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remiberthoz / anki-periodic-table-memory-pegs

Periodic Table flashcard deck for Ankl
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/490209917
MIT License
50 stars 5 forks source link

Couple of suggestions. Also, alternative table formats? #130

Open MiquelJorquera opened 3 years ago

MiquelJorquera commented 3 years ago

Awesome deck! Been using it for a few weeks. I've edited a few cards so that they work better for me, and I thought you might like some of them, since you're open to suggestions:

Those are the ones I've changed so far (I think I'm about halfway through). Also, I've removed the picture prompt, because in the real world you'll need to remember the element either from the name, symbol or number. Seems a bit useless to remember it from a peg, and some of them make it too easy if they are the first to appear.

And as a final question, how hard would it be to implement alternative formats? I'd like to have either the 32 column format or the side-step format if we're getting creative. I tried to see how the table is drawn to do it myself, but I gave up after 5min, I can't be asked to reverse-engineer that .

horwitz commented 3 years ago

I do appreciate the thought and the work that went into these suggestions, but please do not change mnemonics that many of us have been using for many, many years (unless there are actual errors (e.g., factual errors, typos))

MiquelJorquera commented 3 years ago

Ah yes, I managed to somehow not think of that... Okay this was dumb. But I also see a lot of suggestions for overhauls (like the Calcium-Teeth one) and the deck creator seems okay with them, so I'm not sure how that would work. Keeping this open because I'd still like to know about the feasibility of alternative table formats.

remiberthoz commented 3 years ago

Hi ! Thanks @PatoLubricado for your comments !

Indeed I would like to avoid changing legacy mnemonics, for all the people that have been using the deck for years. I wish there was a way to have deck options. I will modify 23, 53, 63, 85 and 102 according to your suggestions, since they are additive or minor corrections.

I agree that the picture prompt is not useful for real life scenarios, but it was extremely helpful for me when learning to associate images, so I made it into the deck.

Modifying the format of the periodic table on the cards is pretty easy. I love the 32 columns table myself, but it takes too much horizontal space. Here again, I wish there was a way to have options on the user side: if I modify the layout of the cards this will affect all other users. Feel free to change it for yourself though! Here's how it works:

In the src/templates folder, you will find five HTML files: one for each type of card. In these files, there is a part that starts with <div class="periodic"> and contains multiple <div class="periodic-row">. This structure makes up the row of the periodic table. In each row, there are 18 <div class="cell">: this creates the skeleton of the table. Each cell can contain an element, or not: this is decided by the presence (or lack thereof) of this block of code: <div class="element" id="element1"></div>. The later block tells the HTML/CSS renderer that there is an element in this cell, so the cell will be grayed. It also tells that the element ID is element1, so when the card displayed is Hydrogen, the cell will be grayed in a darker shade.

I'm sorry if this is unclear, I am replying by email hoping for the best. If you don't know HTML or the above is incomprehensible, let me know and I'll make it for you!

I'm very busy these days... I haven't updated the deck since months even though there are pending issues. Sorry for that.

horwitz commented 3 years ago

@remiberthoz did you mean to mention "23" in your list ("23, 53, 63, 85 and 102")?

re 85: "the half-life of astatine" is not well-defined (half-life varies for the various isotopes)—however, it seems that the At-210 (At's most common isotope) has a half-life of roughly 8 hours 5 minutes. perhaps instead:

"The half-life of astatine's most common isotope is roughly 8h 5m."

(this additional mnemonic (and several others) are (IMO) neat finds by @PatoLubricado!)

remiberthoz commented 3 years ago

@horwitz sorry I didn't mean 23 of course. I like 38 and 52.

For Strontium, we could state that the password is not very strong.

What do you think?

horwitz commented 3 years ago

while "It weighs 38 pounds." has always felt plenty arbitrary, stating that 38 is the combination to the strongbox runs counter to it being a _strong_box, no? (also, I personally am loathe to make such changes—I've studied that the Israeli strongbox weighs 38 pounds for years, but perhaps that's just me?)

MiquelJorquera commented 3 years ago

Yeah the strongbox one feels a bit too disruptive to veterans. This seems like an unavoidable problem for mnemonics in general. One obvious solution would be to make several versions of this deck, but that could lead to having too many versions and being too confusing to newcomers (do I pick the "Classic", "New", "Newer", or "New++" deck?). Given that this is a double-niche thing (anki users, people who want to learn the elements), I don't think it's worth the hassle unless a surprising amout of people want an overhauled deck.

