric motors is one of a pair of visual mnemonics, the other being Fleming's right-hand rule. They were originated by John Ambrose Fleming, in the late 19th century, as a simple way of working out the direction of motion in an electric motor, or the direction of electric current in an electric generator.

"Thirty Days Hath September", or "Thirty Days Has September", is a traditional verse mnemonic used to remember the number of days in the months of the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It arose as an oral tradition and exists in many variants. It is currently earliest attested in English, but was and remains common throughout Europe as well. Full:

The pakhavaj is a barrel-shaped, two-headed drum, originating from the Indian subcontinent, the oldest version of double sided drums and its descendants are mridangam of Southern India and kendang of Maritime Southeast Asia and other South Asian double-headed drums. Its older forms were made with clay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microwriter</span> Hand-held portable word-processor with a chording keyboard

The Microwriter is a hand-held portable word-processor with a chording keyboard. First demonstrated in 1978, it was invented by UK-based, US-born film director Cy Endfield and his partner Chris Rainey and was marketed in the early 1980s by Microwriter Ltd, of Mitcham, Surrey, UK. By using a mnemonic alphabet, it was claimed to allow note-taking of up to 8,000 characters at an input rate averaging 1.5 times that of handwriting.

A planetary mnemonic refers to a phrase created to remember the planets and dwarf planets of the Solar System, with the order of words corresponding to increasing sidereal periods of the bodies. One simple visual mnemonic is to hold out both hands side-by-side with thumbs in the same direction. The fingers of hand with palm down represent the terrestrial planets where the left pinkie represents Mercury and its thumb represents the asteroid belt, including Ceres. The other hand represents the gas giants, with its thumb representing Trans Neptunian objects, including Pluto.

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala are often described as having "hands" instead of paws on their front limbs. The raccoon is usually described as having "hands" though opposable thumbs are lacking.

References

↑ Robinson, Gordon. The Forest and the Trees. Island Press 1988. ISBN 978-0933280403
↑ "How to Remember the Types of Salmon Species Using the 5 Finger Method".

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[1] Robinson, Gordon. The Forest and the Trees. Island Press 1988. ISBN 978-0933280403

[2] "How to Remember the Types of Salmon Species Using the 5 Finger Method".

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