Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0504: Memorize the populations of countries

Episode Date: February 11, 2016

How do you memorize the populations of countries? In this episode I present a system for memorizing countries’ populations, demonstrating with mnemonics for the populations of the top 10 most populated countries in the world. 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 […]

Master of Memory 504. 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. I've gotten multiple questions about how to memorize numbers that are really long or have lots of zeros at the end. So, for example, if you're memorizing the population of China and comparing that with the population of Mexico,

one of those countries has 1.4 billion people in it, and one of them has 120 million. You could reduce those, obviously, to an object peg. So for China, you have 1.4. 1.4 is tire. And then for Mexico, you have 120, and the 1.2 could be a tuna can, 1.2. But the problem is, how do you remember how many zeros are after that? My answer to this question is basically, you can memorize things in categories. So for example,

if you want to memorize the populations of the countries of the world, or particularly the biggest, the countries with the biggest populations, you simply memorize a single object peg, but then you associate that with billions, or with a little over a billion, for two countries categories, and then for about 10 other countries categories, you'll associate them with something between a hundred million and a billion. So you're dropping things into buckets. If I didn't give you any mnemonics and I told you that China has over a billion people and India also has over a billion people and there are only 10 countries besides those that have over a hundred million people, those aren't very hard to remember because even though billion is such a

huge word that we can't really fathom it, it's a familiar word to all of us. And so we think in relation to a billion or in relation to 100 million fairly easily, relatively speaking. So this is what I would suggest doing for memorizing these types of things and really anything in this category, although I'll use the populations of the largest countries as examples. You have multiple tiers based on really what you'd be multiplying by if you're using scientific notion. In other words, how many zeros are going to be after the first two digits, which are the two that you're going to turn into your object peg. So China currently has about 1.4 billion people. And so if you just imagine a

tire or associate China with a tire, you'll remember the 1 and the 4 for 1.4 billion if you have that object peg and you associate, you know, the number 14 with a tire. India isn't too far behind with 1.3 billion people. So 1.3 is a dime. You associate India with a dime. Now that's our first tier. China and India are the only two countries with more than a billion. In fact, no other country comes even the slightest bit close to that. In the second tier, the range of populations goes from 100 million up to 320 million, which is obviously nowhere near China and India. But if we're going to memorize the populations of these countries, then for the US, for example, we have 320 million people. We're going to associate that with a menu or a restaurant

menu for the US, but we'll remember if we place it in the second tier that that menu or that 32 is short for 320 million. In fact, I would recommend storing these things in a memory palace. So for the US and the things below that down to 100 million, you have one location, but China and India have their own general location reserved for the two of them. Now after the US we have Indonesia at 260 million and so we have 2,6 which is a hinge. Associate Indonesia with a hinge. Next we have Brazil not way too far behind at 210 million so you want to associate Brazil with a nut which which for me is very easy. Just think of Brazil nuts. And then we have Pakistan at 190 million.

So Pakistan is one nine or a tuba. Now, if any of you find it surprising that the top countries are China, India, the US, Indonesia, Brazil, and Pakistan, it's just a nice sign of how big the world really is and how little we really think about all the people out there, because we tend to focus on certain cultural centers that are important to the West, such as Italy, which is a really small country, and Germany and Spain and the UK, which are all quite small countries by the standards of the global sort of cosmic perspective. But anyway, next we would have Nigeria at 190 million. So you also associate a tuba with them. And then we have Bangladesh with 170 million.

So you'll associate them with a twig. And then Russia with 150 million. I would use a doll. And for me, that doll would probably be Petrushka from Stravinsky's Ballet. Next, Japan with $130 million. And so you want a dime or a coin to associate with Japan. Mexico with $120 million. And we'll have a tuna can for Mexico.

And then the Philippines with $100 million. And so the 10 at the beginning of 100 is going to be dice that will roll in the Philippines. Those 10 countries are our second tier. If you were to continue with the third tier, then the 13th biggest country is Ethiopia with 92 million. So that's obviously not 920 million. You're going to remember when you create this image of a piano and associate it with Ethiopia that it's 92 million because they're in the third tier. And then this whole third tier will go down to 10 million, or the 88th place currently, which is the Dominican Republic. Now in between 92 and 10 million, incidentally, we have countries like Egypt, Germany, Iran, the UK, Italy, Spain, Canada, and Australia.

In the fourth tier, where we go below 10 million, we'll start using a decimal point between the two numbers again, but this time it's millions instead of billions. So the first one in the fourth tier would be Hungary at 9.8 million people. And so you'd use a puff for Hungary or a powder puff for Hungary, the population of Hungary. And then that goes all the way down to Swaziland at 1.1 million. And this whole category includes such well-known countries as Sweden, UAE, Austria, Israel, Switzerland, and Hong Kong. If you want to consider Hong Kong its own country, that's a little debatable. Now, once you go below 1 million, that's the fifth tier, and we'd have lots of countries that really most people haven't heard of, with the exception of the Vatican, you know, Vatican City,

which is, of course, the center of the Roman Catholic Church, and then a few other much lesser-known names, Belize comes to mind, and a few others. But anyway, in summary, that's the technique that I would use. Basically, you're just memorizing a two-digit number, but you're placing the different numbers and the countries in different general areas or categories so that you can remember whether you're thinking in terms of billions, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, millions,

hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, millions, ten millions, millions, and so on. In tomorrow's episode, I'll be presenting a method for memorizing the cardiovascular system. So if you're learning anatomy, you'll find this valuable. Basically, we're creating a memory palace and then storing the major blood vessels in different areas with the potential for expanding into more details from there. Meanwhile, 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.