9The Language of Numbers
“When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books. You will be reading meanings.”
— W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963)
MNEMONICS
The reason I am able to memorise long sequences of random numbers, binary digits and playing cards is because I have spent the past few years perfecting a technique using mnemonics. What are these?
A mnemonic is any device that aids memory. The name is derived from Mnemosyne, the Greek goddess of memory, who, after spending nine consecutive nights with Zeus (allegedly), gave birth to the nine Muses. Mnemonics are extremely useful for converting seemingly unintelligible data into a more intelligible form which the brain can then accept and make use of.
In this chapter I will reveal the precise mechanics of that process, which I hope, once adopted, you will utilise in passing exams and not for cleaning up at the card tables!
The difficulty with numbers
It seems that no matter what subject you are studying, at some point or other numbers, in whatever form, are presented to you and you must remember them. Wouldn’t studying be so much more palatable if we didn’t have to worry about dates, equations, formulae, sums and economic statistics? It’s as though they’re thrown in periodically to deliberately slow us down and disrupt our flow of learning. But without them our lives would be chaotic. Numbers are everywhere and we have to deal with them on a daily basis. Credit cards, telephone numbers, gas bills, appointments, bus timetables, exam results … everything has to be quantified, reckoned, tallied, and so numeracy counts.
The difficulty with numbers is that, seen in isolation, they have very little meaning. The sequence 13, 10, 79, 82 is hardly a memorable run of numbers, but if you were told that these were the amounts of money, in thousands, that you were going to inherit over the next four years, those numbers would suddenly possess a resonance all of their own. Numbers are difficult to grasp because they are intangible, faceless creatures with no individual personalities. It’s little wonder that when we are tested, their abstract nature prevents most of us from being able to recall more than eight or nine digits from any given sequence.
Speaking of numbers …
One of the most gruelling and nerve-racking events of the World Memory Championships is the spoken number test. Contestants have to memorise a long, random sequence of numbers, which is fed to them verbally at a consistent rate of one digit per second. The sequence must then be recalled and the numbers written down. Scores are calculated by the number of digits the contestant can recall correctly before a mistake is made. Sudden death, in other words.
Only a few years ago, my score would probably have been seven, which is about average for a test like this, but by using a system I managed to extend this to 128. The current record held for the competition is 198 digits! The reason I was able to achieve my best of 128 is because I made the unintelligible world of numbers intelligible. My method gives to numbers what they were lacking in the first place – their own unique characters.
Each pair of digits, and there are 100 of them ranging from 00 to 99, represents a person to me, each one carrying out his or her own unique activity. For example, when I see the number 15 I think of Einstein, while the number 48 represents British racing driver Damon Hill – the first of these is always chalking a blackboard in my mind, and the second, of course, driving a Formula One car.
Question: Why does the number 15 = Einstein?
Answer: because the first and fifth letters of the alphabet are A and E, Albert Einstein’s initials.
This process of translating numbers into letters and then letters into people is central to the method I have christened the DOMINIC System, which could stand for either:
•The Deciphering Of Mnemonically Interpreted Numbers Into Characters
or
•The Decoding Of Mundane Incoherent Numbers Into Clarity!
It’s like learning a new language, but as the vocabulary only consists of 100 words it doesn’t take long to master. Once you are fluent you will soon see the many practical advantages this system has to offer.
Before I reveal the nuts and bolts of this new language, there are a couple of basic systems which are easy to acquire and very useful for memorising things like positions, quantities and short lists.
RHYMING NUMBERS
The number–rhyme is a method popular among magicians for memorising the order of a sequence of objects. It’s a very simple, basic method but can be used in a variety of practical ways.
It works this way: first think of a word that rhymes with a number. For example, you might choose “door” to rhyme with the number four. The door then becomes what is known as your key image for that number, which you can use to associate with the fourth item of whatever list you need to memorise.
It has been observed time and time again that for a system like this to work effectively, it is the student who should create his or her own associations. I can explain the principles of a system and advance what I feel are the most efficient ways of applying them, but the world of the imagination is a uniquely personal one, so it’s always best to use your own ideas.