About changing the table layout, I think it'd still be useful to have a version available if somebody is interested enought to Google it. I think I understand how it works now (I can add new elements in the gaps), but I there is an unexpected behaviour when I try to add more columns: When it goes over 18 colums, it skips to the next line. Here I've added 14 lines of <div class="cell"></div> between H and He, and this is what happened: image How to prevent this "text wrap" effect?

As an extra suggestion, the images look very blurry because apparently Anki uses some smoothing filter for upscaling images. At first I tried changing the scaling to nearest neighbour, but I couldn't find a way. So I've used nearest neighbour scaling for all images to 400x400 pixels so that they look much better at their actual size of 100x100 (or in my case, 200x200). Example: image So I don't know if you have a way of changing the scaling on your end, but if not and you'd like to implement this, I can send you all the 400x400 images (they weigh a little over 1MB all together).

remiberthoz commented 3 years ago

Hi !

Indeed, I just tested to add a few blocks to the table and they wrap. The reason is that the dimensions of the "cells" is such that 18*width = 100% of the table. You can modify a single line in stylesheet.css : https://github.com/remiberthoz/anki-periodic-table-memory-pegs/blob/5a72c648c3fac44edcc66dc4b2bd11ece814e2b4/src/templates/stylesheet.css#L103

replace 5.55% by 3.12%. This should work since (100/18 = 5.55 and 100/32 = 3.12).

On having multiple versions of the deck, well I am quite opposed to the idea since as you said, newcomers would be confused. This deck is top in the Physics section and second-top in the Chemistry section of AnkiWeb : I want to do my best to keep it there, I fear splitting would then require too many clicks to convince curious users.

What I would not mind is releasing variants here on GitHub, with a link in the AnkiWeb page. That would work very well for the 32 columns variant.

I really like the suggestions you made here, or the other one in #128 : I think the mnemonics are good and make sense. The best way to implement them is to adjust existing ones, such that users who've been learning these mnemonics since 5 years are not suddenly excluded (and I am part of them...).

I'll be off from work in August, I will take the time to update the deck during this period. I never realized the image are blurry, they are super small on my smartphone. I will modify the images to a higher definition as you suggest. I will probably find an easy way to process them all at once, but I'll ask your help if I do not manage. Thanks!

Let me know if you manage the 32 columns :)

remiberthoz commented 3 years ago

while "It weighs 38 pounds." has always felt plenty arbitrary, stating that 38 is the combination to the strongbox runs counter to it being a _strong_box, no? (also, I personally am loathe to make such changes—I've studied that the Israeli strongbox weighs 38 pounds for years, but perhaps that's just me?)

It's fully arbitrary yes. I have also learnt that 38 is the strong red box and now it's absolutely natural even if it does not make sense. I feel the mnemonics are great when fully coherent (I love Sodium or Aluminum), but others are still good if studied, especially with Anki's algorithm & flash cards method. A lot of users on AnkiWeb rightfully say that the imperial system for units is a bit awkward when learning. I'm from Europe myself and I cannot disagree, but with patience the 32 fl.oz. pint got into my head.

Thanks for your comment :+1:

MiquelJorquera commented 3 years ago

replace 5.55% by 3.12%. This should work since (100/18 = 5.55 and 100/32 = 3.12).

Thanks! That fixed it. Here's what it looks like for me after a bit of styling: image However, I didn't edit the files you told me, I just edited the cards directly within Anki. I also fear that I may have missed something, because the proportions of the table in pixels seem to be 1:3 instead of 7:32, which would be closer to 1:4 or 1:5. So there may be some phantom rows that I'm not seeing. Anyway, this is the front and back text for the card (you copy this text into Anki>Tools>Manage Note Types>PeriodicTable-d75c0 > Cards>Front Template/Back Template, for all card types (Select from the menu at the top of the screen)) Front Template.txt Back Template.txt Here's also my Styling just in case, but it probably only works for 1080p PC screens, and not even that well. Styling.txt

remiberthoz commented 3 years ago

I updated the deck with some of the suggestions made here. I will work on the 32 column format soon :tada: ! Thanks for the suggestions.

