Can you imagine what would happen if you were unable to make new memories because your long term memory was destroyed? You would never be able to learn something new. You would not remember new people you have met and interacted with. You would have to relearn processes every time you needed to perform an action.

The short term memory allows you to handle a number of facts for a small period of time. For instance when someone yells out a phone number for you to dial, you remember it for just the time that it takes for you to punch in the numbers. If you need to redial, you most likely will have to ask for the number to be repeated to you again.

The long term memory starts out with you learning something new in the short term memory. Then as you spend day after day using the same skills, they transfer by consolidation into your long term memory. Eventually it becomes a part of the long term memory set up which you can recall anytime you need to use that skill.

There are a number of science experiments and studies on memory which hope to find out the trick to taking short term memories to long term memory faster and more efficiently.