Mental calculator

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Leonhard Euler was a prominent mental calculator. Leonhard Euler.jpg
Leonhard Euler was a prominent mental calculator.

A mental calculator or human calculator is a person with a prodigious ability in some area of mental calculation (such as adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing large numbers).

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In 2005, a group of researchers led by Michael W. O'Boyle, an American psychologist previously working in Australia and now at Texas Tech University, has used MRI scanning of blood flow during mental operation in computational prodigies. These math prodigies have shown increases in blood flow to parts of the brain responsible for mathematical operations during a mental rotation task that are greater than the typical increases. [1]

Mental calculators were in great demand in research centers such as CERN before the advent of modern electronic calculators and computers. See, for instance, Steven B. Smith's 1983 book The Great Mental Calculators, or the 2016 book Hidden Figures [2] and the film adapted from it.

Champion mental calculators

The Mental Calculation World Cup is an international competition that attempts to find the world's best mental calculator, and also the best at specific types of mental calculation, such as multiplication or calendar reckoning.

The Mind Sports Olympiad has staged annual world championships since 1998.

The Mind Sports Organisation recognizes five grandmasters of mental calculation: Robert Fountain (1999), George Lane (2001), Gert Mittring (2005), Chris Bryant (2017) and Wenzel Grüß (2019), and one international master, Andy Robertshaw (2008). In 2021, Aaryan Nitin Shukla became the youngest champion ever at an age of just 11 years.

Shakuntala Devi from India has been often mentioned on the Guinness World Records. Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash from India has been often mentioned on the Limca Book of Records for racing past the speed of a calculator in addition. [3] Sri Lankan-Malaysian performer Yaashwin Sarawanan was the runner-up in 2019 Asia's Got Talent .

Mental calculators in fiction

Dune

In Frank Herbert's novel Dune , specially trained mental calculators known as Mentats have replaced mechanical computers completely. Several important supporting characters in the novel, namely Piter De Vries and Thufir Hawat, are Mentats. Paul Atreides was originally trained as one without his knowledge. However, these Mentats do not specialize in mathematical calculations, but in total recall of many different kinds of data. For example, Thufir Hawat is able to recite various details of a mining operation, including the number of various pieces of equipment, the people to work them, the profits and costs involved, etc. In the novel he is never depicted as doing actual academic mathematical calculations. Mentats were valued for their capacity as humans to store data, because "thinking machines" are outlawed.

Matilda

In Roald Dahl's novel Matilda , the lead character is portrayed having exceptional computational skills as she computes her father's profit without the need for paper computations. During class (she is a first-year elementary school student), she does large-number multiplication problems in her head almost instantly.

Other

In the 1988 movie Rain Man , Raymond Babbitt, who has savant syndrome, can mentally calculate large numbers, amongst other abilities.

Andrew Jackson "Slipstick" Libby is a calculating prodigy in Robert A. Heinlein's Sci-Fi story Methuselah's Children .

In the USA Network legal drama Suits , the main character, Mike Ross, is asked to multiply considerably large numbers in his head to impress two girls, and subsequently does so.

In Haruki Murakami's novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World , a class of mental calculators known as Calcutecs perform cryptography in a sealed-off portion of their brains, the results of which they are unable to access from their normal waking consciousness.

In the Fox television show Malcolm in the Middle , Malcolm Wilkerson displays astounding feats of automatic mental calculation, which causes him to fear his family will see him as a "freak", and causes his brother to ask, "Is Malcolm a robot?".

In the 1991 movie Little Man Tate , Fred Tate in the audience blurts out the answer during a mental calculation contest.

In the 1990s NBC TV sitcom NewsRadio , reporter/producer Lisa Miller can mentally calculate products, quotients, and square roots effortlessly and almost instantly, on demand.

In the 1997 Sci-Fi thriller Cube , one of the prisoners, Kazan, appears to be mentally disabled, but is revealed later in the film to be an autistic savant who is able to calculate prime factors in his head.

In 1998 Darren Aronofsky's film Pi , Maximillian Cohen is asked a few times by a young child with a calculator to do large multiplications and divisions in his head, which he promptly does, correctly.