However, if you’re not feeling very creative, here are some suggestions of possible number–rhymes:
1Gun, bun
2Shoe, loo
3Tree, bee
4Door, saw
5Hive, dive
6Sticks, bricks
7Heaven, Kevin
8Gate, date
9Wine, sign
10Pen, den
Once you have decided on your own personal number–rhymes, you’re ready to apply them, so here’s a simple exercise to get you started. Try memorising the order of the last ten British Prime Ministers. It’s easy. All you have to do is imagine each person in the list interacting with his or her corresponding key image, and the correct order will be fixed in your brain. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard some of these names before, or know what they look like. The point is that even for the most unlikely information, an image can be created to link it with a number.
For example, for John Major you could imagine a military major wearing a huge, shiny shoe, or sitting on the loo! Similarly for the other people on the list, simply use the name, or part of the name, to trigger an associated or substitute image – for example, a mackintosh for Macmillan, a thatched cottage for Margaret Thatcher, or your own front door with a big AD written on it for Alec Douglas-Home. Although Harold Wilson served twice, you should find it no problem linking him into a couple of wild scenes to connect him to the numbers five and seven. Remember to use all your senses, as well as adding movement and exaggeration to the scenes and let your imagination go for it. Allow yourself three minutes at the most.
1Tony Blair
2John Major
3Margaret Thatcher
4James Callaghan
5Harold Wilson
6Edward Heath
7Harold Wilson
8Alec Douglas-Home
9Harold Macmillan
10Anthony Eden
Now, without referring to the list, fill in the correct Prime Minister next to the corresponding positional number.
7_________________
6_________________
3_________________
2_________________
8_________________
9_________________
1_________________
10_________________
5_________________
4_________________
Apart from the practical benefits of using a system like this, the fact that you are stretching your imagination is a great exercise for toning up those “memory muscles”. You will find that the more you practise these exercises, the easier they will become. Just as with any other muscle in the body, the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
NUMBER‒SHAPES
If you tend to think more in images than in words, as I do, then you might find that this method suits you better.
The number–shape is an alternative method to the number–rhyme, only this time you create your key image from the physical shape of the number. For example, what does the shape of the number 7 remind you of? The edge of a cliff, a kerbstone or maybe a boomerang? The number 4 reminds me of the shape of a sailboat and the number 2, a swan. Draw up your own list of shapes for the numbers 1 to 10 but again, if you’re short on ideas, here’s a selection to choose from:
1Candle, pole
2Swan, snake
3Handcuffs, lips
4Sailboat, flag
5Curtain hook, seahorse
6Elephant’s trunk, mallet
7Boomerang, diving board
8Egg timer, female model
9Balloon and string, monocle
10Hoop and stick, Laurel and Hardy
The number–shape method can be used as an alternative to, or in combination with, number–rhymes for memorising a varied range of data. You used the number–rhyme method to learn the order of British Prime Ministers, but it can also be used, as can number–shapes, for remembering quantity.
For example, to remind you that there are nine major planets, you could picture a huge balloon and string encapsulating the entire solar system. And the surreal image of a beautiful white swan gracefully flapping its wings as it endlessly orbits Mars is a reminder of how many moons that planet has – two. This is an extremely efficient method for absorbing massive amounts of information, no matter how obscure or trivial the detail; and because the images created are so bizarre and exaggerated, they leave a long-lasting impression on the memory. This, then, is surely a valuable tool to employ when cramming for exams. I myself have used it to help me remember over 7,500 answers to Trivial Pursuit questions.
This time, use your own number–shapes to link the following questions to their numerical answers:
| Question | Answer |
| How many sides does a snowflake have? | 6 |
| A cow’s stomach has how many compartments? | 4 |
| How many colours are there in the spectrum? | 7 |
| The Titanic went down with how many funnels? | 4 |
| How many hearts does an octopus have? | 3 |
| How many wings does a bee have? | 4 |
| How many equal angles does an isosceles triangle have? | 2 |
Once you’ve created your images, fill in the missing numbers below:
A bee has __ wings.
A snowflake has __ sides.
There are __ colours in the spectrum.
There are __ equal angles in an isosceles triangle.
The Titanic had __ funnels.
An octopus has __ hearts.
A cow’s stomach has __ compartments.
There are __ planets in the solar system.
Test yourself tomorrow, and again in one week’s time. If the mental pictures you have just created were sufficiently stimulating, you may well find you are stuck with these trivial facts permanently!
