[dmi]

Interesting; I learned a slightly different set of associations with mnemonics for the sounds as well. 0, 2, and 3 were the same as this system:

  0 = the word zero has an s/z sound
  1 = a single line, like lower-case "L"
  2 = two lines, like lower-case "N"
  3 = three lines, like lower-case "M"
  4 = the word "four" ends in an "R" sound
  5 = the word "five" contains "F" and "V"
  6 = the digit looks like a lower-case "B", and lower-case "D" is its mirror image
  7 = the digit looks like a badly-written upper-case "T"
  8 = the "gh" in the word is weird, and reminiscent of "CH"/"SH" (and "J" is similar)
  9 = the digit looks like a lower-case "G", which is similar to lower-case "Q", and lower-case "P" is its mirror image

I had no idea that there was a standard, but I use it a lot to remember what page I've reached in a book (without a bookmark handy), or for short strings of numbers like IP addresses. I find it much easier to remember "Latin insults suns lamely" than "172.217.20.131", though I'd probably try and find a better mnemonic than "insults" for 217, as that technically maps to 20170...

It's kind of like the "correct horse battery staple" thing (https://xkcd.com/936/); words are easier to memorise, especially if you can create a narrative, however tiny.

[krisfris]

I would like to know the history of how the standard came about actually as it seems fairly arbitrary.