In 1998 film Mercury Rising , a 9-year-old autistic savant with prodigious math abilities cracks a top secret government code.

In the 2006 film Stranger than Fiction , the main character, Harold Crick, is able to perform rapid arithmetic at the request of his co-workers.

In the 2007 sitcom The Big Bang Theory , the main character, Sheldon Cooper, calculates numbers and solutions in his head for his theoretical physics research.

In the 2008 show Breaking Bad , the main character, Walter White, is shown to calculate most of the numbers to his deals, such as profit and production costs, purely within his head.

In the 2009 Japanese animated film Summer Wars , the main character, mathematical genius Kenji Koiso, is able to mentally break purely mathematical encryption codes generated by the OZ virtual world's security system. He can also mentally calculate the day of the week a person was born, based on their birthday.

In another Fox television show, Fringe , in the third episode of the third season, Olivia and her fellow Fringe Division members encounter an individual with severe cognitive impairment who has been given experimental nootropics and as a result has become a mathematical genius. The individual is able to calculate hundreds of equations simultaneously, which he leverages to avoid being returned to his original state of cognitive impairment.

In the 2012 film Safe , a female child math genius is kidnapped to be used by the Chinese Triad.

In the 2014 TV series Scorpion , Sylvester Dodd, a gifted mathematician and statistician with an IQ of 175; he is described as a "human calculator".

In the 2016 film The Accountant , Christian Wolff is a high-functioning autistic man who tracks insider financial deceptions for numerous criminal organizations.

In the 2017 film Gifted , an intellectually gifted seven-year-old, Mary Adler, becomes the subject of a custody battle between her uncle and grandmother.

In 2020, an eponymous film Shakuntala Devi on the life of Indian mathematician, writer, astrologer and mental calculator Shakuntala Devi.

See also

Related Research Articles

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An abacus, also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. An abacus consists of a two-dimensional array of slidable beads. In their earliest designs, the beads could be loose on a flat surface or sliding in grooves. Later the beads were made to slide on rods and built into a frame, allowing faster manipulation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child prodigy</span> Exceptionally precocious child

A child prodigy is a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to describe young people who are extraordinarily talented in some field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savant syndrome</span> Rare condition involving outstanding mental abilities despite overall mental disability

Savant syndrome is a phenomenon where someone demonstrates exceptional aptitude in one domain, such as art or mathematics, despite significant social or intellectual impairment.

Dyscalculia is a disability resulting in difficulty learning or comprehending arithmetic, such as difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, performing mathematical calculations, and learning facts in mathematics. It is sometimes colloquially referred to as "math dyslexia", though this analogy is misleading as they are distinct syndromes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mental calculation</span> Arithmetical calculations using only the human brain

Mental calculation consists of arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from any supplies or devices such as a calculator. People may use mental calculation when computing tools are not available, when it is faster than other means of calculation, or even in a competitive context. Mental calculation often involves the use of specific techniques devised for specific types of problems. People with unusually high ability to perform mental calculations are called mental calculators or lightning calculators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakuntala Devi</span> Indian writer and mental calculator (1929–2013)

Shakuntala Devi was an Indian mental calculator and writer, popularly known as the "Human Computer". Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records. However, the certificate for the record was given posthumously on 30 July 2020, despite Devi achieving her world record on 18 June 1980 at Imperial College, London. Devi was a precocious child and she demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the University of Mysore without any formal education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zerah Colburn (mental calculator)</span> American mental calculator

Zerah Colburn was an American child prodigy of the 19th century who gained fame as a mental calculator.

Mathematical software is software used to model, analyze or calculate numeric, symbolic or geometric data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Tammet</span> British writer and savant (born 1979)

Daniel Tammet is an English writer and savant. His memoir, Born on a Blue Day (2006), is about his early life with Asperger syndrome and savant syndrome, and was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services magazine. His second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was one of France's best-selling books of 2009. His third book, Thinking in Numbers, was published in 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the United States and Canada. His books have been published in over 20 languages.

