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Re:How I See Numbers by cecilpl2 on Thursday March 03, 2022 @02:27PM (#30545540)
Wow, this is utterly alien to me. I have always had a head for numbers but they are never shapes.

The unique thing I think I have is that I visualize long strings of digits as notes on a musical scale. 735 is high-low-middle. I have found I can retain strings of up to 15 or so digits in short-term memory by chunking them into triplets and memorizing them as arpeggio chords, or by their relative positions.

Re:How I See Numbers by srvmshr on Thursday March 03, 2022 @06:24PM (#30548472)
I am good at remembering numbers & phone numbers too!. And its similar to what you mentioned. I can recite my whole phonebook if needed, even for numbers punched 15+ years ago.

I see numbers as notes. So each unique number - say my college ID, my aunt's cell number or my driving license is a MIDI tune in my head.

Also, visually each number is like a 'identity' - not a numeral. When I had a image processing class, running an edge detector on binary images was fun. I could guess the potrait/image just looking at the numbers (just like how you'd guess animal shapes in a connect-the-dots game)

Re:How I See Numbers by cecilpl2 on Friday March 04, 2022 @12:11PM (#30557434)
Sadly I no longer know my friends phone numbers, since the advent of smart phones. But I still know the phone numbers of anyone I regularly dialed as a child, 30 years ago.

I have all my important numbers memorized - SIN, multiple credit cards, driver's license, library card, health cards, all my financial account numbers, and the same for my partner. Do you do that too?

Re:How I See Numbers by srvmshr on Monday March 07, 2022 @09:03AM (#30587902)
Yes. We might have been siblings in another life :)
Re:How I See Numbers by nicoty on Thursday March 03, 2022 @06:22PM (#30548445)
Do you have perfect pitch? What frequencies do the numbers have? How high is the frequency of a really large number like 1000? What about fractions and irrational numbers?
Re:How I See Numbers by cecilpl2 on Friday March 04, 2022 @12:09PM (#30557401)
I don't, though I did play piano for 10 years starting at age 6. I think the frequencies are around middle C or so, though I haven't really checked.

Only digits have notes associated with them. A number like 1000 is just four notes in a row. Irrational numbers again are just composed of their digits.

Re:How I See Numbers by porkphish on Thursday March 03, 2022 @03:17PM (#30546323)
Uh... That's rad! And now I feel even dumber.