Struggling to Remember Certain Things?

[pierce15]

Is there anything you guys just can't ever seem to remember? For example, I know a lot of people who consistently don't remember what a certain arithmetic operation is, like 8*7.

For me, I can't remember east and west. I know, it's crazy, but whenever I'm looking at a map and someone says "west", I have to pull out the "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" trick

 

[Borg]

Is there anything you guys just can't every seem to remember? For example, I know a lot of people who consistently don't remember what a certain arithmetic operation is, like 8*7.

For me, I can't remember east and west. I know, it's crazy, but whenever I'm looking at a map and someone says "west", I have to pull out the "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" trick

West and East spell WE when you look at the map. If you get it backward, it spells EW so obviously that's wrong.

 

[OmCheeto]

Is there anything you guys just can't ever seem to remember? For example, I know a lot of people who consistently don't remember what a certain arithmetic operation is, like 8*7.

I used to be a mathematical wizard as a child. I memorized the multiplication tables, in all bases from 2 to 16. But after taking what seemed like 100 calculus courses, I found I couldn't remember what 8*7 was, even in base 10. Now, to figure out what 8*7 is, I have the following go on in my head; "Good god I'm stupid. 2*7 is 14. 2*14 is 28. 2*28 is 56."

I also have difficulty with names. I knew a guy for about 5 years, and could never remember his name. Then one day I researched, and discovered the name of a weed that grows all over my yard: Stinky Bob.
I saw Robert the next day, and explained to him why I no longer asked; "What did you say your name was?"

He laughed.

For me, I can't remember east and west. I know, it's crazy, but whenever I'm looking at a map and someone says "west", I have to pull out the "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" trick

I've never had such a problem with directions. Do you live near the equator? I grew up and currently live very near the 45th parallel. The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, and is generally to the south. At night, I just look for the big dipper.

Also, I've heard it rumoured that men are better at directions than women. I think this might be true, as when I tell women; "It's just to the west of such-and-such", many will say; "Which way is west?"

 

[pierce15]

It's not even that I'm bad with directions (although if you said "drive west", I wouldn't know where to go). I have no problem with north and south. However, every time I'm looking at a map, I have to use that acronym to remember east and west

 

[Borg]

Also, I've heard it rumoured that men are better at directions than women. I think this might be true, as when I tell women; "It's just to the west of such-and-such", many will say; "Which way is west?"

Every time my wife is talking about a place and casually points in the direction of it, the true location is closer to the opposite direction of where she's pointing. She will also give directions without a starting point that makes any sense - like drive on Rt. 50 and turn right at some store. Good luck trying to figure out where on that 100+ mile road she's talking about or which direction she's going. She then gets upset with me when I tell her that I don't know where she's talking about.

 

[collinsmark]

I can never remember how to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, and vice versa. I do it often enough, but I can never remember the equation.

If I don't have a computer handy (or I don't feel like using my cell phone app), I can still get by because I do remember the freezing and boiling points of water at atmospheric pressure, in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Freezing: 32^o F, 0^o C
Boiling: 212^o F, 100^o C

This gives two points on a graph, (212^o F, 100^o C), (32^o F, 0^o C).

We can connect those two points with a line, y = mx + b, or changing variables, T_F = mT_C + b

The slope can be calculated,

m = (212 - 32)/(100 - 0) [^oF/^oC] = 1.8 [^oF/^oC]

Solve for b,

32 ^oF = (1.8 [^oF/^oC])(0 ^oC) + b

b = 32 ^oF

T_F = (1.8 [^oF/^oC])T_C + 32 ^oF

But I have to do that every time. I can never remember the equation.

 

[Mute]

I can never remember how to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, and vice versa. I do it often enough, but I can never remember the equation.

If I don't have a computer handy (or I don't feel like using my cell phone app), I can still get by because I do remember the freezing and boiling points of water at atmospheric pressure, in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Freezing: 32^o F, 0^o C
Boiling: 212^o F, 100^o C

This gives two points on a graph, (212^o F, 100^o C), (32^o F, 0^o C).

We can connect those two points with a line, y = mx + b, or changing variables, T_F = mT_C + b

The slope can be calculated,

m = (212 - 32)/(100 - 0) [^oF/^oC] = 1.8 [^oF/^oC]

Solve for b,

32 ^oF = (1.8 [^oF/^oC])(0 ^oC) + b

b = 32 ^oF

T_F = (1.8 [^oF/^oC])T_C + 32 ^oF

But I have to do that every time. I can never remember the equation.

