Topic 6: Remembering Very Long Numbers - Tutorial 10
Having worked through Tutorials 8 and 9, you should now feel confident with transposing any number into a word or phrase. By combining this knowledge with the Link System which you have already learned, you can easily memorise numbers with 15, 20, 50 or even 100 digits.
Of course, it's unlikely that you'll ever need to remember a number with 15 or more digits. But it's an impressive memory feat, and anyone who can easily remember, say, 174120526400647 is unlikely to forget a telephone number or a bank account number.
Let's take that number 174120526400647. In order to memorise it there are three steps involved :
- Divide the number up into several smaller groups of digits
- Transpose each group of digits into a word or phrase
- Apply the Link System to each of those words or phrases
For example, 174120526400647 could conveniently be divided into 5 groups of 3 digits - 174 120 526 400 647. Next we need to transpose each of those groups into a word or phrase.
Take the first group, 174. There are several words which would fit these digits - tiger, dagger, digger, ticker, docker are a few examples. When you are trying to transpose digits into words for yourself, the first one you think of is usually best for you.
Now move on to the next three digits. What fits 120 phonetically? tennis, tons, tens, dons, dennis... - try to think of some yourself.
Having decided on words for the first two groups, you can start forming a link. Let's say you choose tiger and dennis. Now make a ludicrous association between the two - for example, picture a tiger playing tennis in the Wimbledon final. Be sure to see that picture clearly in your mind's eye.
The next group is 526. Lunch, launch, lunge, lounge would all fit phonetically. Now continue the Link - visualise yourself trying to eat your lunch with a tennis racket, or make up a ridiculous picture of your own.
Next comes 400. Roses, raises, rouses or ruses would fit this group. Associate lunch to roses - picture yourself eating lunch, when dozens of roses on long green stems suddenly begin growing out of the table. Finally, think of a word to fit 647. Shark, jerk, or shirk would do the job. Now complete your link by associating roses to shark - see a shark trying to swim through a bed of roses instead of in the sea, or any other bizarre picture which comes to mind.
You now have a short Link of 5 words. Go over that link in your mind right now. Tiger is associated to ... tennis, which reminds you of ... lunch, which is associated to ... roses, which reminds you of shark.
If you know that simple Link, then you also know 174120526400647. Just think of each word in the Link, and transpose it back to digits. The word 'tiger' MUST transpose to 174 - if you apply the rules of the Phonetic Alphabet, there can be no ambiguity in transposing words back to digits.
Similarly, 'tennis, MUST break down to 120, 'lunch' must give us 526, 'roses' can only be 400, and 'shark' must transpose to 647.
If you have any problems in transposing sounds to numbers then you haven't learned the Phonetic Alphabet rules properly. Go back to Tutorials 5 and 6 and work through them thoroughly - the Phonetic Alphabet should become second nature to you.
Of course, if you remember 174120525400647 forwards, then you also know it backwards. Taking each word in your Link backwards, shark, roses, lunch, tennis, and tiger must give you 746004625021471.
Easy, isn't it? By combining the simple rules of the Phonetic Alphabet with the equally simple Link System, you have the means of memorising any long digit number, forwards and backwards.