The Major System challenge

FUN AND EASY, DF????

HA!

Some of us may take this personally...like those of us who might be considered fun and simple (or, ok, easy but not necessarily fun...or...never mind...).

I wish you well, my friend...When I see instructions that make me need to ask for help, I go into ostrich mode.

Numbers...FEH!!!

Words, I can--mostly--deal with...

Not raining on your parade...just very sorry I can't play this one.

woof.

 

More evidence that the red and blue wires of the brain are not hooked up the same way in every person - the mnemonic you're applying here may make it easier for you (perhaps your mind is more adept at processing symbology than most) - but if I were to apply it my mind would short out and pop an entire bank of circuit breakers and I'd lose sight of every digit.

I find it much easier to create mnemonics whose phrasing is not symbolic but direct, and usually a sequence of tiny arithmetic equations, so that 60139274 becomes "six o' one" (the first half of the easily recalled common cliche: six of one, half dozen of another), half the six (3), tripled (9), tripled again (27), "hold the fort" (another common cliche that not only provides the last digit 4 but also reminds me that there aren't any further digits to try to remember).

But it doesn't seem to matter if the mnemonic associations are themselves meaningful - the sheer fact of association is what makes the mnemonic stick.

Be interesting to see how others take to your method or what kinds of other mnemonic tricks they employ.

8574653467
I just hit the numeric keypad wholly at random above.
Here I go:
"Ate the ketchup" (8 Heinz 57 varieties)
"for the limit" (4 65MPH top CA speed limit on most expressways)
"3 for 6 and 7 clears the table" (Craps pays 3 for a bet of 6 on an odds bet laid on the DON'T COME when the point is 4, winning when 7 is thrown, and on a craps table, every 7 thrown clears all bets off the table, mnemonic that that's the last digit of the sequence. The craps mnemonic only works for me because I know the game - others would have to come up with something else). Funny that I didn't find any quick arithmetic equations to help - it's all phrase - but it works.

You could also use "34567 lost a fifth" (sequence without the 5) and that would be easier than the craps association above.

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

To quote the inimitable Galaxee...GAH!!!!

(And, apologies, Gal...I am SURE your brain can handle this stuff!)

airportkid and dragonfly...my brain, such as it is, has DEFINITELY shorted out...

Can you say "inferiority complex?"

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Feb 25 2007, 12:25 AM) [snapback]396076[/snapback]</div>

I wonder what phrase the world record holder of memorizing pi could have used - 43000 digits!

 

..and an example from "life in the US":

The phrase: “when we the people got screwed" yields the number "543816"

 

Been using this number = consonant system for years. Short term memory, for instance, can remember a 7 number sequence for only about 20 seconds, but if you can rephrase it in words, and then create some kind of mental link between those words and that which the number represents, then, chances are, you'll remember the number sequence for several hours (or more if you keep working on it). Good ways to practice is picking house numbers at random or license plate number/letter sequences and do the conversions in your head while, for instance, taking a long drive.

On my walks, if I see a car or truck in the neighborhood or near our local park that doesn't look like it belongs I'll use this technique to place the licence plate number/letter sequence in memory, then write it down for possible future reference when I get home.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Feb 25 2007, 09:29 AM) [snapback]396242[/snapback]</div>

Vice President Al Gore came in second in the electoral vote, but received 543,816 more popular votes than Bush. Such a close national contest contributed to the controversy of the election; the vote tally in Florida remains a point of dispute (see United States presidential election, 2000 Florida results).

 

holy crap, coding, decoding, translating, reconstituting...

it's like dna but worse...

dude it's sunday. i try not to think too hard on sundays. even for fun. even when i am sick to death of making "please transfer my service to new address" phone calls... :lol:

maybe when this sinks in a little more and when my brain is primed...

 

This thread is proof that there are three types of people in the world . . . Those who are good at math, and those who aren't. :lol:
[that is where the joke ends].