THE DOMINIC SYSTEM
I originally designed the DOMINIC System for competitions. I wanted a method that would allow me to recognise numbers as images as soon as I saw them. I thought that by familiarising myself with groups of numbers, I would literally be able to read through and make sense of a number with 100 digits in the same way that I am able to read through and understand a sentence composed of 100 letters divided into words.
I toyed with the idea of drawing up a table of set images for all four-digit permutations – a lampstand might represent the number 8,047, or a goat the number 5,564. But there are 10,000 combinations of four-digit numbers, which means I would never have the time to familiarise myself with each item. Even three-digit numbers proved too big a vocabulary. But pairs of digits were manageable.
I had learned from card memorisation that the most successful key images were people rather than objects. People are flexible, mobile and they react. Shout abuse at or pay compliments to a lampstand and it won’t flinch, but a person will. So every pair of numbers is a person to me.
Some numbers are easy to convert into people. You might associate 07 with James Bond and 99 with an ice cream vendor. I link 39 with the memory man from the Alfred Hitchcock film The Thirty-nine Steps; and 57 with my godfather (as 1957 was the year I was born). If you start thinking about it, you should find that you can make a connection, no matter how tenuous, with many numbers.
However, for numbers with which you can’t forge an immediate link, you’ll need to build mental stepping stones to help guide you to your key character image. An easy way to do this is to associate each digit with a letter of the alphabet (see below). You can then combine pairs of letters to create the initials for people, as I explain on pages 100–105.
The letters of the DOMINIC System
You need to create a system that makes sense to you, and commit it to memory. I use the following basic set of letters:
1 = A
2 = B
3 = C
4 = D
5 = E
6 = S (the first letter of “six”)
7 = G
8 = H
9 = N (the first letter of “nine”)
0 = O (due to the similar shapes)
These letters are merely a key for converting numbers into meaningful images, so feel free to invent your own set.
Once you have learnt your set of letters, you can start to pair letters together to form the initials of various people. Your cast should include a rich mixture of friends, enemies, relatives, actors, singers, comedians, celebrities, cartoon characters and historically famous people. It’s not necessary to be able to form a vivid mental picture of each person, but a vague impression of a physical feature or characteristic action will greatly help. I have found that it’s not so much someone’s physical appearance that leaves a lasting image in my memory, as their personality shining through.
Building your cast of characters
If you can’t associate the number 48, for example, with anyone directly, take the corresponding letters, DH, to form a person’s initials: Damon Hill, Debbie Harry or Daryl Hannah. Similarly, 16 becomes AS, which could translate into Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Of course, the letters don’t always have to match the initials of the person you’ve chosen. If NO (90) makes you think of your father because that’s what he’s always telling you and CD (34) of your sister because she is always playing CDs, then use them as your key images for these numbers.
Here are a few guidelines to help build up your army of memory aid-workers.
1Draw up a list of 100 numbers from 00 to 99, and then start filling in the names of all the people for whom you have immediate associations.
2When you have exhausted this avenue, decode the numbers into letters and see whose initials fit.
3Try to make your army of people as diverse and colourful as possible. You must be able to distinguish between characters, so, for example, try to have only one footballer, guitarist or golfer in your list.
4Each person should be accompanied by his or her own prop or action. In my list Eric Clapton (EC = 53) is always playing and carrying his guitar, while Bob Dylan (BD = 24) is always playing the harmonica. This distinguishing feature is not just important for making the characters more memorable; as you will see later, when you memorise longer numbers, people and actions can be made interchangeable.
5If you set yourself a target of twenty people a day, by the end of the week you will have learned a new language.
6Familiarise yourself with the list. Get to know your characters by testing yourself whenever you have a dull moment – on a bus, in the bath or last thing at night. It’s a practical alternative to counting sheep!
As I have always stressed, your own associations are the most memorable ones, but the following cast of characters with their associated actions are the ones I use and they might help to plug the odd gap where you’re having trouble thinking of someone. These are the people I’ll be using as examples through the rest of the book:
Remember that your own ideas will work much better for you. Remember also that the letters are merely acting as an intermediary stage, bridging the gap between intangible digits and tangible images. This conversion process will seem a bit slow in the early stages because, as your brain is learning a new skill, it has to work step by step through several stages of thought.
