Mnemonics-oholics

The word, "mnemonic," is a word consisting of three syllables, which when ordered properly, form a word, the word being, "mnemonic." The first syllable, 'Mne,' is pronounced ni, and is not to be confused with 'Ni' (pronounced knee), the syllable for which The Knights who say 'Ni' are best known. The second syllable, 'Mon,' is from the Jamaican, and means, "Excuse me, did you see which way the bobsled team went?" The final syllable, which appears at the end of the word "mnemonic" is 'Ic' (pronounced ick), and is what you might say if you've discovered that your roommate has fiendishly placed a severed spider leg on your otherwise spider leg-less bar of soap. Together, these syllables, of which there are three, make up the English word, "mnemonic."

Like several other words in the English language, the word "mnemonic" has a meaning. Depending on the context in which it is used, "mnemonic" can mean "a memory aid," or it can mean "a Jamaican spider who says Ni." However, this second meaning has not gained widespread acceptance due to pressure from social interest groups who assert that such spiders do not in fact exist.

A mnemonic can be very useful in helping one memorize something that would otherwise be difficult to remember, or easy to forget. For example, the mnemonic ROY G. BIV is often used to help young schoolchildren remember the colors of the rainbow. Although his surname means "sewer pipe" in Hebrew, Mr. BIV has the good fortune of having a name whose letters stand for the various colors in the spectrum. For example, the letter 'I' in BIV stands for "Indigo." Herein lies the beauty of the mnemonic: It is much more palatable to the psyche to remember a name such as "Roy," which sounds like it might belong to an Indian peace activist, as opposed to remembering a name like "Indigo," which sounds like it might belong to a severely mulletheaded Spaniard whose entire life is devoted to slaughtering poor polydactyls.

Here is an example of another mnemonic I came across recently:

Now I defy a tenet gallantly
Of circle canon law: these integers
Importing circles' quotients are, we see,
Unwieldy long series of cockle burs
Put all together, get no clarity;
Mnemonics shan't describeth so reformed
Creating, with a grammercy plainly,
A sonnet liberated yet conformed.
Strangely, the queer'st rules I manipulate
Being followéd, do facilitate
Whimsical musings from geometric bard.
This poesy, unabashed as it's distressed,
Evolvéd coherent - a simple test,
Discov'ring poetry no numerals jarred.

This Petrarchan sonnet is designed to aid those who wish to be able to procure the first 76 numerals of pi from memory. It was written in iambic pentameter. Notice that successive numerals of pi are obtained by counting the number of letters in each word of the Petrarchan sonnet. For example, the first word of the poem, "Now," has three letters, corresponding to the identity of the first numeral of pi which is '3.' The second word has one letter corresponding to the next digit which is '1,' and so on. Since there is no word in the English language that has "decimal point" number of letters, one wishing to learn the first 76 numerals of pi must remember on his or her own (or perhaps using another mnemonic) the placement of this most important feature of pi. Notice how easily words like "cockle burs" and "grammercy" are committed to memory while common, ordinary numerals such as '3', '1', and the concept of a decimal point are not.

In the spirit of helping young schoolchildren the world over, I have invented this mnemonic to aid in the memorization of the first ten numerals of counting. The mnemonic is a random compilation of words. The words are written in Icelandic, and are designed to be easily assimilated by an eager young mind. The first ten numerals of counting are obtained by reading each word in succession, taking note of the first letter of the word which corresponds to the first letter of the English numeral. Here is the mnemonic:

óseyrar
tjörn
tunga
fokjarðvegur
fjalljökull
samsætuhlutföll
siggengi
eldstöðvar
nýlífsöld
tímabil

Now no one has an excuse for not knowing the first ten numerals of counting.

P.S. All facetiousness aside, the mnemonic sonnet is pretty cool. Go to Mike Keith's website to see a poem that encodes the first 740 numerals of pi!