Comments on: Resistance is Futile

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 17:56:23 +0000

Due to its sheer relevance to physics, “BLACK BODY RADIATION” (commemt # 23) receives my vote. Please do not let “BUSH BOYS” (comment#29or#30) win another election, even if it yields a rather unflattering victory.

By: RedDragon

RedDragon — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 03:20:52 +0000

Bring
Back
Rubber
Or
Your
Gender
Bending
Vinyl
Gets
Wet

Hehe. Sorry. The words just came out of nowhere.

By: RedDragon

RedDragon — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 03:16:40 +0000

Bush
Boys
React
Over
Your
Gender
By
Victimising
Good
Women

By: RedDragon

RedDragon — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 03:14:38 +0000

Just an idea:

Bush
Boys
React
Over
Your
Gender
But
Via
Global
War

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:28:44 +0000

Joida, I agree with your analysis that Stephen’s “BAD BEN RUNS OVER YOUR GARDEN. VENGEANCE GROWS WITHIN” is one of the best mnemonics in the bunch. Furthermore, I agree with your analysis that memory plays the most valuable role in the value of the mnemonic. However, I would like to add a modifier to Stephen’s mnemonic. I would like to modify “BAD BEN” to “BIG BEN” simply because when I think of “BIG BEN” I think of England. In turn, when I think of England, I think of beautiful English gardens. In turn, when I think of English gardens, I think of “YOUR GARDEN.”

By: Joida

Joida — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:15:21 +0000

but this one’s still better (despite my analysis)…

Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes West!

By: Joida

Joida — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:10:55 +0000

This one from Stephen (with typo correction) is my favourite:

Bad Ben Runs Over Your Garden. Vengeance Grows Within.

I think it’s the easiest one to remember because it’s divided into two logical parts (longer sentences are more difficult to remember) that are complete and well-constructed sentences without redundant words (redundant words and awkward sentences make it more difficult to remember), it’s a coherent narrative, it’s easy to picture the narrative, there’s a single action and consequent emotion (running over garden, vengeance) that can be easily identified with, there are a lot of poetic sound resonances (making it easier to memorize), and it’s kinda funny (depending on how you picture it).

By: Burrow

Burrow — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 19:22:06 +0000

These are great. Now I’m going to have to try and come up with one, but there have been a few that I may use. I hate the old ones.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 17:20:03 +0000

General remark:- There is no time limit to making comments on posts. They all get read by several readers, via the “recent comments” in the sidebar .
thanks for posting.

No Thread is Dead.

-cvj

By: Mostafa

Mostafa — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 17:16:57 +0000

Unfortunately I read this post lately, and so I’m not sure
if anyone reads this comment, but if so, I thought one my enjoy this one that I
invented:
Black body radiation observation yielded grasping beyond violet. Great work!
It may sound not much like a mnemonic, but it’s more relevant to physics after
all, and I think it’s very easy to memorize, especially for physics students!
In Persian, we actually have some (nearly romantic) poems for it.

By: serial catowner

serial catowner — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 00:22:14 +0000

I don’t even build circuits, but “Better be right or your big venture goes west” stuck right in my brain. I think I’ll be using it a lot.

By: cynic

cynic — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 09:39:30 +0000

A more subtle test for ‘Cosmic Variance and its collection of clever, hip and witty readers’ – who said irony was dead – how few words need one change in the offending original to render it sanitised, or at least to re-direct the full force of its offense elsewhere? Presumably one might start by turning one of the Bs to Bush

By: Arun M

Arun M — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 05:40:02 +0000

This is what I was taught by my teacher back in India:

B.B Roy Great Britain Very Good Wife.

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 05:33:17 +0000

Kristin – I like your line of thought!

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 04:48:02 +0000

For what it’s worth, my freshman physics professor just told us that there was an anagram, but that it was too vulgar for civilized people to repeat. Maybe his behavior defies his conservative stereotype: he was old, white, and had a beard that rivaled Boltzmann’s (or so I imagined).

As a theorist, the only time knowing the existence of a color-coding for resistors was useful came during my oral qualifying exam. The 1 experimentalist gave me a circuit element and asked me to identify it. The 2 theorists objected saying, “He shouldn’t need to know how to do that!” Joking, I said, “Well, it can’t be a resistor because it doesn’t have any colored bands. It can’t be a capacitor because it doesn’t say X microfarads.” After some prompting, the experimentalist gave me a voltmeter and eventually got me to place it on the circuit element 2 different ways. From the fact that current only flowed 1 way, I concluded it was a diode. Then I filibustered by spouting everything I knew about semiconductors. Luckily time was up in 5 minutes (as I was running on fumes) and the experimentalist was impressed. Thank God for low expectations.

Anyone who tells you there is no bull$&!* in physics must have been exempt from oral examination (and not yet attended enough workshops/conferences).

By: Aaron Bergman

Aaron Bergman — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 03:01:46 +0000

Isn’t this why god invented ohmmeters?

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 02:53:40 +0000

Big Boils Residing On Your Girlfriend’s Butt Victoriously Grow Worse

By: TorbjÃ¶rn Larsson

TorbjÃ¶rn Larsson — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 02:36:24 +0000

Interesting. I find it harder to invest time in a memnonic than learning by rote. OTOH, that type of memory probably fades more quickly.

In this case I’ve never heard of any local memnonic, probably because the largest electronic supplier prints the color code on the spine of its booklet. It’s a win-win situation to acquire a booklet for every room.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 00:10:26 +0000

Bad Beer Ruined Our Youth: Grown-ups Buy Very Good Wine. Which, of course, means the opposite of the kind that comes in boxes.

By: Jeff Nuttall

Jeff Nuttall — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 23:39:36 +0000

Whoops…the line breaks disappeared between the preview and the actual post for some reason. Um…let me try that again.

Buffalo Bill
Rests On Your Grill
But Van Gogh Will