Remembering Facts, Names, Sequence

Mnemonics

I remember that when I am studying science in school we were asked to remember a few things such as the colours of the rainbow, the sequence of the planets and the colour coding for resistors. 

To help us remember, our teacher tell us about mnemonics. What is a mnemonic?

From Wikipedia...
A mnemonic or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids information retention. Mnemonics aim to translate information into a form that the brain can retain better than its original form.

Example of a mnemonic that I can remember is the colours of the spectrum or rainbow:

Royal Of York Gave Battle In Vain 

which helps us to remember the sequence of colours 

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

but some of us just memorize the word VIBGYOR (although it need to be inverted to get the right scientific order)

There are also the Bahasa Malaysia versions. Examples are...

Mari Jual Kacang Hijau Biar I Untung
Minah Janda Kaya Hanya Beli Ikan U

to represent Merah Jingga Kuning Hijau Biru Indigo Ungu

Another memorable subject matter to use mnemonics is the sequence of the planets
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

Example of mnemonics used are...

My Very Earnest Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

There used to be 9 planets including Pluto but now Pluto is downgraded to minor planet. Therefore examples of the 'updated' mnemonics are...

Mean Very Evil Men Just Shortened Up Nature
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos

Other very interesting mnemonic that I found at Wikipedia includes...

Lifecycle of cells...
Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, Cytokinesis
Idiotic Penguins Make Antartica Too Cold

Electronic Colour Code...
Black(0), Brown(1), Red(2), Orange(3), Yellow(4), Green(5), Blue(6), Violet(7), Gray(8), White(9), 
Bill Brown Realised Only Yesterday Good Boys Value Good Work

Geological periods ...

Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous:

Pregnant Camels Ordinarily Sit Down Carefully, Perhaps Their Joints Creak

Mohs scale of mineral hardness...

Talc(=1) Gypsum(=2) Calcite(=3) Fluorite(=4) Apatite(=5) Orthoclase(=6) Quartz(=7) Topaz(=8) Corundum(=9) Diamond(=10)

Toronto Girls Can Flirt And Only Quit To Chase Dwarves .

But one of the most interesting mnemonics that I come across is how to remember the constant 'pi'.

pi = 3.14159265358979

Now I need a drink, milkshake of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics

(originally in college, it is 'alcoholic' instead of 'milkshake')

Please share any interesting mnemonics that you might come across...

Angry Bulls?

Does the colour red make bulls angry?

When I am a young boy, many people keep telling me that if I wear a red shirt I should always be careful when I walk near a bull, as the animal might suddenly 'attack' me. I keep on wondering why many people have this perception. Is it because the matador or bullfighter uses a big piece of red cloth when he is in action? 

Is this a myth or a fact? 

The Mythbusters team has already made an experiment to find out. 
What are their findings?

Well it turn out that they got almost the same number of attacks regardless of whether the cloth is red, white or blue. What made a difference though is whether the cloth is motionless or waved. It seems that the attacks are more aggressive when the cloth are waved compared to when it is motionless.

So next time when you walk near a bull, keep in mind that regardless of what colour your are wearing, it does not make much difference to the bull. But careful...your movement or how you behave might made a difference! 
Surely you do not want to make a bull angry!

Nama haiwan

Ikan paus bukanlah ikan...
Ikan lumba pun bukan ikan...
Anjing laut bukanlah sejenis anjing...
Singa laut bukanlah sejenis singa...
Juga kuda laut bukanlah sejenis kuda...

Tapi mengapakah ianya diberi nama sebegitu?

Paus (whales) ialah sejenis mamalia laut. Mungkin disebabkan ianya hidup di laut kita menganggapnya sebagai ikan. Begitu juga dengan ikan lumba (dolphin).

Bagaimana pula dengan anjing laut (seals). Mungkin ia mendapat namanya disebabkan bunyinya, ia seolah-olah menyalak seperti seekor anjing. Singa laut? Saya kurang pasti...walaupun namanya dalam Bahasa Inggeris ialah sea lion

Untuk kuda laut (seahorse) pula, rupa kepalanya agak serupa dengan kepala seekor kuda.

Rainbow

Did you ever notice that the word rainbow has seven characters and that there are actually seven colours in a rainbow? 

RAINBOW 

also in Bahasa Malaysia the word for rainbow is pelangi, also seven characters. 

PELANGI

 how about in some other language?

Fish at Market

Can you name the different types of fish?
If you go to the market, you notice that they are many different types of fish. Some are big, some are small, some are fat, some are slim, and they come in many colours. How many types of fish can you identify? Some fish such as ikan kembung, ikan bawal, ikan tenggiri, ikan merah, are probably well known but can you recognise fish such as ikan selat, ikan buntal, ikan jenahak, and ikan pari. Some fish are known by different names at different places. Ikan kembung is actually called ikan temenung in the Northern parts of Malaysia.

Can you share the photograph of the different types of fish in Malaysia?