"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message
...
On 06/02/2015 10:06 AM, Robert Green wrote:
stuff snipped
Are you POTS, cell, internet or what?

616 area code. Our number was originally an AT&T landline number, then
ported to Google Voice, which forwards to our "real" number (also 616
but given out only to family members). VOIP using an Obihai box. I don't
think we've needed to use the area code from our cell phones either --
also 616, T-Mobile.

That's a checkered past, so to speak!

I seem to recall a study that said while a large number of people can
remember 7 digit phone numbers, when you jump to 8, that large number
diminishes significantly.

But if you have to remember a 3-digit area code as well, you already
have to remember a 10-digit number.

It's not that clear cut. In my area there are 4 major area codes - 202,
703, 301 and 240. Those don't really count (memory wise) as 3 digits since
they're really one choice out of 4 possible codes in this area.

Admittedly in the whole universe of area codes it would be 3 extra digits to
remember, but practically those digits map into a prefix that people see as
a single token to remember. There was an awful lot of discussion about this
when the switch to full area code dialing first began.


It was interesting to find that although Australian phone numbers within
a given area code are xxxx-xxxx, people would speak them as xxx-xxx-xx
-- or was it xx-xxx-xxx?

A perfect example of tokenizing. They break the number into smaller
subgroups that are easier to remember as single tokens. Area codes are like
that and to some extent so are exchanges.

Lots of phones in the area are 937 or 881 exchanges so it works the same
way. You end up with both the area code and the exchange collapsed into
single tokens. I can think of a number of places that have the 937 code
which then tends to get thought of as a single token even though it's three
digits.

In college my roommates used to pick various words that could be dialed and
call up and say: Did you know your number spells DICKWAD (or some other
cuss word)? When they dialed the guy whose number turned out to spell
A$$HOLE (277-4053) he answered "Only if you use the number zero to mean the
letter O!"

--
Bobby G.