My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas.

(Aber manchmal ist der Neptun weiter von der Sonne entfernt als der Pluto.)

Not that I know, although I wish we did. Here's the story of how I finally came to know the order of the planets:

At primary school, where age 8 or so we were supposed to learn the order of the planets, I learned that there were 4 inner and 5 outer planets; that the nearest to the sun was mercury and the other three inner planets were Venus, Earth an Mars, with Earth in the middle; the outer planets I knew came in two pairs (J and S or S and J; and U and N) followed by Pluto.

From repeating the names in the correct order I learned that the outer planets had the order JS UN P, but I could never remember whether the inner planets were MMEV or MVEM.

Finally, years later, I learned to remember that Venus is nearer the sun then Earth and Mars by establishing a negative association between Mars' red colour (whch looks ölike it should be hotter and hence closer) and the fact that Mars is actually further away.

A mnenonic would have made things considerably easier.

Planets in the order from the Sun:

"My very energetic mother just showed us new pickles."

Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets

Mercur
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto

That's fantastic FD, did you just come up with that?

I had actually got as far as "My very easy method j--_ s-- u- nine planets", but now no one will believe me. :-(

Sorry for being nit-picky, but it's 'Mercury'.

Very old discussion, I know, but I just learned that the "standard" mnemonic device, if there is indeed such a thing, might be "Martha Visits Every Monday, Just Stays Until Noon Period."

Now that Pluto is no longer considered a "real" planet just drop the last word :)