Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0563: Reprise: Mnemonics for numbers with scientific notation
Episode Date: May 4, 2016Reprise: Mnemonics for numbers with scientific notation What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, p...erformed by the US Army Band. In other information, please checkout i have very poor credit and need a loan.
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Hey guys, this is Timothy, and I'm publishing a book.
Now, this may not be new news to all of you,
but I bring it up because it's temporarily changing some things here on the show.
We're going to be running a series of reprise episodes for the next few weeks
due to my need to focus exclusively on this writing project.
The book is going to cover absolutely everything about language hacking
that I've learned from years of working directly with fluency coaching students and native speaking coaches to see what truly works and gets amazing results.
It's going to be a high-end book with the hardcover copy priced at around $40, and that's if I can keep it as short as I'd like to keep it.
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Just go to Spanishin1month.com, and you'll be on the early bird list to get access to the book the day that it's released.
Meanwhile, for now, enjoy this rerun of one of my favorite episodes from the last few months.
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 Brian says, 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, one, two 12 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. mole. 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 two is a snowball, but negative
two 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,
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