Anybody have a good mnemonic for converting magnetic declination? Can you make one?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Anybody have a good mnemonic for converting magnetic declination?

So far I have seen:
MEAT: “Magnetic East Add True”
“West is Best, East is Least”

I don’t like them because they don’t really help you memorize the equation and can lead you down the wrong path if you are converting mag to true or true to mag.

I’m looking for a unified mnemonic that will incorporate the entire equation.

**True reading = Magnetic + Declination **with East declination always positive (+) and West always negative (-)

You can rewrite the equation however you want (Mag+Dec=True) as long as it works for East (+) and West (-)

So far I have: “Without Negotiating, Every Prisoner Must Do Time” W(-)E(+) M+D=T
:o

2

I just remember a picture in my head and know that the magnetic pole is west of the true pole, since I’m east or Chicago. So the true angle should be smaller. Remember that west declinations are for the Atlantic side and east are for the Pacific.

3

My Dog Eats Poop, What Next?

4

Compass to true, add east.

Learned that forty years ago and have never forgotten.

5

Pretty much this. Or more generally, remember that the magnetic pole is in northern Canada. So if you’re on the west coast, your compass is going to point more east than the real pole, and you need to add some angle to get back to true. On the east coast you would subtract some value.

In fact I find it hard to keep straight which is which when it comes to compass vs. true bearings, but visualizing what to do is very easy in practice: if I want to head north, then I need to turn my body to the left of where the needle points (since I live in the west).

Looking at a map, I just realized that the Mississippi River is actually a pretty good approximation of the 0 degree line. The declination never exceeds about 4 degrees, and it’s fairly symmetrical in the error.