Resistor color code ... pc prase?

[innkeeper]

I'm sure many of us know the NON-PC phrase used to remember the resistor color code values.

Is there a good PC phrase one can use to teach others.  Anything in common use?

[JS]

A box of mixed resistors, a table and a circuit to build, or two, or three... that's how I learned!

Then I went to metal film and it's a waste of time, as colors on the blue back are much worse and there are even some that could be read both ways (most starting with 1 make sense both ways so it's ugly)

Now I'm going for SMD and you just read numbers, like numbers wouldn't fit in bigger packages, I guess printing in a small cylinder is hard, but diodes are done this way, who knows 

JS

[Relayer]

A box of mixed resistors, a table and a circuit to build, or two, or three... that's how I learned!

Same here. I used to buy the grab bags of mixed resistors from Dick Smith, Jaycar and the likes.

I always had dramas with the metal-film ones as well, and at times it was really hard to determine
if a band was coloured red or brown.
I would really feel sorry for anyone colour-blind needing to sort out 1000 mixed metal-film resistors. 
Regards,
Relayer

[james_s]

It took the very much non-PC phrase for me to finally remember the color code. I think just the fact that it was rather offensive is what made it stick in my mind.

[KaneTW]

I'm color-blind, so dealing with through-hole resistors is basically impossible for me. I stick with SMD in my designs anyway.

[AG6QR]

It's only partial, but the ROYGBV portion of the code is in rainbow order, or lowest to highest frequency.  So if you know the rainbow, you just need to remember "black brown --Rainbow-- white".

On the other hand, the color bands are often hard to read, because they're small and the colors aren't always very accurate.  So I usually keep a multimeter in ohms mode handy when I'm working with resistors.  Trust, but verify.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I'm sure many of us know the NON-PC phrase used to remember the resistor color code values.

Is there a good PC phrase one can use to teach others.  Anything in common use?

Big Bananas Resting On Your Great Big Voluptuous Green Watermelons

[TheWelly888]

Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western

[JohnnyMalaria]

Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western

Very nice. Used to live there and ride that line from London. 

[GreyWoolfe]

Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western

So how is Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well not PC or is there another that I am not aware of?

[AG6QR]

Bye Bye Rosie, Off You Go, Bristol Via Great Western

So how is Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well not PC or is there another that I am not aware of?

That may be mildly inappropriate in some circles, but I believe there are much worse.   See the wikipedia link posted above by tsman.

[Brumby]

I run with the Black, Brown, Rainbow(ish), Grey, White approach.

[TheWelly888]

So how is Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts, But Vodka Goes Well not PC or is there another that I am not aware of?

I never heard this one before but I think it is OK.

[IanMacdonald]

I honestly don't know why they use that horrible five-band code on metal film types. There is no need for it on an E24 series anyway, and as pointed out it leads to ambiguous values on 1% types. I use carbon types for general experimenting. They are noisier and less accurate, but less likely to make a circuit-damaging mistake with.  SMD types are easier if you're going to make a PCB but don't lend themselves to birdsnesting, which is how I usually prove a circuit first.  You can tell I'm an ex TV engineer 

[free_electron]

another reason to switch to surface mounted parts

[IanMacdonald]

 Another advantage of SMD, no need to mirror the track layout. Easy to forget about that.   

[Raj]

time is all you need for color code learning. It took me 2 years worth of making stuff as hobbyist to learn it.
Every time you solder a resistor, just say it's value in your mind, you'll learn it.
Also keeping them in tictac box with with box color corrosponding to the second last band helps.
Notice, there are 2 boxes of x-x-black-x and a box of x-x-golden-golden or x-x-silver-silver or x-x-blue-x colored white.
the x-x-brown-x is a red box.

[grumpydoc]

I learned Black Beetles Running On Your Garden Bring Very Good Weather, along with the less PC ones.

[innkeeper]

Black Beetles Running On Your Garden Bring Very Good Weather

i like that one

[orin]

Black Beetles Running On Your Garden Bring Very Good Weather

i like that one

The only one I remember, that must have predated me by many years, is:

Better Buy Resistors Or Your Grid Bias May Go West

To modernize it, substitute Gate for Grid.  And the 'M' is Mauve... shudder.

[Cubdriver]

The one we were 'officially' taught as freshmen in high school was "Big Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins"

The shop teacher then suggested we speak to the juniors to find out the 'unnofficial' version.  In that version, the first, third, eighth and ninth words were replaced by slightly different ones.  Unsurprisingly, the second version is the one we all remembered.

-Pat