Quiz time ... how many planets are there? If you said 9 you're living in the past! Don't forget that last year the official definition of a planet was finally announced, and guess what - Pluto didn't make the cut. (Which is something i've said should be case for ages).

Anyway, if you're having trouble remembering the names of the planets (and now "minor planets" such as Pluto), mnemonics to the rescue! "A fourth-grader at Riverview Elementary School [GREAT FALLS, Montana] has won the National Geographic planetary mnemonic contest, developing a handy way to remember the newly assigned 11 planets [11 includes the three dwarfs]".

My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants

Congratulations Maryn Smith! You can read the AP article here

Holy Guacamole! Jupiter is HUGE! So what's the E in Elephant for? Planet X? Is it that teeny, tiny dot way behind the celestial body formally known as a planet--Pluto? Why is Pluto not a planet anymore, anyway? Who did he piss off?

Good questions all :)

The dwarf planets are: Pluto, Ceres, and Eris.

Eris is 3x as far out as Pluto, and is actually slightly larger. It even has a moon (Dysnomia), and a frozen methane atmosphere.

I've actually talked about the planet naming issue before here, here, and here

Mnemonics work pretty well for me, if I can get them to stick. From grade school, I remember "Every Good Boy Does Fine (on the line)" to name the notes on the lines, bottom to top, on the treble clef music staff.

"Which Chicken Became So Knowledgeable?" is the mnemonic I made up when I was in high school to memorize the five Romantic poets. (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelly, and Keats).

You always accuse me of having too much useless trivia floating around in my brain, maybe mnemonics are partly to blame. While I often read music, I can't really remember the last time I needed to know the names of the five great English Romantic poets off the top of my head. Yet due to a mnemonic, there they are.

Maybe someone could come up with a mnemonic to help me remember how to spell "mnemonic".

You just had to put that challenge out there, didn't you?!
May
No one
Ever
Memorize
Only
Nonsense
Information
Correctly
:) So there!!!

I can't remember any mnemonics from school, so I don't think they work for me... I never even learned the notes, though I have zero musical talent anyway... And I never learned (or even heard of most of) the romantic poets. I can remember "i before e, except after c" and "is over of equals % over 100", so I guess I'm a formula girl! OH, and I could probably tell you lots of useless trivia about the TV show "Friends"... See, there's an i before e right there!!! Weird! (exception to the rule!) :)

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