Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain Quiz

Astronomy is the study of anything outside of Earth's atmosphere, and outside of our own moon, our solar system is what we know most about. But sometimes it can be bothersome trying to remember facts about the different planets.

The mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles" gives us an easy way to remember the order of the planets from closest to the Sun to the furthest away. I know for me, I tend to get Uranus and Neptune mixed up, but remembering this phrase invariably puts me aright.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

"MRS GREN" or "MRS NERG" is a mnemonic that gives us the first letters of the seven characteristics of living organisms in basic biology. Do you recall them all? If not, here is a quick rundown.

The seven characteristics of a living organism are:

Movement - even immobile organisms (like plants) have some measure of movement

Respiration - the conversion of energy from carbohydrates and fats into energy that cells can use

Sensitivity - organisms responding to their environment

Growth - that irreversible change in mass through production of new cells

Reproduction - sexual or asexual reproduction - creation of new life

Excretion - removal of waste products

Nutrition - intake of energy essential for growth, survival, and reproduction

A variant of this mnemonic is MRS C. GREN, which also includes 'Control,' or homeostasis - regulation of the internal environment.

Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) is considered the father of modern taxonomy, beginning with the first edition of his "Systema Naturae" in 1735. Efforts had been made to classify the plants and animals in nature before this, but Linnaeus developed a more comprehensive system. "Dear King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup" is one of many variants of a mnemonic to help remember the different levels of taxonomic classification:

Domain / Kingdom / Phylum / Class / Order / Family / Genus / Species

The Periodic Table of the Elements was developed by Russian chemist and inventor Dmitri Mendeleev, officially presented to the Russian Chemical Society in March of 1869. While attempting to create a table of elements based on their chemical properties, he discovered their periodicity. This led to his developing a table that described elements according to both atomic weight and valence.

The mnemonic "Happy Henry Liked Beer, But Could Not Obtain Four Nuts" provides a shorthand way to remember the first ten elements on the Periodic Table: hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon.

There are a vast array of mnemonic phrases to remember various lists of elements, depending on what aspect of the table you are trying to learn, including longer versions of the list in numerical order.

We live in the troposphere - that layer of the atmosphere that hugs Earth at the lowest level. But can you recall the rest of the layers of our atmosphere? Maybe "The Snow Makes Things Exciting" can help you remember:

Troposphere - extends up to about 12 km (7.5 mi), on average, and includes most of the atmosphere's weather

Stratosphere - ranges from about 12 to 50 km (31 mi), and holds the infamous ozone layer

Mesosphere - between 50 and 80 km (50 mi), and the coldest part of the atmosphere

Thermosphere - from 80 to 700 km (440 mi), and is the home of the ionosphere and the auroras (and the International Space Station)

Exosphere - extends out from 700 to 10,000 km (6,200 mi) above the surface of the Earth, and holds the last vestiges of molecules held by gravity. Most of Earth's satellites orbit in this range

The human body is an amazing thing. It is comprised of multiple, interconnected systems that allow us to function and interact with our environment and each other. The mnemonic "NICER DRUMS" gives us the means to help remember the ten different organ systems of the human body.

Nervous - includes the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, and sends messages back and forth between the brain and the body

Integumentary - the body's outer layer, including the skin, hair, nails, and glands

Circulatory - made up of blood vessels that carries blood to and from the heart

Endocrine - includes all of our hormones, and regulates our bodies' biological processes

Respiratory - all about breathing, including the nose, mouth, throat, voice box, windpipe, and lungs

Digestive - the parts of the body that have to do with ingesting food, processing it, and eliminating waste

Reproductive - male and female organs designed for the creation of new life

Urinary - related to the digestive system, involving the drainage of liquid waste, including the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra

Muscular - muscle fibers attached to bones and organs that contract and allow body movement

Skeletal - the 206 bones that are the framework holding it all together, along with cartilage, tendons, and ligaments

"I Picked My Apples Today" is the mnemonic phrase to help remember the phases of mitosis. Of course, mitosis is the process by which a cell replicates its chromosomes and then separates them into two new, identical nuclei in preparation for cell division. This is typically followed by equally dividing the cell's contents into two new 'daughter' cells with identical genomes.

The phases of mitosis are:

Interphase - the longest part of the cell cycle - the cell grows and copies its DNA before moving into mitosis (this is the part that happens between the actual recurring four phases of mitosis)

Prophase - the first phase of mitosis - the complex of DNA and proteins in the nucleus, known as chromatin, condenses

Metaphase - the second phase of mitosis - the cell's chromosomes align themselves in the middle of the cell, becoming two sister chromatids connected by a central point called the centromere

Anaphase - the third phase of mitosis - each pair of chromosomes is separated into two identical, independent chromosomes, which are then pulled by the spindle to opposite poles of the cell

Telophase - the final phase of mitosis - a nuclear membrane forms around each set of chromosomes to separate the nuclear DNA from the cytoplasm

When one needs to be able to identify the eight bones of the cranium, then remember the phrase "Old People From Texas Eat Spiders."

Occipital - the base of the skull - has an opening to allow the spinal cord to connect with the brain

Parietal (2) - pair of flat bones on either side of the head, behind the frontal bone

Frontal - your forehead and the upper part of your eye sockets

Temporal (2) - irregularly shaped bones found under each of the parietal bones

Ethmoid - an irregular bone in front of the sphenoid, making up part of the nasal cavity

Sphenoid - another irregular bone, below the frontal bone

This is another mnemonic that has numerous variations. Whatever words are used to create the phrase, it has the same end result - remembering the resistor colour code. Most resistors are marked with bands that indicate what their actual resistance is. Most use a 4-band colour coding, but there are 5-band and 6-band variants.

In the 4-band resistor, the first two colours equate to the two most significant digits of the resistor's value. The third colour is a weight value, multiplying the first two digits by a power of ten. The fourth colour indicates the tolerance (actual vs. nominal value)

The phrase gives us the colour sequence: "Big Brown Rabbits Often Yield Great Big Vocal Groans When Gingerly Slapped" equals Black (0) / Brown (1) / Red (2) / Orange (3) / Yellow (4) / Green (5) / Blue (6) / Violet (7) / Gray (8) / White (9), with the "Gingerly Slapped" indicating tolerance - Gold (+/- 5%) and Silver (+/- 10%).

Thus, a resistor with bands sequenced yellow / violet / red / gold would have a value of 4.7kΩ:

Yellow and violet give the numbers 4 and 7, with red indicating it is multiplied x 10^2 (or 100), with gold indicating a tolerance of +/- 5%.

"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" is the longer version of the commonly-used PEMDAS, describing the steps of the Order of Operations when doing mathematical calculations. In other words, given a problem like 7 + (6 × 5^2 + 3), what do you do first?

The answer is given in the mnemonic: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division (left to right), Addition/Subtraction (left to right).

So, looking at our problem, take care of what is in the parentheses first: (6 × 5^2 + 3), and follow the remaining steps within those parentheses, doing the exponent first: (6 x 25 + 3), then the multiplication (150 + 3), and finally the addition (153). Lastly, return to the other part of the equation that was not in the parentheses: 7 + (153), giving a final result of 160.