Like a lot of other I.T. professionals I’m dyslexic and as a result I find it difficult to remember spellings and lists or groups of ordered items. What good is trying to remember SOHCAHTOA if you can’t remember how to spell it! So I would like to use this article to document all the Mnemonic Acronyms.

I’m describing a rhyme or saying where the first letter of each word in the rhyme or saying is a memory trigger to help you remember another word. English is big and I’m sure there is a particular word which describes what these are but I don’t know what it is, does any one know?

So here is my current list. Please add more to the comments and I’ll incorporate them into the article.

Physics

Order of colours in our visual spectrum:
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Maths

How to work out the Sin, Cos or Tan of an angle:
Some Old Houses Creak And Howl Through Old Age.
Sin=Opposite/Hypotenuse Cos=Adjacent/Hypotenuse Tan=Opposite/Adjacent.

Computers

7 Layers of the OSI Model (top-down):
A Pervert Shagged Twenty Nine Dead Pigs.
Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Datalink, Physical.

7 Layers of the OSI Model (bottom-up):
Phil, Demands, New Trainers Starting Promto, Alright?
Physical, Datalink, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application.

Electronics

Colour order of electrical resistance:
Black Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Virgins Go Without.
Black = 0, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Grey, White.

Medical

Cranial nerves, type and foramina

Spelling
mnemonics: My New Experience On Memorising Odd Names Is Carefully Selected.

General Life

The 7 P’s:
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.