Henry and Betty

I just came across this simple but cool implementation of AJAX: Jalenack’s AJAX Periodic Table of the Elements.

Looking at the site brought back memories of long-ago days spent in the chemistry labs in school with beakers and test-tubes and Bunsen burners.

As students chasing that elusive ‘A’ in the exams, one of the things we so needed to memorise was the top 20 elements of the periodic table. Different students had different ways, most of them using the time-honoured mnemonic system.

The one that worked for me went a bit like this (and the fact I can actually easily remember it today tells you how effective it was):

Henry, He Liked Betty But Could Not Overcome Florence Nightingale.
Naughty Meg Always Sings Pop Songs Called Argentina Kisses California.

The bold letters in each word corresponds to the chemical symbol of the elements, of course.

I had tonnes of such mnemonic devices for remembering formulae, definitions, lists, etc. The best ones are always the ones you make up yourself, and, like the above, sound as silly as possible.

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