The power of memorizing

Today morning while waking up, before getting up from the bed, all of a sudden I tried to recall the concepts, definitions and formulas that I studied in school, for no special reason. I was happy that I still remember and was able to recall some of what I have studied in school. While in school, I was notorious for my memorizing skills. Some used to make fun of me saying that I just memorize without understanding, and that they study by understanding. But in my experience, the converse is true. When we start memorizing a concept, even if we do not understand anything, slowly we will start understanding and once we memorize and understand, it will never go out of our mind. Me still remembering and recalling some of what I studied in school two decades back is an example.

Some of the definitions that I was able to recall are:
(Note: I am giving here as I recalled, and it may be wrong. Readers are advised to refer to the net for verification.)

Pascal's law: "An increase in pressure at any point in a liquid at rest is transmitted equally to every other point within the same liquid."

When I studied this definition, I was amazed by this simple discovery by Pascal. This law is the basis for the hydralic brakes (oil brakes) used in the cars and other vehicles and also in the hydralic jacks, that is used to lift the cars in the car service centers.

Archemedes principle: "When a solid is immersed in a liquid either totally or partially, it suffers an apparent loss of weight. This loss of weight is due to the upthrust it experiences and it is equivalent to the amount of liquid it displaces."

This is the guiding principle on which ship floats in water. I vaguely remember that Archemedes discovered this principle when he was given the task of identifying the quality of originality of Gold.

Allotrophy: "Allotrophy is the property by virtue of which an element exhibits the same chemical property, but different physical properties."
This law talks about an element changing its shape (physical shape), while retaining its chemical property, when subject to certain external stimuli.

I also remember the Newton's first, second and third laws, laws of thermodynamics, Faraday's law and a few more.

I was also able to recall some of the mathematical formula, but due to formatting issues, I am unable to write them here.

This power of memorizing also helped me when I selected software development as my profession. This moved me away from being a Google (copy-paste) programmer. I know almost all the syntax of Java and other programming languages that I use in my day-to-day work, by-heart. I memorized them, which eliminated the need to refer to the net for their syntax or examples. I also know the design-patterns and enterprise-integration patterns by-heart. I memorized them too, which totally altered my approach in solving the issues in the software that I develop or maintain.

- PAVALA G SUBRAMANIAN.