M1 - Mechanics AS - Your guide to remembering SUVATs! (or UVASTs!)

Ohhhmygod. 

What on EARTH are we going to do with these then, eh? 

We've got five magic formulae to learn off by heart for an exam where marks are there for you to grab if you know them! Seriously. These formulae are so important they can make the difference between passing and failing. So! We better get revising them! 

I have a little trick you might like to use. 

I call it DDESC. I call it that because it sounds like DESK and that's pretty easy to remember, right?  Cool. 

So why DDESC? Because it's got five letters, and every letter stands for a word. Check this out

D- --> Divide (-)  

D+ --> Divide (+)

E --> Easy!

S --> Squared

C --> braCkets (Okay, that's cheating, but ohwell. ;) ) 

Why those words? Let's look at the formulas that go with them!

Before you carry on reading; I suggest googling the SUVAT Formulas in google images, just so you can see what they're supposed to look like, since the formatting here doesn't do them justice. :( 

Divide (-) goes with: s = vt - 1/2at^2  

--> (vt) MINUS (half at squared) The divide goes with the half bit ;)

Divide (+) goes with: s=ut + 1/2at^2 

--> (ut) PLUS (half at squared) The difference with these two is the V makes a minus, the U makes a Plus.

Easy! goes with v=u+at (The easiest one of all five!)

Squared goes with v^2=u^2 +2as  (Because V and U are squared here)

BraCkets goes with s=1/2(v+u)t - because there's some lovely brackets around V+U which is lovely to visualise! 

So, how do I remember the rest of the formula when there's only a bit that my words relate to?

Easy. Muscle memory.

Now that you've latched a thought onto each formula, all you need to do is get your brain rewired.

Now this bit isn't important, but it's cool to know.

Our brains use what's called a neural network to learn. It's how we can process so many thoughts and tasks every second, a lot like a computer to survive. But - how does the neural network get "programmed" - like a computer would? Simple. Repetition. 

We can actually rewire our brains to learn how to do something, just by repeating a task. It's genuinely that simple. Muscle…