•Initial learning steps:
numbers → letters → initials → name → person → image
However, with a little practice, you will soon be able to leap those steps by automatically seeing a number as a person.
•Reflexive stage:
numbers → image
When a trained pianist sight-reads from a score of music, he or she doesn’t have to convert each note into a letter and then work out its position on the keyboard. Enough practice has ensured that the fingers know instinctively where to go. The same will be true for you with the DOMINIC System once you have had enough practice.
HOW TO USE YOUR NEW LANGUAGE
You have already seen how number–rhymes and number–shapes can be used to remember data involving single or double digits. But by combining those methods with the DOMINIC System you will have a multifaceted weapon for tackling any combination of numbers, no matter how long the sequence.
Three-digit numbers
To remember any three-digit number, you divide the number into a pair of digits followed by a single digit. For example, 236 would become 23 and 6. By combining the DOMINIC System with the number–shape method this would give you the image of Bill Clinton (BC = 23) riding an elephant (number shape for 6). The number 433 would become 43 and 3, which produces Daniel Craig (DC = 43) handcuffed (number shape for 3). This combination of two key images produces what I shall refer to from now on as a complex image.
Four-digit numbers
I said before that it was important for each person to carry out a unique action or have a unique prop, as these could be made interchangeable.
Let’s take the number 1,846, which can be split into 18 and 46. By referring to the list, this gives us two people: Adolf Hitler (AH = 18) and cookery guru Delia Smith (DS = 46). This time, however, we take the action of Delia Smith and give it to Adolf Hitler. In other words, to remember 1,846 you would form the unlikely complex image of the Führer baking a cake.
| 18 | 46 |
| Adolf Hitler | baking a cake |
| (person) | (action) |
What if the numbers were switched to form 4,618? In this case the roles are simply reversed: you would imagine Delia Smith goose-stepping! Hitler’s physical presence is no longer required; only his mannerisms remain.
| 46 | 18 |
| Delia Smith | goose-stepping |
| (person) | (action) |
Five-digit numbers and above
As you can see, pairs of numbers work like mental hooks, linking into each other. To memorise a longer sequence, you keep adding further hooks to form a mental chain.
As a general rule, I always work from left to right, slicing the number into pairs of person–action/person–action, and so on; and if there is one digit remaining, then this will be a number–shape. Take the number 35,774. First arrange the digits into 35, 77 and 4, then translate them into person, action and number–shape. Using my list, you should end up with the absurd complex image of Clint Eastwood burning a bra on a boat.
| 35 | 77 | 4 |
| Clint Eastwood | burning bra | sailboat |
| (person) | (action) | (number–shape) |
Again, although the key character for 77 is feminist writer Germaine Greer (GG = 77), we only require her associated action, bra-burning. And, remember, the action always takes place in or near your number–shape, in this case, a sailboat.
With six-digit numbers you imagine a person performing an action on or in the company of another person, which can get very interesting. The number 724,268 gives the complex image of George Bush putting make-up on Saddam Hussein. How about 159,267? This gives you Albert Einstein having a shower with the Spice Girls. But my favourite is 408,836, as it translates into Dominic O’Brien wrestling with Claudia Schiffer.
| 40 | 88 | 36 |
| Dominic O’Brien | wrestling | Claudia Schiffer |
| (person) | (action) | (person) |
I’m sure that after just a short while working with this system you, too, will find your favourite numbers.
SUMMARY
•The best way to remember numbers is to breathe life into them by giving them an artificial meaning, a personality, a set of characteristics.
•The DOMINIC System works like a dictionary, translating foreign, unintelligible digits into more meaningful, memorable images.
•Create your own cast of characters by drawing up a list from 00 to 99. Gradually fill in the names of people you associate with certain numbers, and make sure you highlight a unique characteristic action for each.
•The language is easy, quick and fun to learn. You won’t need to travel abroad to pick up the lingo, as numbers are everywhere and, because you are in contact with them on a daily basis, you will have ample opportunity to practise and become fluent.
•Once you are fluent – and it won’t take long – you will be able to start munching your way through huge chunks of numerical data with a degree of zeal. Just as anyone who has been studying French can’t wait to practise their new tongue in a Parisian café, so you, too, will relish the thought of absorbing history dates, statistics and figures. Once they were there to make you yawn and slow you down, but soon they’ll be a welcome break.