Is there a good mnemonic for remembering the difference between "stalactite" (hangs down) and "stalagmite" (points up)?
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you are well loved. Four answers in under half an hour!– Jimi OkeCommented Dec 23, 2010 at 3:32
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2Either he's well-loved, or there's just a lot of mnemonic-loving people hanging around... :)– user730Commented Dec 23, 2010 at 3:46
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Yeah... sometimes it is hard to gauge one's own motives.– Cerberus - Reinstate MonicaCommented Dec 23, 2010 at 3:50
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@J. M. - Touche! @Cerberus - Indeed, that is so!– Jimi OkeCommented Dec 23, 2010 at 4:00
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Tights ('tites) come down.– WaggersCommented Nov 20, 2015 at 10:10
11 Answers
Here is one from my secondary school geography teacher that I will never forget:
stalactite --- ceiling
stalagmite --- ground
Stalactites hang from the ceiling; stalagmites rise from the ground.
As long as you remember what c and g mean in those words, you will never confuse them!
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@ShreevatsaR: Cool! Now that I think about it, I'm not too sure if this was from my teacher or from a classmate, but, whatever. It was still back in the good old days I learned about yardangs, barchans, and other features I'd never set my eyes on.– Jimi OkeCommented Dec 23, 2010 at 5:58
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4I learned stalactites cling to the ceiling; stalagmites grow from the ground. Reinforces that even more. Commented Apr 18, 2012 at 12:21
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Let me give you another mnemonic, closer to the heart of some:
Stalactite = tit
Stalagmite = you already remembered the tit one
This is how we remember it in Dutch, in which language it actually rhymes: stalactiet - tiet.
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1So you're saying the tits are up top, and everything else is incidental? Commented Dec 23, 2010 at 4:35
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7Hehe, well, basically... but tits generally hang down most of the time on most mammals. Commented Dec 23, 2010 at 4:42
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5I was VERY tempted to give this one the check mark... if only the British didn't have the expression "tits up" (which means things have gone horribly wrong, so "tits down" is presumably good... but that's a long chain for a mnemonic)– user3065Commented Dec 23, 2010 at 4:46
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6Dunno about y'all, but my tits point horizontally. Except when I'm lying down, in which case they point up. So this mnemonic would, at best, be useless; at worst, it would cause me to always get it wrong.– MarthaªCommented Dec 23, 2010 at 8:41
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2Perhaps the crucial point to some mnemonics is to accept them at face value because they seem right at the moment of acceptance, even though one might later realize that they were nonsense - but then they'd have already done their job. Whatever the case, to go into the matter a bit more: I believe that gravity affects tits by exerting a downward force on them when they are pointing horizontally - the normal situation -, so that perhaps it could be said that they hang down after all - especially at middle age, if I am not misinformed. Please erase, this is going on too far. Commented Dec 29, 2010 at 5:26
Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling, and Stalagmites might grow to meet them.
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"When mites crawl up, they pull their tights down." That's how I always remembered it...
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The saying I was taught was similar. It was something about pulling tights up, so I just remember that you pull tights up and that's where stalactites are.– jhockingCommented Apr 10, 2011 at 2:05
Stalagmites might reach the roof. Stalactites have to hold on tight!
We learned at school:
The tights come down and the mites crawl up!
Well it was the 1960s…
Stalactite has the "lact" root in it meaning "milk", because, well, hanging from the cave roofs, they look like the thing on women's body that gives milk. All I need to do is think about lactating women.
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3I was right: spelunking IS a dirty word.– user3065Commented Dec 25, 2010 at 16:28
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'Stalagmites' contains the German word 'Stalag' (camp) which is better located on the floor of the cave. Stalactites are the other deposits on the ceiling of the cave.