How To Learn Polyatomic Ions

If you lot're in the sciences, so, chances are, memorizing the polyatomic ions will be one of the more than challenging memory tasks you will face during your bookish career. Heck, you lot're probably reading this the night before a major exam – just trying to figure out how to hack it. But in this article, I'm going to show you how I, a sociology major with no bent towards science whatsoever, tin can memorize them hands and chop-chop using 3 simple steps… and by the end of this article, you lot'll have a neuroscientifically proven method for memorizing anything your teachers can throw at you.

Let's face it, memorizing the polyatomic ions – or any other chemic formula – is hard. In fact, it's then hard that l% of the Wikipedia page for "polyatomic ions" is comprised of tips on how to memorize these disruptive formulas! I bet you've never seen that before.

Equally an online instructor in accelerated learning, with over 150,000 students in every field of report imaginable, I get asked a LOT: Jonathan, how tin can I memorize scientific or mathematical formulas? But look, I'thou not even going to lie. As a sociology major turned entrepreneur, I don't even fully understand what the polyatomic ions are all about or why they matter. Afterwards all, I spend my fourth dimension speaking, writing books, and educational activity online courses about memory and learning… what do I care nigh chemical formulas?

Fortunately, with the correct organization for learning and memorizing them quickly and easily – that actually doesn't even matter – and as you lot'll detect out, my complete novice status as a chemist didn't stop me from being able to quickly and easily memorize the polyatomic ions in a lasting and memorable way.

Enter polyatomic ions

Here's the matter: If yous expect at a lot of the videos, tips, and advice all over the web, information technology all offers you either a simple mnemonic about Nick The Baby Camel – which but helps you larn a few of the polyatomic ions, or another complicated schema for converting from the "ate" polyatomic ions to the other ones.

A table showing the different variations for naming polyatomic ions. The rules applied here are very useful when you want to memorize polyatomic ions.

For example, if yous add "per" to the front end, you add one more oxygen to the "ate" form, or if yous convert "ate" to "ite", yous have one LESS oxygen ion, and then on and then forth.

Now, I'm non going to stand here and tell yous not to employ these techniques, because, in reality, they can exist really helpful in teaching y'all to convert the ions yourself. Plus, if you create visual mnemonics – like the kinds you lot're going to learn virtually in this article – to call up those rules, they can really cut downward on the amount of piece of work you lot demand to do.

The trouble with these memorization tactics is that they depend on y'all first learning the basic "ate" ions, which you'd accept to practise with rote memorization… and fifty-fifty still, they exercise nada to preclude yous from forgetting a bunch of the "ate" versions, and therefore, forgetting unabridged groups of polyatomic ions.

What yous demand is a method that makes it quick and easy to at the very least memorize the "ate" polyatomic ions and their formulas, in gild, so that you can exist certain not to leave one of them out! Once you do that, yous can either utilise the aforementioned system to memorize the "per", "hypo", "ite", and so on versions of the polyatomic ions, or fall dorsum on the "nomenclature" conversion tricks if you take to.

The power of visual memory

In guild to memorize this stuff apace and hands, we take to retrieve out of the box, and instead rely on the incredible power of our visual memory. You come across, the human brain has, in fact, evolved to memorize HUGE amounts of information… it just isn't used to doing information technology in an auditory or text-based style. Think well-nigh it… your ancestors 100,000 years agone knew the name, medicinal value, and flavor of every plant and creature around them, and were able to memorize generations of rich tribal history. How's this possible?

Well, if you lot desire to improve your memory, you need to remember a few basic principles, kickoff:

Our brains are subject to something called " the picture superiority effect." This means that even if yous remember yous're an auditory or tactile-kinesthetic learner, inquiry has proven that in fact, your brain remembers pictures better than annihilation else.
Our brains operate past something called Hebb'due south Law , which states that neurons that burn down together, wire together. In plain English, this ways that connecting new information to information we already know makes information technology more than memorable and relevant to your brain, which will place a higher priority on information technology
And finally, our brains are insanely good at remembering locations . This is why the retention palace technique – a organisation of creating unique, memorable pictures and imaginarily placing them into real-world places that your brain already knows – is used past every single memory champion and earth record holder. In fact, I recently put out a video explaining the exact neuroscience behind the retention palace, and how the heck it works SO incredibly well. Y'all can watch it below:

The approach to memorize polyatomic ions

At present that we understand these 3 bones tenets of memory comeback, let's endeavor it out, by tackling some polyatomic ions.

