[dcmacdaddy]

OKay. So I just got a new mobile phone with a new number. And I am trying to think up ways to remember my new number after having my old number for eight years.

My new number is abc.efg.0866 where the sum of a+b=c and e=the sum of f+g. So, those parts of the number are easy to remember. Help me come up with some mathematical trick to remember the last four digits (0866).

[Maflynn]

why not just memorize the number, 0866 is simple enough to remember.

[Eug]

Write a song about it.

867-5309 eeeiine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqUPApCUt90

[turtle777]

The way I remember new cell phone numbers: stick a label with the new number, either on the front or on the back of the phone, preferably on the front. Trust me, after being in your face for a week or two, you'll remember.

-t

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Maflynn 

why not just memorize the number, 0866 is simple enough to remember.

Originally Posted by turtle777 

The way I remember new cell phone numbers: stick a label with the new number, either on the front or on the back of the phone, preferably on the front. Trust me, after being in your face for a week or two, you'll remember.

-t

Oh, don't get me wrong. It is easy to remember and I have whole number memorized already. I was just hoping to find some cute mathematical trick for remembering the last part since the first two parts of the number have this nice elegance about them as mathematical sums. The only thing I can think about for the third part of the number is that they are all even numbers. But that doesn't strike me as a fun way to remember it.

[Eug]

Too bad you can't easily choose your number these days.

When I got my cell number (in the 90s), I chose the last 4 digits, which just correspond to the letters of a word I picked.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Eug 

Too bad you can't easily choose your number these days.

When I got my cell number (in the 90s), I chose the last 4 digits.

Yeah, I was given the option to choose my area code and exchange. I made those choices exactly because they had this funky mathematical curiosity built-in. I am just glad the last four digits weren't something odd like 2841. That just seems like an "odd" number to me apart from it being mathematically odd.


On a side note, anyone ever read XKCD and when he does a comic about mathematics or physics you feel like you "get it" but can't begin to explain why you think you "get it". That's how I am with numbers. In choosing the numbers for my area code and exchange I consciously chose the numbers such that it would come out with a+b=c and e=f+g because I thought it was neat and elegant. But I could not even begin to explain to you why I think that way. I just do. I've always been amazed by the numbers 4 and 16 for similar reasons. I just think they are fascinating. Sorta like how Jawbone loves the number 5.

[Oisín]

You could always go graphical—all four digits in 0866 are even numbers that are (normally) written as single, non-even strokes. I.e., even numbers that contain no ‘even’ strokes. In fact, it’s an exhaustive list of even numbers that contain no ‘even’ strokes.

That says nothing of their order or internal relations, of course.

[olePigeon]

Wikipedia didn't have much in mathematics, but a lot of interesting things happened on 866 BCE and ACE.

[Oisín]

Ooh, I’ve got one!

Consider 0866 as ABAB.

Now pair them up in As and Bs (i.e., 06 and 86). If you consider even single-digit numbers to form a ‘circle’ (i.e., after 8, you go back to 0), the difference when you subtract C from A and D from B will be 4 and 2—the only two even numbers not represented in 0866 itself.

Far-fetched?

[olePigeon]

866 is a toll free area code.

[GSixZero]

0866 = abcd

(d-c)*b = a

[starman]

Tell everyone you got laid on June 6, 2008 and you use the European dating system.

[nonhuman]

06/06/08?

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

06/06/08?

That was my first thought, too. Even with the standard ISO system (or whatever its proper name is), you’d have to have 08-06-06 or 2008-06-06. Wouldn’t make sense to keep the leading zero in the year and not in the month or days.

[Andy8]

Originally Posted by Maflynn 

why not just memorize the number, 0866 is simple enough to remember.

Exactly.

Keep repeating it to yourself and writing it down often, you will soon remember it.

[brassplayersrock²]

Think of the phone layout. 0 then up one, then up one and over right

[TheWOAT]

Orlando Woolridge
Kobe Bryant
Jay Culter
Jay Culter

[nonhuman]

Orlando Bloom
Kobe Beef
Jay Sherman
Jay Sherman

[Jay Sherman]

They like me. They really like me!

[brassplayersrock²]

LMAO
Now that made my day.


and not even a new account.

[boy8cookie]

0=a
8=b
6=c

(b+c)/a

fin

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by TheWOAT 

Orlando Woolridge
Kobe Bryant
Jay Culter
Jay Culter

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by Eug 

Too bad you can't easily choose your number these days.

When I got my cell number (in the 90s), I chose the last 4 digits, which just correspond to the letters of a word I picked.

I still think you can, when I moved which meant I changed area codes, I opted for a new number. I was able to select the last 4 digits out of the pool of available numbers. That was about 4 years ago though. Maybe times have changed.

[nonhuman]

I was able to pick my number, area code, exchange, and last four digits, just two years ago. Of course there were very very few options in the 617 area code (normal Boston) so I had to go with 857 (mostly cell phones), but I had a few choices in terms of exchange, and ended up with three zeros in my last four digits (0060), which I think is pretty cool.

[brassplayersrock²]

To bad you couldn't get 0070

[IceEnclosure]

I have a rad number, I tell people it's the business line.

[brassplayersrock²]

What is it?