Remember These Mnemonics? Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Royal Houses of England and UK

"No Plan Like Yours To Study History Wisely" is a mnemonic that helps students to keep the British Royal Houses in order: Normandy-Plantagenet-Lancaster-York-Tudor-Stuart-Hanover-Windsor. The school I attended in England named its houses after each of the Royal Houses. I was in Windsor.

Answer: 31

You used the rhyme to get the answer, didn't you?
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and dull November.
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone
Which hath twenty-eight days clear
and twenty-nine in each leap year.

The rhyme dates back to at least the middle of the 15th century, and has taken various forms over the years.

Answer: Roy G. Biv

Good old Roy, he helps us to remember that the rainbow goes from red to orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. I never met Roy until I came to live in Canada. In England, we kept the colours of the rainbow sorted with Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.

Another version of the mnemonic is Run Off Young Girls, Boys In View. I wonder if the person who created Roy G. Biv knew that 'biv' is the Hebrew word for sewer pipe?

Answer: stalagmites and stalactites

Stalagmites - with a g, grow upward from the floor of a cave while stalactities, with a c, grow down from the roof - or ceiling - of a cave. It's a handy mnemonic when doing crossword puzzles.

Answer: No

The mnemonic represents the planets of our solar system in order of their proximity to the sun - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Unfortunately, since Pluto has now been demoted from planetary status, they're going to have to come up with another one. Several have been suggested. I like "My Volkswagen Emits Mick Jagger Songs Until Noon" and "Most Vegetarians Eat Messy Jack-o-lanterns Seasoned Uniquely (with) Nutmeg." My husband is a vegetarian and I think he'd leave me if I ever served him a messy jack-o-lantern, with or without nutmeg!

Answer: Huron Ontario Michigan Erie Superior

I used this one when I was a kid in England studying North American geography, and when I was teaching in elementary school, I passed it along to my students. I think it's the universal mnemonic for the Great Lakes. To help my students to remember the points of the compass I used Never Eat Shredded Wheat. I actually got a request from one mother who asked me to tell her son that it was perfectly respectable to eat Shredded Wheat for breakfast! Another version of the compass points mnemonic used in England was "Never Eat Soggy Weetabix", (Weetabix is a popular cereal). Children in Birmingham, UK, however, usually use "Never Ever Support Wolves" (no self-respecting Brummie would support the Wolverhampton football team, known as the Wolves).

Answer: Medical students

Generations of medical students have used this mnemonic which refers to the order of the vertebrae, from superior to inferior - cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacrum, coccyx.

Answer: The notes on the lines of a treble clef stave

I needed all the help I could get when I was studying piano. My teacher used to complain that when I sat at the keyboard, I proved that I was a very good Christian because my left hand never knew what my right hand was doing! I must be the only person of Welsh descent in the entire world who has no musical ability whatsoever.

Answer: The Seven Hills of Rome

The Seven Hills of Rome are the Palatine, the Aventine, the Capitoline, the Esquiline, the Quirinal, the Viminal, and the Caelian. I'm told that Shopping Channel addicts in North America also use PACE QVC, but since I never watch the Shopping Channel, I don't why that is.

Answer: Trigonometry

The basic trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent, and soak-a-toe-uh helped me to remember that Sine equals Opposite leg divided by the Hypotenuse, Cosine equals Adjacent leg divided by the Hypotenuse, and Tangent equals Opposite leg divided by the Adjacent leg. None of it means a thing to me nowadays, but it was useful back then.