List of electronic color code mnemonics

Color	Value
Black	0
Brown	1
Red	2
Orange	3
Yellow	4
Green	5
Blue	6
Violet	7
Gray	8
White	9
Gold	–
Silver	–
None	–

Color coded resistors

Mnemonics are used to help memorize the electronic color codes of electronic components such as resistors.

The first letter of the color code is matched by order of increasing magnitude. The electronic color codes, in order, are:

• Black brown red orange yellow green blue violet gray white.

Easy to remember

Some mnemonics that are easy to remember include:

• B B ROY Goes Bombay Via Gateway With Genelia and Susanne.^[1]
• Big Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins.^[2]

• Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes West.^[3]
• Beetle Bailey Runs Over Your General Before Very Good Witnesses.
• Beach Bums Rarely Offer You Gatorade But Very Good Water.
• Buster Brown Races Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins.
• Better be Right or your Great Big Vacation goes wrong.
• Better be right or your great big plan goes wrong. (p=purple for violet)
• Back-Breaking Rascals Often Yield Grudgingly But Virtuous Gentlemen Will Give Shelter Nobly (with tolerance bands Gold, Silver or None)
• Black Beatles Running Over Your Garden Bring Very Grey Weather
• Bad Booze Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well
• Bat Brained Resistor Order You Gotta Be Very Good With
• Big Beautiful Roses Occupy Your Garden But Violets Grow Wild
• Black Bananas Really Offend Your Girlfriend But Violets Get Welcomed
• Black Birds Run Over Your Biting Visible Grey Worms

A mnemonic that has attained some traction in recent years is:

• Big brown rabbits often yield great big vocal groans when gingerly slapped needlessly.^[4][5][6]

India

Mnemonics that are used in Indian classrooms are:

• B.B. ROY of Great Britain has a Very Good Watch made of Gold Silver.^[7][8][9]
• B.B. ROY of Great Britain has a Very Good Wife.
• B.B. ROY Goes to Bring a Very Good Wife.
• BB ROY a Great Boy has a Very Good Wife wearing Gold and Silver Necklace

UK

Mnemonics commonly taught in UK engineering courses include:

• Bye Bye Rosie Off You Go Birmingham Via Great Western^[10]
• Bye Bye Rosie Off You Go Bristol Via Great Western^[11]
• Bye Bye Rosie Off You Go to Become a Very Good Wife^[9]

• Bill Brown Realized Only Yesterday Good Boys Value Good Work^[11][12]

Vacuum tube era

Popular in the days of vacuum-tube radios:

• Better Buy Resistors Or Your Grid Bias Voltages Go West (go west=die)

Offensive

Offensive and vulgar mnemonics include:

• Black boys rape our young girls behind victory garden walls.
• Black boys rape our young girls but virgins go without.^[13]
• Bad beer rots out your guts but vodka goes well.
• Bad boys run our young girls behind victory garden walls.^[14]
• Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.^[15][16] (Get Some Now (refers to the tolerance bands Gold, Silver or None))
• Big Bad ROY Gang Banged Violently Great Women. (ROY stands for Red, Orange and Yellow respectively)

Since B can stand for both "black" and "brown", variations were formed such as "Black boys rape our young girls...".^[14] At the risk of adding racism to the mnemonic, "black" has the advantage that it stands for the color of the same name and helps to differentiate it from the other 2 colors that start with 'b'. Though most forms of those mnemonics include bad, boy and but in that order in which the second letter provides for the disambiguation:

• bad → black
• boys → brown
• but → blue

Humorous, offensive, and sexual mnemonics are more memorable (see mnemonic), but these variations are often considered inappropriate for classrooms, and have been implicated as a sign of sexism in science and engineering classes.^[17] Dr. Latanya Sweeney, associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, a black woman, mentions the mnemonic ("black boys rape only young girls but Violet gives willingly") as one of the reasons she felt alienated and eventually dropped out of MIT in the 1980s to form her own software company.^[18]

A teacher in the UK was reprimanded by the General Teaching Council for alluding to and partial use of a racist and sexist version of this mnemonic in 2011.^[19]

References

1. Color code Calc-Tutor for beginners
2. Meade, Russell L.; Robert Diffenderfer (2004). Foundations of Electronics: Circuits and Devices. Thomson Delmar Learning. ISBN 1-4018-5976-3.
3. "Acronyms from the Free Dictionary.com BBROYGBVGW". 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
4. Benjamin W. Niebel & Andris Freivalds (2003). Methods, Standards, and Work Design (eleventh ed.). McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-07-246824-3.
5. Jack Ganssle (2004). The Firmware Handbook. Elsevier. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7506-7606-9.
6. Jack G. Ganssle; Tammy Noergaard; Fred Eady; Lewin Edwards; David J. Katz; Rick Gentile; Ken Arnold; Kamal Hyder & Bob Perrin (2008). Embedded Hardware: Know It All. Newnes. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7506-8584-9.
7. Various. Xam Idea - Physics. VK Publications. p. 78. ISBN 978-81-88597-65-9.
8. Satya Prakash. Physics Vol (1 and 2). VK Publications. p. 254. ISBN 978-81-88597-31-4.
9. S.M., Dhir (1999). "Passive Components". Electronic Components and Materials: Principles Manufacture & Maintenance. India: Tata Mcgraw-Hill. p. 68. ISBN 0-07-463082-2.
10. Sinclair, Ian (2002-03-20). "Resistors, networks and measurements". Electronic and Electrical Servicing: Level 2. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Newnes. p. 44. ISBN 0-7506-5423-6.
11. Bhargava, N.N.; Kulshreshtha, D.C.; Gupta, S.C. (1984-01-01). "Introduction to Electronics". Basic Electronics and Linear Circuits. India: Tata Mcgraw-Hill. p. 8. ISBN 0-07-451965-4.
12. Gambhir, R.S. (1993). "DC Circuits". Foundations Of Physics. 2. India: New Age International. p. 49. ISBN 81-224-0523-1.
13. bigclivedotcom (2016-03-15), A simple guide to electronic components., retrieved 2016-06-25
14. Indiana University. Midwest Folklore (v.10-11 1960-1961 ed.).
15. Booker, M. Keith (1993). Literature and Domination: Sex, Knowledge, and Power in Modern Fiction. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1195-7.
16. Pynchon, Thomas (1999). V. HarperCollins. p. 560. ISBN 0-06-093021-7.
17. Morse, Mary (2001). Women Changing Science: Voices from a Field in Transition. Basic Books. p. 308. ISBN 0-7382-0615-6.
18. Walter, Chip (2007-06-27). "Privacy Isn't Dead, or At Least It Shouldn't Be: A Q&A with Latanya Sweeney". Scientific American. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
19. Hersey, James (2011-02-25). "BBC News - Sussex teacher reprimanded over 'racist rhyme'". Retrieved 2013-01-23.