Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0443: Mnemonics for mathematical symbols

Episode Date: November 18, 2015

Brian is memorizing scientific and mathematical formulas and wants to learn mnemonics for the mathematical symbols. I present some ideas for standard mnemonics to use along with number mnemonics to memorize mathematical formulas. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Master of Memory 443. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Brian submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Brian says, Hi Timothy, I'm looking for some guidance on integrating mathematical characters into the

major system in some fashion. The impetus for this is my interest in memorizing the timeline of the Big Bang Theory. Because the data involves tiny fractions of a second and literally astronomical temperatures, I need to use decimal points and exponents, for example, 10 to the power of 15, and negative versions of numbers, for example, 10 degrees below freezing versus 10 degrees above freezing. Do you have any suggestions? So I think that it's really important that you do create a standardized system rather than coming up with some independent mnemonic for each individual situation. And based on that sort of premise, I'm going to assume that you're using major-based object pegs. So you have object pegs based on the major system as described at masterofmemory.com slash start. And for example, the number 22 might be an onion, the number 33

might be a mummy, and the number 12, 1, 2, might be a can of tuna. So if you already have those numbers down, then you can remember numbers that are simple positive integers pretty easily. To add this extra layer of complexity, which is, by the way, a really good question to ask about, I definitely encourage you to create some sort of standardized system so that there's never any confusion about whether something is negative or positive or anything like that. Here's what I would do. For negative numbers, I would actually create a separate mnemonic for the number itself rather than a mnemonic for the minus symbol. Because the way that you worded your question was you said that you'd like to use a mnemonic for the

mathematical characters, but instead of using a character for the minus sign, I would actually make it a separate number to represent that it is a different number. It's a negative number. So this is what I would do. Maybe use your object in some sort of transformed manner. For example, the number 19 is a tuba, but negative 19 is a tuba on fire. And then you want to be consistent. Number 2 is a snowball, but negative 2 is a snowball on fire, as odd as that sounds. So that addresses part of the issue, the issue of negative numbers. And now for decimal point placement, I would use yet a third type of object for what power of 10 it's being raised to. For example, for 10 to the power of 15,

maybe instead of an object for the number 15, you use a character. And if you're using a character from your PAO system instead of an object, that means that it's a power that a number is being raised to, or specifically a power that 10 is being raised to. So in those cases where you're raising 10 to something, that character is doing something with the object at hand. For example, 2.3 times 10 to the minus 15 would be a gnome for 2.3 because 2.3 means gnome. But a guy named Dale, let's say you have a guy named Dale for 1.5, is playing with the gnome because he's the character. You know that 10 is being raised to him and the object is 2.3.

But to remember that it's 10 to the minus 15, you have Dale himself being on fire so that it's to the minus 15 rather than simply 10 to the 15. Now, maybe you don't have a PAO system, and maybe you'd rather not set snowballs on fire. You know, you can use whatever mnemonics make sense to you. Just make sure that it's something very standardized so that you never get it mixed up. And essentially, the technique that I laid out here is what I would recommend, using standardized transformed objects for negative numbers, and then using some different category of objects when you're raising 10 to a specific power. So thanks for a great question, Brian. And as a reminder to everyone, this is kind of new news for Master of Memory. We are planning to create a Mandarin project if we can get this project funded.

There's going to be a much faster timeline as far as the creation of the course than the Spanish course ever was. And we're going to try to create the entire course in just a few months and release it to everybody for free. But that's only if we can meet a very ambitious Kickstarter goal. And so if you go to masterofmemory.com slash vote, you can declare your support for the project and convince other people to contribute as well, no matter how little you need to contribute. Maybe you can only send in one dollar, but that still votes for the project and shows that it is a serious project and that other people should support it as well. We're about 10% of the way to our goal, and we only have about three weeks left to meet our December 18 goal for funding the Mandarin project.

So go to masterofmemory.com slash vote if you're interested in seeing learning materials for learning fluent Mandarin faster than ever, better materials than have ever been created, all released to the world for free. What do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon. Thank you.