I do the same thing, except I use the fact that -40 is the same in both temperatures. Or at least, that's what I used to do before I just gave up thinking in Celsius and got used to Fahrenheit.

 

[AnTiFreeze3]

Huh.. I forgot what I was going to say.

 

[edward]

Every time my wife is talking about a place and casually points in the direction of it, the true location is closer to the opposite direction of where she's pointing. She will also give directions without a starting point that makes any sense - like drive on Rt. 50 and turn right at some store. Good luck trying to figure out where on that 100+ mile road she's talking about or which direction she's going. She then gets upset with me when I tell her that I don't know where she's talking about.

I have gone through a similar situation with my wife for years, but with a twist. She is great at pointing to where something is yet she doesn't have a clue which direction it is.

 

[edward]

Is there anything you guys just can't ever seem to remember? For example, I know a lot of people who consistently don't remember what a certain arithmetic operation is, like 8*7.

For me, I can't remember east and west. I know, it's crazy, but whenever I'm looking at a map and someone says "west", I have to pull out the "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" trick

North is usually at the top of most maps. Knowing that makes the rest easy. I heard that it began when explorers used the North Star to navigate and draw maps.

 

[bp_psy]

Is there anything you guys just can't ever seem to remember? For example, I know a lot of people who consistently don't remember what a certain arithmetic operation is, like 8*7.

For me, I can't remember east and west. I know, it's crazy, but whenever I'm looking at a map and someone says "west", I have to pull out the "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" trick

If you are in China is the middle east still the east?
I always remember that the middle east is to the right of where I am most of the time on the map and the west is on the other side.

I can never remember how to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, and vice versa. I do it often enough, but I can never remember the equation.
n.

Why would you need that useless piece of knowledge? Civilized people always use Celsius. I mean do you also need to know what an inch or a foot is?

 

[pierce15]

I don't live in china. For some reason I just have to think really hard about east and west, just like a lot of people with 8*7.

 

[OmCheeto]

...
Why would you need that useless piece of knowledge? Civilized people always use Celsius. ...

Well, not all people are civilized, and knowing that useless piece of knowledge, will help you deal with the savages.

...

One anecdote though that I should point out, is that people can be way smarter than you think. Part of the clan went to Mexico a few years back, and no one knew how to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit to cook some lasagna in the oven. Being the brilliant scientist that I am, I decided to work out the point slope intercept, knowing the boiling and freezing points of water in both scales. Working through the problem on paper, I noticed that my sister was doing the same thing, as she knew the scales from her porch thermometer. So I stopped and watched her solve the problem. She'd never struck me as being a mathematical type person, but she figured it out.

...

-------------------
Though, we were there for 9 days, and we never figured out how the clothes washing machine worked.

 

[HeLiXe]

The current day's date

 

[lisab]

I don't live in china. For some reason I just have to think really hard about east and west, just like a lot of people with 8*7.

If you lived at the South Pole, you'd never have to worry about East-West. Just North.

 

[Borek]

For the life of me, I can't remember some simple conventions, like red cable goes to plus (does it?), blue to minus. I have no problems with connecting cars/batteries/chargers correctly with whatever cables I have at hand, as I understand the logic behind, it is just the color convention that doesn't stick.

And when I am in the city instead of telling me "get west" you can as well say "get lost". Directions in the city are relative to the city landmarks. When I am out of the city, directions are NSWE, and I have not the slightest problem with what they are. This leads to unexpected results when driving through a city that I don't know, I have to force myself into thinking in terms of NSWE as this subsystem switches of automatically.

 

[Curious3141]

I cannot, for the life of me, remember names well.

Numbers and mathematical formulae, no issue at all. Faces - practically photographic (I've recognised people I've been barely acquainted with in kindergarten 3 decades down the road). But I can't remember names well.

I'm referring purely to human names - I have no issue with the names of various obscure bacteria, fungi and parasites. That's my bread and butter.

 

[dipole]

I often forget little syntax things when programming like what the syntax is to write to a file in append mode with c++.

 

[wigglywinks]

I can never remember the date for some reason. Often, I also have trouble remembering the month. Also phone numbers, names, any kind of information like that. Luckily it's not a problem when doing maths or physics because I can just remember mental pictures of things I've written down or thought about, although biology in high school was difficult because I couldn't remember the names of things.

 

[pierce15]

Oh yeah, another thing I can't remember: the difference between $<$ and $>$. I always have to use a mnemonic my second grade teacher taught me: the sign looks like an alligator, and the alligator want to eat the bigger number