But now I've come to realize there really is a third type:

I belong to this third type of people . . . people who don't have the intestinal fortitude (brain wiring) to find learning a mnemonic system either fun or easy. Nor are we the types to just throw our hands in the air and say “holy crap, I can't remember anything.â€
No – We are the type who use technology to our advantage.

If I need to remember a long number, I break out my cell phone and start punching digits.
I now have instantaneous, muscle head class recall of up to 48 digits at the touch of a button! :lol:
If it's more than just numbers, I hit the record button and talk away.
And, if it's a really long number or message, I can always revert to my palm sized Olympus digital voice recorder.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Feb 25 2007, 11:42 AM) [snapback]396294[/snapback]</div>

Now that's efficient! Proof that genius inhabits all minds, and often doesn't resemble mensa. Reminds me of two (perhaps apocryphal) episodes of the mensa approach shooting its own foot:

1. NASA invested tens of millions developing a ball point pen astronauts could use in zero G (conventional pens depend on gravity to draw the ink toward the ball). NASA succeeded and astronauts could take impeccable notes while in orbit. The USSR didn't have the budget for this kind of R&D, but their astronauts were able to keep notes with similar facility. The USSR sent their astronauts into orbit with pencils.

2. The group of 6 people arguing excitedly at a coffeeshop table was beginning to get the annoyed attention of the other diners, so the waitress went over to see what all the commotion was. The 6 were all mensa members who'd come from a meeting and were loudly trying to solve a logic problem they'd concocted: to get all the salt into the pepper shaker, and all the pepper into the salt shaker without spilling any grains and with the least effort and manipulation. Empty water glasses and spoons were being brandished with ever higher pitched assertions of how to do it and the entire restaurant was being made a reluctant auditory participant in the proceedings. The waitress sighed and settled the argument in five seonds. She unscrewed the shaker tops and swapped them. Two problems solved: theirs, and all the racket.

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

I'm with Tideland. I just remember the number. It helps if I visualise it written down, like say in my phone book, and I'm not in the habit of needing more than 10 or 15 digits. Turning it into a word puzzle wouldn't help me in the least, but I'm well aware my mind's not like most others. It's names I have trouble with. Maybe I should turn those into numbers?

 

My method for remembering numbers is similar to Hyo's. I have to visualize it, but how it would look on a standard telephone keypad. Or link it to a memorable date if it's a 4 digit number. For example, my sis's phone number ___-1887 was the year Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Feb 25 2007, 01:42 PM) [snapback]396294[/snapback]</div>

Oh come on! the joke actually starts out "There are 10 types of people in the world..." Don't you know binary? LOL

For me, memorizing numbers comes more as an exercise in binary or hex - number systems that i know almost better than decimal. Plus, when looking at things in terms of powers of two things can become very interesting.

543,816 = 84C48, much easier to remember.

 

How very strange and coincidental - I started learning this a couple of days ago! I highly suggest anyone who thought this looked difficult and not terribly useful to pick up a copy of any of the books Harry Lorayne (yes, the magician) has written on memory. The major system is really only useful (to me anyway) in terms of other memory tricks it 'enables.' I have precious little use for memorizing more digits of pi, but I'm incredibly impressed with what I've been able to make my brain do since Saturday.

Embarassingly enough, I didn't actually know the hardness scale for minerals - I could tell you approximately where a mineral lay, but I could never manage to keep the list in my head for recall. I now know the scale (in order, backwards, and now with numbers) as well as a growing list (100+ now) of completely unrelated words. I started reading on Saturday, and by yesterday morning I had booked myself an appointment to take the GRE. Back to school I go, even if it's from the office =) I wish I'd been taught systems like this when I was younger, I'd have done a lot better in school if I knew I had the ability to memorize things that weren't interesting enough to lodge in my brain all by themselves.

ops, sorry for the tangent/testimonial =)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Feb 24 2007, 09:25 PM) [snapback]396076[/snapback]</div>

Wouldn't it be easier to just remember 49 and 720. Then you are only remembering 2 numbers. I know this won't always work - particularly when numbers get big or unwieldy, but I'm with the others, your technique looks harder to me. But if it works for you, that's great.