Every bit I go along, what I'grand going to do is create a unique visual symbol for each polyatomic ion – that'south rule #ane. These symbols will use interesting, bizarre, imagery to make it interesting and original for my encephalon – in fact, I might even choose to employ vehement or sexual imagery. Don't worry – these images are only for you, and you don't accept to share them with anyone else.

As I exercise this, I'm going to be extra careful to connect these images to other pieces of knowledge, creating at least two or 3 connections to pre-existing cognition – rule number 2. I'll try to contain visual elements that I already know, or fifty-fifty connect it to people or things that are emotionally relevant for me, personally. That's why any list of visual markers I could create for you is ultimately not as successful as y'all simply doing it yourself.

Finally, for Dominion #3, I'll discover a logical fashion to organize the polyatomic ions into a location I know very well, such as my favorite grocery store, my bedroom, or even my entire house.

Before I show yous guys some bodily examples – and before you see how incredibly constructive this really is – I desire you to stop and think for a 2d: how is this different than the way you've been learning upward until now? Is it MORE interesting and engaging than trying to memorize a list of meaningless names and formulas, or less? Allow me know in the comments below.

Actually memorizing polyatomic ions

OK, so on to some examples.

Let's beginning with a basic one: Chlorate. Instead of just trying to do "rote memorization," I'm going to think nearly the chlorine dispenser my dad used in the pool when I was growing up.

A chlorine dispenser, used as a visual marker in the context of memorizing polyatomic ions.

A chlorine dispenser, used as a visual marking in memorizing chlorate.

He was always yelling at me not to play with it or get close to it, because I call back he was agape of what would happen if I "ate" the chlorine. Within of this chlorine dispenser, I'm picturing 3 petty balls, which are in the place where my dad used to put the chlorine tabs… but these aren't chlorine tabs – they're clear, and they expect different. That's considering these are the iii oxygen atoms.

At present, I just demand to identify this circuitous visual symbol in a logical place in my retention palace. Depending on what I need to memorize this information for, I might do it differently. If I need to group them by alphabetical society, I might create a linear journey through my memory palace, and then memorize the unabridged listing of polyatomic ions, in order, placing one symbol on every major piece of furniture, window sill, or doorway along my linear journey.

On the other hand, if I just need to memorize the listing, and don't care also much near where they get, I might put things in a "logical" place that reinforces the visual symbol by leveraging a pre-existing retention… for example, putting this chlorine dispenser into my childhood pool. Some other manner to do it would be to pick a room or area in my memory palace for specific letters of the alphabet, for example, putting all polyatomic ions that start with "C" or One thousand into the Kitchen, and putting all polyatomic ions that start with "B" into the master Bedroom.

For now, I think I'm going to keep the chlorine dispenser in the pool where I won't forget information technology, or it's three little oxygen atoms. Anyways, I don't need to know them in alphabetical order. Plus, because I at present know chlorate, I can either choose to make additional memorable symbols for chloride, hypochlorite, perchlorate, then on, or just employ the piece of cake-to-follow rules about adding and removing oxygen atoms based on their proper noun. I've already memorized 5 polyatomic ions, with just one visual symbol!

The ability of using pre-existing cognition

Let's give information technology some other go, by memorizing Nitrate. In this state of affairs, I'thou going to lean on a piece of pre-existing cognition nearly a specific memory I have from years ago, when I learned about "nitrates." At the time, the girl I was dating was telling me why I should stop eating lunch meat – because it's full of nitrates! I might picture myself with 3 round slices of delicious deli ham sticking out of my mouth, except instead of existence pink and normal, they're clear – because they are the 3 oxygen atoms in nitrate.

Deli ham slices

Cafeteria ham slices, used as a marker for Nitrate.

For the sake of logic, I'yard going to put this in the refrigerator of the same babyhood house where the pool and the chlorine dispenser are. Now, using the same naming rules as earlier, I now know how to write the formulas for nitrite and nitride – and I might just create another visual symbol for remembering why hyponitrite and pernitrate are special exceptions.

