A memory system to remember equations?

General Memory Chat
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You might be interested in this thread: Physics Equations - 180+ - Video Inside

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Hello Josh, thank you very much. I just read the thread. I appreciate your kindness a lot but I got the impression that the author of the video already remembered the equations and what he really did was to recall an order. This is of little use if you have to hammer the equations in your head without using Ars Memoriae. Some of the replies did better as they started to work in the direction of a systematic way to encode the equations into an inner writing system. I see there may be a need out there to continue on this line. What do you think?

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If you type “equations” into the search box, there are some discussions about it. I haven’t tried memorizing a lot of equations, but from what I’ve read people often recommend one of these techniques:

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Dear Josh. Thank you so much for your time and kind replies. As a mathematician/physicist I have always relied in the old proverb “if you know how to derive the equation then you can remember it”. The problem is that after nearly 30 years you accumulate a lot of equations and a lot of derivations. By this time I would like to have a systematic way of “inner writing” as the master Bruno would say. As far as I understand Bruno developed a systematic way to build meaningful memory palaces (as in De Imaginum) and a way to assign pegs to words using a PAO system (as the wheel system explained in De Umbris Idearum). Having this in mind the Shereshevsky style seems to fall short as it doesn’t seem to provide any of those. What do you think? Thank you again and best wishes.

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I haven’t tried memorizing a lot of equations, and everyone’s memory works differently, so experimentation might be the best way to start. (Someone else might stop by with additional tips too.)

If I were going to experiment with it, I’d try putting the equations you are studying into memory palaces and seeing if walking through the palaces helps you remember them. Once you can recall them in order, you can review them any time.

You could also try a wheel/PAO system as a kind of peg list to see how that compares to the memory palace.

I’m hoping that someone who has done this successfully on a large scale will eventually write up their methods.

Edit: I split these posts into a new thread so that more people will be able to find the discussion. Maybe someone will reply with more ideas soon.

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Thank you again. Extremely interesting. Do I need a memory palace for every equation? I mean, say I want to remember something crazy like the Navier Stokes equation in cylindrical coordinates

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Or what if I want to remember dozens of smaller equations like the trigonometrical identities for spherical geometry:

Would you need a memory palace for every equation?

Your answers are of great value to me. I thank you again!

1 Like
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I already searched about lists of math and physics formulas to memorize, but they generally are not accompanied by explanations and do not tell what each acronym refers to.