Top 10 Scientific Memory Aids

Science contains vast quantities of vital information that can often be hard to recall. A mnemonic is a simple phrase or word that makes it easier to remember such details. Here’s a list of 10 mnemonics to help you grasp some key scientific concepts. This is the first installment in a series of mnemonic collections.

10. The Speed of Light

Just remember this phrase, and whenever you need to recall the speed of light, count the number of letters in each word of the sentence.

We ensure precision, directly referring to this light mnemonic

299,792,458 meters per second

Use these mnemonics to memorize the first eighteen elements – once you’ve done that, feel free to create your own for the remaining elements.

Happy Henry Enjoys Beer But Couldn’t Find Four Nuts

This helps us remember the first 10 elements: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon.

Naughty Magpies Always Sing Perfect Songs While Clawing Ants

This mnemonic covers the next 8 elements: Sodium (Na), Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Chlorine, Argon.

Here’s a helpful phrase to remember the sequence of the earth’s atmospheres:

The Strong Man’s Triceps Burst

This represents: Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Exosphere.

This is a mnemonic I learned back in school, and it’s a great method for recalling the colors of the rainbow.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

This phrase represents: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Interestingly, many contemporary scientists no longer consider Indigo as part of the rainbow.

The brightest stars in the night sky (excluding the Sun) can be easily recalled using this straightforward mnemonic:

Sir Can Rig A VCR, Pa!

This stands for: Sirius in Canis Major, Canopus in Carina, Rigil Kent in Centaurus, Arcturus in Bootes, Vega in Lyra, Capella in Auriga, Rigel in Orion, Procyon in Canis Minor, Achernar in Eridanus.

Saturn has many moons (35 of which are named). To remember the 9 major moons, think back to your most recent doctor’s visit:

Met Dr Thip

The letters stand for: Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Phoebe.

Here’s a mnemonic to help you recall the planets’ order, starting from the one closest to the sun and going outward. Pluto is included in the list.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

This gives us: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (my personal favorite).

Here’s a helpful mnemonic to remember the bones of the skull:

Old People From Texas Eat Spiders

This stands for: Occipital, Parietal, Frontal, Temporal, Ethmoid, Sphenoid.

Here’s a simple way to remember the biological classifications:

[Limping Dreadfully,] King Phillip Came Over From Great Spain

This stands for: [Life, Domain,] Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

Here’s a fantastic mnemonic to help you remember the geological ages:

Camels Often Sit Down Carefully. Perhaps Their Joints Creak. Possibly Early Oiling Might Prevent Premature Rheumatism

This stands for: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Pliocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent.

Bonus: Can you guess?

Here’s another scientific mnemonic – can you figure out what it stands for?

Sergeant Major Hates Eating Onions

I’ll give you two hints: it belongs to the Geography category, and it’s unrelated to the image above.