[kj] OT: The pweor of the hmuan mnid.

[Amy Moseley]

Quoting Tanya <lonelygirl@killing-joke.com>:

> Funny, I was just reading about this very same topic in a forum just a 
> few minutes ago. Obviously true. 
> 
> > The paomnnehil pweor of the hmuan mnid.

Yes and no.  American phone numbers (without area code, the 01930 or
whatever bit for you Brits) are seven numbers long compared to most
Brits' six numbers.  That's because when they were devising the
scheme, studies supposedly revealed that the human mind can only
hold seven digits in short-term memory -- more than that and a
struggle begins.  So given that people had to look up a number
and then dial it, they had to be able to remember that number.
At first, it was a *word* and five numbers, (the first two letters
of the word being "translated" into numbers by looking at the dial),
now it's typically just seven numbers.

Anyhoo, you can see this at work above.  So long as the words are short,
and the position of each letter is not moved very much (it can't be if
the word is short, and the first and last letters must stay in place),
yeah, it's easy.  In "hmuan" and "mnid" it's a simple one transposition
of the two middle letters.

But look at "paomnnehil" and the claim breaks down.  Even with the 
first and last letters in place, one has to use context (okay, it's
an adjective saying "human mind is good") and then anagram (unscramble)
the word.  Most of the words in the text given have simple transpositions,
some aren't transposed at all ("total" is left alone) and others
are easily guessed due to context.

In other words, yeah, we can error correct, but only easily up to about
three or four letters (given that we already know the first & last).
Still, we put CD players to shame ;-)

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