Mind Performance Hacks

Hack #9. Memorize Numbers with Carroll's Couplets

You can use a rhyming system of mnemonics by Lewis Carroll, author of the immortal "Alice" books and much nonsense poetry, to remember dates, phone numbers, and other numeric data.

In the 1870s, Lewis Carroll devised a mnemonic system for numbers that he called the Memoria Technica, after an earlier system. Carroll's system is little remembered by us postmoderns. Like today's more common Major System [Hack #5], it relies on converting numbers into consonants and filling them with vowels to make words; unlike the Major System, it uses rhyming couplets to help you remember the words that are created, instead of simply having you remember them "naked," and in this sense it is an advance on the former.

Tip

If you already know the Major System consonants, you could probably substitute them for Carroll's without too much trouble.

In Action

First, you need to memorize the number-to-consonant conversions shown in Table 1-5, which provides mnemonics for remembering the mnemonics.

Table 1-5. Number-to-consonant conversions

Number	First consonant	Second consonant	Mnemonic
1	B	C	First two consonants in alphabet
2	D	W	Duo; tWo
3	T	J	Tres (Spanish); see following note for an explanation for J
4	F	Q	Four; Quattuor (Latin)
5	L	V	L stands for 50; V stands for 5 (Roman numerals)
6	S	X	SiX
7	P	M	sePteM (Latin)
8	H	K	Huit (French); oKto (Greek)
9	N	G	NiNe; g looks like 9
0	Z	R	ZeRo

Tip

Carroll said his intent was to provide one common and one uncommon consonant for each number. He was a polyglot, so ...