Page 153 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

METAPHORS AND VISUALIZATION IN SCIENCE

Metaphors and visualization—being able to see something in your mind’s eye—have been
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uniquely powerful in helping the scientific and engineering world move forward. In the
1800s, for example, when chemists began to imagine and visualize the miniature world of
molecules, dramatic progress began to be made. Here is a delightful illustration of
monkeys in a benzene ring from an insider spoof of German academic chemical life,
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printed in 1886. Note the single bonds with the monkeys’ hands and the double bonds
with their tiny tails.

Spaced Repetition to Help Lodge Ideas in Memory

Focusing your attention brings something into your temporary working memory.
But for that “something” to move from working memory to long-term memory,
two things should happen: the idea should be memorable (there’s a gigantic

flying mule braying f = ma on my couch!), and it must be repeated. Otherwise,
your natural metabolic processes, like tiny vampires, simply suck away faint,
newly forming patterns of connections. This vampiric removal of faint patterns