On 2009/11/17, at 05:49 , Nat Hager III wrote:
Someone might find interesting…
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/monday-puzzle-conversion-factors/
Nat
Dear Nat,
Thanks for the reference. I added this comment (that has yet to be
refereed).
Many activities have memory helpers for beginners so that they can
readily become involved, and they can develop confidence quickly.
Well-known examples are the word F-A-C-E used to remember the 'space'
notes of the treble clef stave in music. This is associated with the
sentence 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit' to remember the 'line' notes
E, G, B, D, and F.
These memory helpers are technically known as mnemonics, from Greek
words associated with mindfulness and remembering.
Here are two contributions to your mnemonic collection.
SHOW the COST
SHOW how the metric system is:
Simple, Honest, Open, and Worldwide
And all of the old pre-metric measuring words were Complicated,
Obscure, Secret and Territorial.
As part of a celebration of World Day of Interconnectedness for the
date 09-09-09, I contributed a measurement article for an ebook
launched in Los Angeles. If you would like to see this article, go to http://www.ianberry.au.com/docs/personal_brand_ebook.pdf
and then search for the words, "SHOW the COST".
To SHOW the COST from a bigger picture you could download the article,
'Cost of non-metrication in the USA' from http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf
##
SI prefix mnemonics
I have not found mnemonics to help young people learn SI basics, such
as the names of the prefixes so I devised two mnemonics to help people
learn SI prefixes that are multiples of 1000 easily. These were
prepared for trade training in Australia where the prefixes, deci,
centi, deca, and hecto are rarely used.
Prefixes less than 1 (sub-multiples)
millie, mike's nana, pickled fish at zepto's yacht(o)
milli micro nano pica femto atto zepto yocto
m µ n p f a
z y
Prefixes more than 1 (multiples)
killer Meg, Giggling, Terrified Peter's Extra Zits. Yuk!
kilo mega giga tera peta exa zetta yotta
k M G T P
E Z Y
Note: I considered 'kindly Meg' but then I grew to like 'killer Meg'
much better.
I make no apology for the silliness of the words that I chose for
these mnemonics. Mnemonics seem to work best if they contain off-the-
wall ideas coupled with reasonably strong rhythms; I've been wondering
for years why: 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit'; but the mnemonic still
works, and works well.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