Acalculia is an acquired impairment in which people have difficulty performing simple mathematical tasks, such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and even simply stating which of two numbers is larger. Acalculia is distinguished from dyscalculia in that acalculia is acquired late in life due to neurological injury such as stroke, while dyscalculia is a specific developmental disorder first observed during the acquisition of mathematical knowledge. The name comes from the Greek a- meaning "not" and Latin calculare, which means "to count".

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Rüdiger Gamm is a German "mental calculator". He attained the ability to mentally evaluate large arithmetic expressions at the age of 21. He can also speak backwards, and calculate calendars. Featured on the Discovery Channel program The Real Superhumans, he was examined by Allan Snyder, an expert on savants, who concluded that Gamm's ability was not a result of savant syndrome but connected to genetics.

Alexis Lemaire is a mental calculation world record holder. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science related to artificial intelligence from the University of Reims. He is also the owner of world records for mentally calculating the 13th root of 100-digit numbers and 200-digit numbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberto Coto García</span>

Alberto Coto García is a Spanish mental calculator. He was the world champion in mental calculation from 2008 to 2010.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yusnier Viera</span> Cuban American mental calculator (born 1982)

Yusnier Viera is a Cuban American mental calculator. He is well known as "The Human Calendar" for his world record on calendar dates. On October 31, 2005 he broke for first time the World Record for calendar calculations. At the Mental Calculation World Cup in 2010 he won the calendar category. His current record for most amount of calendar dates calculated in a minute is 132 dates. He currently has three World Records for calendar calculations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Flansburg</span> American mathematician

Scott Flansburg is an American dubbed "The Human Calculator" and listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for speed of mental calculation. He is the annual host and ambassador for The National Counting Bee, a math educator, and media personality. He has published the books Math Magic and Math Magic for Your Kids.

Hypercalculia is "a specific developmental condition in which the ability to perform mathematical calculations is significantly superior to general learning ability and to school attainment in maths." A 2002 neuroimaging study of a child with hypercalculia suggested greater brain volume in the right temporal lobe. Serial SPECT scans revealed hyperperfusion over right parietal areas during performance of arithmetic tasks.

<i>Shakuntala Devi</i> (film) 2020 Indian film directed by Anu Menon

Shakuntala Devi is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama film tracing the life of mathematician and mental calculator Shakuntala Devi who was also known as the "human computer". The film is written and directed by Anu Menon and produced by Sony Pictures Networks India, Abundantia Entertainment and Genius Films, and stars Vidya Balan in a title role as Shakuntala Devi and Sanya Malhotra, Amit Sadh and Jisshu Sengupta in supporting roles while child artist Spandan Chaturvedi in her film debut gives a cameo appearance as young Shakuntala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash</span> Indian mathematician and human calculator (born 1999)

Neelakanta Bhanu Prakash is a human calculator, YouTuber and entrepreneur from Hyderabad, India, and is titled as the "World's Fastest Human Calculator". BBC said that "Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash is to math what Usain Bolt is to running". He won gold in the 2020 Mental Calculation World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad 2020. He also holds 50 Limca records for his mathematical calculations.

References

  1. ↑ O'Boyle, Michael W.; et al. (October 2005). "Mathematically gifted male adolescents activate a unique brain network during mental rotation". Cognitive Brain Research . 25 (2). Amsterdam: Elsevier: 583–587. doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.08.004. PMID   16150579.
  2. ↑ Shetterly, Margot Lee (2016). Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race. William Morrow and Company. pp.  115. ISBN   978-0062363596. Some of the women were capable of lightning-fast mental math, rivaling their mechanical calculating machines for speed and accuracy. Others, like Dorothy Hoover and Doris Cohen, had highly refined understandings of theoretical math, differentiating their way through nested equations ten pages deep with nary an error in sign. The best of the women made names for themselves for accuracy, speed, and insight.
  3. ↑ Adke, Arti (6 May 2019). "I love to be quicker than anyone else, Hans India, May 2019". Archived from the original on 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2020-08-17.

Further reading

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