Acronyms / Mnemonics - Post your favorites

Started by charliebear, April 03, 2009, 09:57:06 AM

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BuddhaRhubarb

The North American Marlon Brando Look-a-like Association.
:p

grumbler

"True virgins make dull company (at weddings)" converts true headings to compass headings by accounting for variation (which yields magnetic heading) and deviation (which yields compass heading), remembering to add west variation and deviation (thus subtracting those east).

"Can dead men vote twice (at elections)?" converts a compass heading to a true heading by the reverse process, adding east values.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

vinraith

#17
Quote from: charliebear on April 03, 2009, 11:27:16 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on April 03, 2009, 11:20:51 AM
Oh Be A Fine Girl(Guy) Kiss Me

OBAFGKM - basic star classification, O is hottest, M coolest.

I like it.  What do the middle ones stand for?  I'm assuming the lukewarm stars, but what are the technical terms?

If you're looking for a point of reference the sun is a G-class star. O's are extraordinarily hot, blue-white, and (in astronomical terms) very short lived (ten million years, tops). M's are small, dim, red, cool, and burn for hundreds of billions of years or more. Stars inbetween are, well, inbetween.

Here's a standard Herzprung Russell diagram for reference, the mnemonic in question only applies to the main sequence stars (the ones down the middle, which are basically "normal" stars):



And Wikipedia has a nice breakdown of each stellar class here.

Iormlund

#18
Un día ví un viejo vestido de uniforme: (Integral)udv = uv-(Integral)vdu.


Richard Hakluyt

Going back to the stellar classifications for a moment, the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram has to be one of the coolest of all diagrams  :cool:

vinraith

Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on April 03, 2009, 01:58:31 PM
Going back to the stellar classifications for a moment, the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram has to be one of the coolest of all diagrams  :cool:


Indeed. I have a print of the one I linked up there. In addition to being informative and generally cool, it's also kind of pretty IMO. :)

Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Barrister

I can't say that I used this one in school, but I kind of whish I had.

"Camels Often Sit Down Carefully. Perhaps Their Joints Creak. Possibly Early Oiling Might Prevent Premature Rheumatism"
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

fhdz

and the horse you rode in on

The Nickname Who Was Thursday

The Erstwhile Eddie Teach

Strix

Quote from: The Nickname Who Was Thursday on April 03, 2009, 11:30:06 AM
Every good boy does fine. Good boys do fine always.- Musical notes on the stanza for treble and bass clef.

Interesting. I learned it as "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge".
"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left." - Margaret Thatcher

Neil

Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on April 03, 2009, 01:58:31 PM
Going back to the stellar classifications for a moment, the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram has to be one of the coolest of all diagrams  :cool:
Indeed.  Not only is it cool, but terribly interesting as well.  I'm always fascinated by the idea of those class-0 stars who are as close to blasting off their own photospheres as you can get (and occasional do just that), just from the enormous energy released by their nuclear reactions.  The sheer power is somewhat awe-inspiring, even for me.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

The Brain

If you can't use the power for something then it might as well be on the moon.

I took some astrophysics courses back in school. One of the lecturers looked like Bill Murray.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Siege

Quote from: FunkMonk on April 03, 2009, 11:38:45 AM
*any military acronym* :bleeding: :bleeding: :bleeding:

Nah.

They are very useful.

I prefer MLECOA or MDECOA than Most Likely Enemy Course Of Action or Most Deadly Enemy Course Of Action.



"All men are created equal, then some become infantry."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!"