Mnemonic Devices for Remembering the Planets
How many mnemonic devices are bouncing around in your head right now? Maybe you can still remember at least a few of these educational memory aids that you learned way back when you were in elementary or middle school? COPS? FANBOYS? PEMDAS? HOMES? You almost certainly know your fair share of mnemonic devices, but maybe you haven’t heard the term thrown around much. It’s worth a quick visit to the dictionary for this one - a mnemonic device is essentially a memory aid that can help people remember information that might otherwise be difficult to remember. Memorizing the names of all the planets around our sun can be done easily with practice.
What are Mnemonic Devices?
Mnemonics themselves can come in a variety of forms. A mnemonic device is essentially a memory aid that can help people remember information that might otherwise be difficult to remember.
Acronyms: Using the first letter of each word in a list to form a new word can make information easier to remember. For example, “ROY G.
Acrostics: These are similar to acronyms, but instead of forming a new word, the first letter of each word in a list is used to form a phrase or sentence that is easier to remember. The mnemonic sentence we created is called an acrostic mnemonic (as opposed to an acronym). The first letter of each word in the sentence corresponds to the first letter of each planet.
Rhymes: Whether they’re set to a song or just a simple rhyming phrase, the cadence of a rhyme is a helpful memory trigger for students. There’s also a famous rhyme for remembering the planets.
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Chunking: Breaking up information into smaller, more manageable chunks is a classic mnemonic device.
The Planets of Our Solar System
According to NASA, there are eight planets in our solar system. Beyond the eight planets are additional dwarf planets, including Pluto. Before 2006, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were considered as planets. The planets, in order from the sun, are:
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet and not one of the major planets. Pluto was once part of the gang, but according to NASA, its status as ‘planet’ has now been downgraded to ‘dwarf planet’, so technically, it no longer counts. The ninth planet used to be Pluto before it was demoted to a dwarf planet. There may be hundreds of dwarf planets, so those are usually left out of the main mnemonic, but if you want to remember Pluto as well, you can use “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” If you include Pluto, a good mnemonic for the order of the planets is “My (Mercury) Very (Venus) Easy (Earth) Method (Mars) Just (Jupiter) Speeds (Saturn) Up (Uranus) Naming (Neptune) Planets” (Pluto). People who were educated with older textbooks may want to include Pluto.
Mnemonic Devices for Remembering the Order of the Planets
A planetary mnemonic refers to a phrase created to remember the planets and dwarf planets of the Solar System, with the order of words corresponding to increasing sidereal periods of the bodies. Need an easy way to remember the order of the planets in our Solar System? The technique used most often to remember such a list is a mnemonic device. This uses the first letter of each planet as the first letter of each word in a sentence. Memorizing the order of the planets in our solar system is very easy when you use mnemonics.
- "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos"
- “My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Names,” which will make it easier to remember.
- "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos"
- "My Very Expensive Malamute Jumped Ship Up North"
- “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.”
- “My (Mercury) Very (Venus) Easy (Earth) Method (Mars) Just (Jupiter) Speeds (Saturn) Up (Uranus) Naming (Neptune) Planets” (Pluto).
- “Many Vast Elephants Make Jam Sandwiches Under No Pressure”.
- "Men Very Easily Make Jugs Serve Useful Needs, Perhaps" - The structure of this sentence, which is current in the 1950s, suggests that it may have originated before Pluto's discovery. It can easily be trimmed back to reflect Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet.
- "My Violent Evil Monster Just Scared Us Nuts".
It’s okay to be creative! You can make your mnemonics as silly as you want.
Read also: Mnemonics for the Solar System
Visual Mnemonics
One simple visual mnemonic is to hold out both hands side-by-side with thumbs in the same direction (typically left-hand facing palm down, and right-hand palm up). The fingers of hand with palm down represent the terrestrial planets where the left pinkie represents Mercury and its thumb represents the asteroid belt, including Ceres. A representation of the above method with the left hand representing the terrestrial planets and the right hand, with palm turned upward, is representing the giant planets along with TNOs
Try drawing a picture of the planets in order. You don't have to be an accomplished artist to do this; you can simply draw different circles for each planet and label each one. Sometimes color-coding can help aid your memory. For example, use red for Mars and blue for Neptune. Or try using Solar System flash cards or just pictures of the planets printed on a page (here are some great pictures of the planets). This works well because not only are you recalling the names of the planets but also what they look like.
Auditory Mnemonics
Many people are auditory learners, meaning that they retain information better when they hear it spoken out loud. Setting the names of the planets to a song may help you remember the order. There are a number of songs that help you recall a basic fact about each planet and help you remember their order. You can also listen to a catchy song that has the order of the planets in it or listen to a recording of yourself saying the planets in order over and over again. Make an audio recording of yourself speaking the planets in order. Repeat it several times in the recording.
Kinesthetic Mnemonics
Maybe you are a hands-on learner. If so, try building a three-dimensional model of the Solar System. Kids, ask your parents or guardians to help you with this, or parents/guardians, this is a fun project to do with your children. You can buy inexpensive Styrofoam balls at your local craft store to create your model, or use paper lanterns and decorate them.
Additionally, you can have eight children act as the planets while the rest of the class tries to line them up in order.
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Other Memory Techniques
Repetition: Saying the names in order over and over is another way to use repetition to remember the order.
Memory Pegs: Memory pegs are things that information hooks onto inside your brain. For each of the words assigned to each number, imagine that object. Imagine a shoe for the number 2. Give each planet a number in the order that they need to be memorized. Connect your number image (1-bun, 2-shoe, etc.) with your planet name. Go through each image set and link the images together. Go systematically, reviewing them one by one. Give yourself a written test to see how well you remember the image sets.
The Journey Method: The journey method involves you mentally moving yourself through a location such as a house. Imagine a large house and assign each planet to a different room. Associate an image with each planet and give them a reason for being in a given room. “Imagine the hot sun. What do you see coming out of the sun? A tube that contains MERCURY of course. Who gets covered by the Mercury as it falls? The goddess VENUS. What does Venus do to escape from the burning metal? She digs a hole and builds up a pile of EARTH. Who gets upset by the noise made by digging the hole? The little red-faced man (MARS is known as the red planet) eating a MARS bar. When he throws the MARS bar, who does it hit? It hits JUPITER the king of the gods. What has Jupiter got on his T-shirt? The letters S, U and N which stand for SATURN, URANUS, and NEPTUNE. Who is the little dog following the chap wearing the T-shirt?
Testing: See how well you perform by testing yourself as you study the planet names. Try to write down from memory all the planet names. See which ones you get right, which ones are wrong, and which you’ve forgotten altogether. Ask a friend or family member to help you study. Or, take a test or quiz online to help you learn the order of the planets.
Writing it Down: For some people, it helps to write down information in order to lock it into their memories. It might help to use a different color marker to write each planet’s name. If you're a visual learner, try writing down the order of the planets several times on a piece of paper until you remember.
Learning Planet Groupings
To remember planet order, dig deeper than memorizing mnemonics. Learn why planets are grouped - like terrestrial vs gas giants. Understanding why helps you logically see the order in the solar system. Learn planet groupings logically rather than memorize mnemonics.
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