Thursday, November 19, 2009

Missing Pluto








Today it dawned on me that the planetary mnemonic we learned as children will no longer work since Pluto is no longer a planet. That Pluto is not a planet anymore is old news of course, but the uselessness of that old mnemonic hit me hard just now.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto

Now what should we use to help us memorize the order of the planets?

Asking this very question sent me on my way doing a Google search for "planetary mnemonic", and this is what I found:

The International Astronomical Union has suggested a revised mnemonic, namely, "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos."

(This phrase does not include dwarf planets, but there have been competitions looking for the best mnemonic for the planets and dwarf planets.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_mnemonic

6 comments:

Don said...

Whats so bad about sorting seeds? Sounds like a rather useful way to structure time.

Sophia said...

Hey, you don't like it? Take it up with Lucius Apuleius! ;)

Don said...

People have to structure their time somehow.

jh said...

here it is
saturnday

have you ever listened to
the planets
by gustav holst??

that'd be a meditation for you

i likes this planet thing

thnks

jh

human being said...

interesting...

me too was shocked when heard about this last year...


but think nothing has changed...it is still there... influencing the cosmos...

in Iran people believe that most of the time small and tiny things and beings are more powerful...
;)

Anonymous said...

interesting info on planetary mnemonic.