MiquelJorquera commented 3 years ago

Cool! Now I'm a bit scared of having caused changes that people may not appreciate 😅

But in case more suggestions are welcome, I have since finished the deck, and here's the non-disrupting changes I've made (mostly additions to the story of the object with suggestive sounds):

40: Zirconium - The ring is from Zara (pretty famous clothing stores).

41: Niobium - The onion is from Nairobi (sounds like Niobi).

43: Technetium - The technician should wear a hair net, to remind you that it is not Technicium.

51: Antimony - The passbook account is in Area 51.

59: Praseodymium - This one is not grammatically correct, but it was the only way I could remember the name: It is a "praying sea diminutive mantis" (Pra Seo Dymi M). Could also be a "praying CEO diminutive mantis" maybe. I'm not recommending using this in particular, but it's a really hard name, so maybe someone can come up with a better mnemonic.

64: Gadolinium - Okay, I'm no native English speaker, but in what universe does cattle sound like gadol? If I make a thick American accent maybe, but to my foreign ears the difference between c,g and t,d is too much. So I've given Magdalene a surname: Gadot. As in Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman). In my head Madgalene is her farmer aunt, who breeds mutant linen supercows. So the card says: "Magdalene Gadot's linen cattle." ("Gadot's linen" sounds like "Gadolinium")

66: Dysprosium - Disposes disparate garbage.

78: Platinum - Reminder that Platinum (78) comes before Gold (79).

91: Protactinium - Paper protractor with a tiny protector.

93: Neptunium - The trident has 3 prongs and 9 points (each prong has 3 points), makes it very easy to remember.

107: Bohrium - Clouds are the border to heaven, and they occupy a lot of volume (sounds like "Bohrium"). No it does not.

I've also added the origin of the symbols that don't match the name (it can help remember the symbol, especially if you speak a Romance language):

19: Potassium - K from Neo-Latin/German Kalium, from Arabic Alkali, "the calcined ashes".

50: Tin - Sn from latin Stannum.

51: Antimony - Sb from latin Stibium.

80: Mercury - Hg from Latin hydrargyrum, from Greek hydrargyros, water-silver.

horwitz commented 3 years ago

I realize that you are trying to improve the deck and make it easier for people to learn, but many of us have been studying using the same mnemonics for years and years—these changes are damaging. Perhaps forking the project would make sense?

MiquelJorquera commented 3 years ago

I'm really sorry if that's the case, I was purposefully just making the suggestions that are additions (not changes) to the cards. At least in my last comment. Can an addition damage a mnemonic? For me it just adds to it, making it stronger. But please, if people don't like these suggestions, don't implement them. I was just trying to help.

horwitz commented 3 years ago

adding to mnemonics—especially changing the middle of them!—changes the text that those studying use to cue themselves to the element names, atomic numbers, and/or element symbols. many users (myself included) see (for example)

"Chrome-plated Creamer. 24-oz. pitcher of cream."

as essentially a fixed image—changing those words (whether by addition, deletion, or otherwise) muddies that image that's been repeatedly viewed (for years!) and makes it harder to recall—thus making "Cr", "chromium", and "24" harder to recall.

also, I find a lot of these suggestions confusing:

40: Zirconium - The ring is from Zara (pretty famous clothing stores).

in Spain, perhaps—I'm not sure about other countries (they are relatively new to the US and not very prevalent); and are rings usually associated with clothing stores (instead of, say, jewelry stores)? how does "Zara" help more than "Ezra" and "Zircon Ring"?

43: Technetium - The technician should wear a hair net, to remind you that it is not Technicium.

I'm not sure which is more potentially damaging to long-time deck users in general—changing the graphics or changing the text

51: Antimony - The passbook account is in Area 51.

