Ron White memory guy here….
This is a fascinating article for me. It does require background knowledge of what in the memory work is referred to as ‘The Major System’ in regards to memorizing numbers, however fortunately this site has links to explain that. If you would like to have a really cool ability to say Pi to 400 digits I do think this article on memory training and Pi is worth the read and the effort…
Here is the memory training article:
The obvious first question is, “What exactly IS pi to 400 decimal places?†Here it is:
Pi=3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971
6939937510582097494459230781640628620899
8628034825342117067982148086513282306647
0938446095505822317253594081284811174502
8410270193852110555964462294895493038196
4428810975665933446128475648233786783165
2712019091456485669234603486104543266482
1339360726024914127372458700660631558817
4881520920962829254091715364367892590360
0113305305488204665213841469519415116094
There are many different ways to memorize pi. There are even those “pi purists†who refuse to use the mnemonic alphabet, and attempt to learn the numbers as numbers themselves. University of Edinburgh professor Alexander Craig Aitken learned it to a particular rhythm. Others assign meaning directly to the numbers themselves. For example look at the last four numbers in the first row above (1971). Some might remember this number as the year they were born or that some other memorable event from that year.
Are these methods effective? They certainly seem to be for the individuals who create them. It can be tricky though, for others to try and learn these methods, especially as the associations are often highly personal.
What advantages does this method offer? First, it can be taught to anyone who is familiar with both the mnemonic alphabet and the English language (indeed, it can be easily adapted to almost any Germanic language). Second, it doesn’t just teach the digits in order, but out of order at the same time! What do I mean by out of order?
Imagine not just knowing the digits of pi themselves, but also where they are relative to each other. You could face challenges like these:
* Given the proper location, you can recall a corresponding group of four digits.
* Recall a single digit in the Nth position after the decimal point
* Given a group of four numbers, you can recall the location
* You can even recall entire sequences of numbers from pi
The traditional mnemonic alphabet method for pi is based on converting the numbers into words, and then linking them into a story. As you can see, if you forget just one element of the story, the entire number is thrown off! The method taught here eliminates the story aspect, and makes the memorization both simpler AND much more effective at the same time!
Prerequisites:
When you’re ready, click to continue.
Article excerpted from http://gmmentalgym.blogspot.com/2010/10/memory-basics.html