in the pack (exclusive of the joker). Such coincidences, of course, are not always to be discovered, but continued practice will reveal them more frequently than might be supposed. If a reasonable amount of thought fails to reveal an external association for a number, internal relations should be sought for. Thus, Pike's Peak is 14,147 feet high: note the repetition of 14 and that 7 is half of 14. The population of Providence (R. I.), according to the 1910 census, is 224,326; 2 times 2 are 4, 3 times 2 are 6. Relations which you discover for yourself will be more easily remembered than those discovered by someone else. You should adopt the method of retaining numbers which you find easiest. If either of the foregoing methods seem difficult after a fair trial, the visualizing method may be tried. Employing the instructions given in Lesson 2, concentrate the attention on the number and form as clear and vivid a mental picture of it as possible. For historical dates, an excellent plan is always to think of the event and the date together, so as to establish a firm association; thus, the battle of Waterloo should always be thought of as "Waterloo 1815," the battle of Hastings as "Hastings 1066," and so on. The "Declaration of Independence" should never be thought of without thinking also, "1776." If numbers are connected with events in this way, the association will be as easy to recall as the association between George and Washington, or between Abraham and Lincoln. If you have a naturally good memory for words, but a poor memory for figures, you can use to advantage the figure-alphabet, by means of which ordinary English words are made to stand for numbers. This is done by assigning a figure value to each consonant sound. As a number of the consonants are similar in sound, these are grouped together, so that the number of distinctly different consonant sounds is reduced to ten-one for each of the ten digits. The vowels a, e, i, o, u, the "sometimes vowels" w and y, and all silent letters are entirely disregarded and are not given figure values. The first step in mastering this system is to memorize one consonant for each figure. This is not difficult if the following associations are used: I is T because T has 1 down stroke. 2 is N because N has 2 down strokes. 3 is M because M has 3 down strokes. 4 is R because R is the last letter in the word four. 5 is L because in Roman notation L stands for 50; disregarding the o, we have 5. 6 is J because J is 6 reversed. 7 is K because K follows J in the alphabet. 8 is F because the script small letter f has two loops, like 8. 9 is P because P is 9 reversed. o is Z because Z is the first letter of the word zero. These ten substitutions can be learned in one sitting. Having learned them, the next step is to learn the additional consonants which are grouped with some of those already learned. Below is given the complete figure alphabet with a key sentence for use in remembering the several letters which represent each of several figures: I is t, th or d. Tom THum Died. 2 is n only. 3 is m only. 4 is r only. 5 is 1 only. 6 is j, sh, ch or soft g. Jew SHall CHoose Gentile. 7 is k, hard c, hard g, or q. Kings Can Get Queens. 8 is for v. It is of prime importance to keep in mind the fact that the translation from letters to figures or vice versa is always made by sound. Thus sugar is 674, not 074; Asia is 6, not o; ratio is 46, not 41. The letter h has no figure value alone. It is considered only in the combinations th (1), sh (6), and ch (6). At all other times it is disregarded and treated as a silent letter (which it sometimes actually is). Ph with the sound of ƒ is translated 8, in accordance with the rule that translation is always made by sound. The ending ing is regarded as a unit, and is always translated 7, not 27. Thus, dancing is 1207, king is 77. Double consonants are translated as if single; appeal is 95 (bill is also 95); witness is 120; miller is 354. All words can be translated into numbers, but there are some numbers of 3 or more figures for which there are no equivalent English words. This apparent difficulty is easily gotten around by breaking large numbers up into groups of two or three figures. Thus, 1574 is "dull care"; 65004 is “jolly Cicero"; 21868 is "native chef." |