Acrostics are phrases or sentences where you are using the letters to prompt you the first letters of a list.
They can also be used to memorise a sequence of digits.
You need to have previously learned a code system where letters equate to digits; then, the first letter of each word in a sentence can be converted into a digit.
Here is a single digit code system followed by an example of it being used:
| Sh Ph Y | 0 |
| X Z Ch Th | 0 |
| C D | 1 |
| P | 1 |
| E | 2 |
| F | 2 |
| G | 3 |
| H K Q | 3 |
| I | 4 |
| L | 4 |
| M | 5 |
| N | 5 |
| O | 6 |
| R | 6 |
| S | 7 |
| T | 7 |
| U | 8 |
| V W | 8 |
| A | 9 |
| B J | 9 |
At the top row, 'Sh' equates with the digit 0; also, 'Ph' equates with 0, and so does 'Y'.
So, a word like Showman would be seen as being 'Sh' followed by some other letters. In the table, 'Sh' = 0; so the digit 0 would be figured out.
A phrase like Card Player would have the 'C' of card and the 'P' of player selected since they come first in each word.
The table shows that C = 1 and P = 1 ; so 'card player' would mean 11 .
A sentence of several words could symbolise a number of many digits. A four word sentence could become the 4 digits of someone's PIN number.
Within my memory system, there are other ways of representing numbers: by equating numbers with images. If I recall a certain image then it will equate to a particular number. If my memory system selects the image 'card pack' to mean the number 1 then, that will be the meaning of 'card pack'. When I was growing up, there used to be a magician on television almost every week doing magic tricks with cards. I can dedicate his image to mean the digit '1' because it is loosely associated with the concept of a 'card pack'; in other words, I need to decide on an image that will permanently mean the digit 1. If you grew up in another decade or in another country then my image will be not so useful to you. It is good for you to look at your own life and experiences and to choose images which mean something to you. In this way, you develop a library of images which will help you with memorisation tasks. For instance, a memoriser can turn a long telephone number into a few images where each image is dedicated to a particular 3-digit number. So, in a sense, there is now less information for him to memorise.
Here is a proposed list of images for representing images from 0 to 9:
| the showman | 0 |
| the card pack | 1 |
| the eater of flames | 2 |
| the ghost | 3 |
| the illusionist | 4 |
| the mnemonist | 5 |
| the oracle | 6 |
| the stilts man | 7 |
| the under-water show | 8 |
| the acrobat | 9 |
They will become useful later after we have looked at peg systems.
For now, consider how you could memorise serial numbers and other long numbers by making nonsense sentences.
Try to use the code system above to turn these nonsense sentences into digits:
Bus driver flouts highway regulations; but detector flashes him.
(bus = B = 9, driver = D = 1, etc....)
Brandy distillery free-house alcohol content exceeds gage indictor
Bull-dog's firm incisors aggressively cut felon's hairy jumper
Bad dancing girls irritate bored divas; fabulousness is key
Back exercise gives joints better elasticity; girdles just lie.
Blocked exit generates jammed cars; every holiday jams materialise.
Beyond endurance. holiday jet cancelled flight. Hong Kong nuisance.
Baby eats hungrily. keenly downing food; its lips open.
Buy electricity homes; kinetics do generate joules making power