Education: memorize metric system A mnemonic (pronounced [nəˈmɒnɪk] in RP, [nɪ'mɑnɪk] in GA) is a memory aid that generally serves an educational purpose. They are mostly verbal, e.g a word, each of whose letters help the user to remember the first letters of items in a list. However, there are also other types of mnemonics, such as visual mnemonics. Mnemonics rely on associations between something that is easy to remember, and something that is harder to remember. Sometimes mnemonics are chosen to directly relate to the target information, and othertimes they are arbitrary.

King Henry Drinks Much Dark Chocolate Milk

The order of prefixes in the metric system, for every power of ten from 3 to -3, is Kilometre, Hectometre, Decametre, Metre, Decimetre, Centimetre, Millimetre:

* King Hector's Daffy Mother Drinks Chocolate Milk
* King Henry's Daughter Makes Delicious Chocolate Muffins
* King Henry Died Monday Drinking Chocolate Milk
* King Henry Died! Mother Didn't Care Much
* King Hector Dector Makes Delicious Chocolate Milk
* Kangaroos Hop Down Mountains During Cold Months
* Kings Have Diamonds. Most Diamonds Cost Money.
* King Henry Died Monday During Christmas Mass.

This variant is for the prefixes Kilo-, Hecto-, Deca-, then the Base unit (such as metre, gram, litre), then the prefixes Deci-, Centi-, Milli-:

* Kings Have Diamonds But Diamonds Cost Money

The prefixes for powers of ten from 18 to -18 using increments of 3 are Exa- (18), Peta- (15), Tera- (12), Giga- (9), Mega- (6), Kilo- (3), unit (0), Milli- (-3), Micro- (-6), Nano- (-9), Pico- (-12), Femto- (-15), Atto- (-18):

* Exacting Petals, Terribly Gigantic Megaphones Killed 1 Million Microscopic Nasturtiums Picked Freshly by Attorneys.

A subset of the prefixes is Tera- (12), Giga- (9), Mega- (6), Micro- (-6), Nano- (-9), Pico- (-12), Femto- (-15), Atto- (-18):

* The Gooey Monster May Not Pick Five Apples.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic
source: http://www.ict4us.com/mnemonics/en_metricsystem.htm

  Slashdot It!