I don't understand this—Area 51 is not a bank (AFAIK); also, "51" is covered by the ant walking on a "5" and a "1" (the two smallest paper-money denominations in the US)

59: Praseodymium - This one is not grammatically correct, but it was the only way I could remember the name: It is a "praying sea diminutive mantis" (Pra Seo Dymi M). Could also be a "praying CEO diminutive mantis" maybe. I'm not recommending using this in particular, but it's a really hard name, so maybe someone can come up with a better mnemonic.

these appear just to be random words that have parts that sound vaguely like parts of the element name

64: Gadolinium - Okay, I'm no native English speaker, but in what universe does cattle sound like gadol? If I make a thick American accent maybe, but to my foreign ears the difference between c,g and t,d is too much. So I've given Magdalene a surname: Gadot. As in Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman). In my head Madgalene is her farmer aunt, who breeds mutant linen supercows. So the card says: "Magdalene Gadot's linen cattle." ("Gadot's linen" sounds like "Gadolinium")

in American English they actually do sound very much a lot alike—one can listen to relevant audio by clicking on the speaker icons on the following two pages: cattle and gadolinium

66: Dysprosium - Disposes disparate garbage.

why add "disparate"? "Disposes" already gives the "disp" prefix

78: Platinum - Reminder that Platinum (78) comes before Gold (79).

why? how?

91: Protactinium - Paper protractor with a tiny protector.

like with dysprosium, this at least seems to change the mnemonic many of us are used to and add no value—"prot*ct-" is already covered by "protractor"

107: Bohrium - Clouds are the border to heaven, and they occupy a lot of volume (sounds like "Bohrium").

"volume" does not sound like "bohrium"

I've also added the origin of the symbols that don't match the name (it can help remember the symbol, especially if you speak a Romance language):

19: Potassium - K from Neo-Latin/German Kalium, from Arabic Alkali, "the calcined ashes".

are there a lot of Romance-language speakers familiar with the word "kalium"? don't get me wrong—I find why potassium uses K as its symbol interesting—but that seems beyond the scope of this deck. it's already focused on relating three things (element name, element symbol, and atomic number)—adding yet another (e.g., symbol etymology) seems too heavy

51: Antimony - Sb from latin Stibium.

I'm not sure how Romance-language knowledge helps here—for example, (1) is there another Spanish word for "antimony" aside from "antomonio" (i.e., one that is similar to "stibium")? (2) how many Spanish speakers are familiar with a (Spanish) word for "antimony"? (I suspect it's as uncommon in regular Spanish discourse as it is in English!) (of course, this might be relevant to speakers of some other Romance language(s) than Spanish 🤷‍♀️)

this seems to reduce to "learn that 'stibium' is Latin for 'antimony', and then it's easy (easier) to remember that the symbol is Sb" —but if one is going to do that, they might as well just learn "Sb is the symbol for antimony".

(BTW: I'm guessing that the number of people who know that "stibium" is Latin for "antimony" and don't know that Sb is the symbol for antimony... is a very very small number.)

80: Mercury - Hg from Latin hydrargyrum, from Greek hydrargyros, water-silver.

is there another Spanish word for "mercury" aside from "mercurio" (that is close to "hydrargyrym")? (Greek knowledge can help, sure)

MiquelJorquera commented 3 years ago

Okay, so I think I understand what's happening here: For me, these mnemonics are more about the scene and the story, which put words and numbers together. They are less about the exact words that are used in the text (I wouldn't be able to remember those). So for me, adding redundancy into the details of the story strengthens it (the ant not only has $5 and $1 bills, it also goes to Area 51, because it is an alien that is only allowed to used the secret ATMs there, etc.). In difficult numbers the number will repeat itself, and in difficult words there will be several words that sounds like the name of the element. If that is not how it works for most people, then I retract all those suggestions (40, 41, 51, 59, 66), as redundancy indeed adds no value. The possible exceptions (that I think are more helpful than damaging) are Technetium (the "net" part was supposed to be in text, not in the image), and the tiny protector (so that you remember protacTINIum, and not protRactium).

Then there are two about sounds. Bohrium-volume does sound similar to me, but that must be my untrained ear. I retract that suggestion. I will, however, defend that Gadol-cattle is not intuitive unless you are either a native American English speaker, or are unusually familiar with the nuances of the accent.

The one about 78 Pt being before 79 Au is because it helps remember one if you know the other, if you remember that platinum is more valuable than gold. The original deck does mention this, but it does not menthion that gold has number 79. It's not terribly important, but it did help me.

About the origin of the symbols, yeah you're right, most of those are not helpful even if you speak a Romance language. I was thinking about Stannum (Estaño in Spanish, Estany in Catalan). The rest I admit are for curiosity. And it is true it is beyond the scope of the deck, but the original deck also has several of these: Aurum, Argentum, and Plumbum. But all these are helpful in Romance languages, that's true.