This strategy will accept yous very far, assuasive you to easily memorize the "basic" polyatomic ions in minutes – from sulfate to phosphate and even cyanide – which I call up by picturing a mysterious Chinese spy – CN – chewing on a negatively charged cyanide pill after getting caught.

Simply what most the more than complex polyatomic ions?

Ones like Citrate, whose formula is C6H5O7 iii−?

For this, we'll use an fifty-fifty more advanced formula of creating compound visual markers inside the stations of our memory palace – in other words, using private details of the visualized images to add details within one visualization. Think of it a fleck like compressing more information into ane symbol.

Hither's how I'd do information technology… effort visualizing information technology with me every bit I keep.

C6, for me, brings upwards a particularly sexy and heady image of a Corvette C6. In that Corvette, a beautiful model is driving past a crowd of adoring fans, giving everyone a Loftier 5. Now, recollect how I said that obscene, often sexual imagery works better than any other kind? Well, as she drives by her fans, 7 people in the audition spontaneously experience… you guessed it… a big "O!" The police see this, and empathize that it's completely inappropriate in public, so they requite her -3 points on her driving record.

At present, you might be wondering – how am I remembering that it is 7 people who have that awkward O? Simple… I'm picturing that there are iv on 1 side of the auto and 3 on the other one. How about the -3 points? Why did I choose that visualization? Well, because I'g relying on pre-existing noesis that I learned during a particularly unpleasant interaction with a police officer when I was speeding, whereby I learned that the maximum number of points you tin can get in California for any traffic crime is iii at a time.

You come across, non only is my visual marker extremely bizarre and memorable, but more importantly, it borrows from images and visualizations that I personally already know – such equally the design of a C6 Corvette – which take emotional meaning to me – such as the number of points I tin can become if I drive too fast. I leverage the types of visualizations and associations that come naturally to me, such every bit picturing High v's for H5, and I don't shy abroad from using inappropriate or nasty images, such equally people in the oversupply having a very lude response to their Loftier-v.

Only wait! At present that I know the formula of this polyatomic ion… how practise I remember the name? Well, that'southward an piece of cake one, likewise. I just think of whatever comes to heed when I recall of Citrate, for example, a Citrus fruit on my friend Nate's head, and I put him in the passenger seat of the Corvette… an accompaniment to the law-breaking!

Or, I could rely on another course of pre-existing knowledge, if I accept one. For example, I happen to know that the magnesium supplement I like (which coincidentally comes in citrus flavor), contains magnesium citrate. So, to remember that this is the visual symbol for citrate, I might just put the logo of the brand that makes it, Natural Calm, all over the exterior of the Corvette, in the same way that Formula 1 cars have logos plastered all over them.

In Conclusion

I know information technology sounds complicated, but with a little scrap of do, creating these types of creative, circuitous visual symbols can go second nature. By doing so, I tin memorize each polyatomic ion (or annihilation else, for that thing) in a affair of seconds – placing that chemical compound visual image into the appropriate place in my retention palace, and moving on to the next one. In time, this becomes as quick and easy as snapping your fingers!

And the all-time part? You will be able to cutting your review time past as much as 80%, because memorizing this way is not only a heck of a lot more fun, it's likewise fashion more memorable. Instead of trying to memorize a deck of dull flashcards by repeating them over and over and over again, y'all can imagine yourself walking through one of your favorite places, picturing lude models driving sports cars, protective ex-girlfriends slapping luncheon meat out of your hand, and dangerous chlorine dispensers with oxygen atoms inside of them.

Now y'all try it. I'd beloved information technology if y'all took a moment to name a polyatomic ion in the comments, and share what yous might visualize in order to remember information technology's formula. Information technology's much easier than you lot remember!

Now, I realize that this has been a pretty intense and fast-paced introduction to the rich world of retentivity enhancement and mnemonic techniques, and so if you still a footling confused, intrigued, or just want to learn more almost how to leverage these techniques, I want to encourage you to non only subscribe to our channel and hitting the "bong" icon, but as well, bank check out this completely gratis, one 60 minutes grooming session, where I'll become into a scrap more of the neuroscience behind how and why this stuff works, with plenty more examples of how you tin can utilise it in your day to day life.