Numbers

Do not worry this has nothing to do with a magical mathematical theorem that will tell me who will be the next target of a serial killer -- my skills are not that advanced!

I am sure you have come across the dilemma that I am talking about. You are standing there counting the huge stack of cash in your hands while someone is trying to talk to you. You might be able to hear and understand them but answering is a whole different ball game.

I had tried to figure out what you can and cannot do while you are talking to someone or while you are read or counting and it is quite interesting. To my amazement, I came across a lecture series by Richard Feynman and turns out he did a few experiments of his own.

Feynman mentioned that some people count by seeing and some people count by talking to themselves -- those who talk to themselves can't manage to talk to other people but they can distinguish shapes around them and vice versa for the people who see.

Over the past week I have been trying something out -- I am one of those who counts by talk to myself in my head. When I have the time I start describing the objects around me, out loud (I make sure I am alone, otherwise it might seem a little strange), and this occupies my speech. While I am doing this I count in my head -- by seeing number. At first, it was hard. I would get to 4 and just freeze up while I continued blabbering about the lens on the optics table but when I was running today I managed to get up to 40. This is a pretty neat trick since it shows that you can teach you brain to think differently.

Now, I did want to see if there was some valid information as to what proportion of people count by seeing and other by talking but my searches came up a little empty handed. I came up with synesthesia, death counts from wars and illnesses, and ironically enough the survivor count for Battlestar Galactica.

- Mr. V
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"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." ~Carl Sagan