Savant syndrome is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calculation, artistic ability, map making, or musical ability. Usually, only one exceptional skill is present.
A mental calculator or human calculator is a person with a prodigious ability in some area of mental calculation.
Brodmann area 44, or BA44, is part of the frontal cortex in the human brain. Situated just anterior to premotor cortex (BA6) and on the lateral surface, inferior to BA9.
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.
The Mental Calculation World Cup is an international competition for mental calculators, held every two years in Germany.
Michael Byster is an American mathematician, mental calculator, and math educator. He worked as a commodity trader until he quit his job to devote himself to teaching children his methods. He has spoken to over 10,000 classrooms for free and continues to mentor kids. Mike is able to do many arithmetic problems in his head at very fast speeds. During a study done years ago, Byster was claimed to have one of the fastest mathematical minds in the world.
Arthur T. Benjamin is an American mathematician who specializes in combinatorics. Since 1989 he has been a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, where he is the Smallwood Family Professor of Mathematics.
Willem Klein, also known as Wim Klein or under his stage names Pascal and Willy Wortel, was a Dutch mathematician of Jewish ancestry, famous for being able to carry out very complicated calculations in his head very fast. On 27 August 1976, he calculated the 73rd root of a 500-digit number in 2 minutes and 43 seconds. This feat was recorded by the Guinness Book of Records.
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.
Jan van Koningsveld is a mental calculator. He is the champion of Extracting Square Roots of 2004 and 2008 as well as the champion of Calendar Calculation of 2008 at the Mental Calculation World Cups. In addition, he finished second in the overall rankings of 2004, 2006 and 2008.
Professor Splash is the show name of Darren Taylor. Taylor is an American show diver from Denver, Colorado. He is well known for breaking high diving records using small pools. He holds the Guinness World Records for highest shallow water dive. Taylor has been on The History Channel's Stan Lee's Superhumans and explained the form of his famous dive. Taylor appeared on Discovery Channel's Time Warp and set a world record dive captured on slow motion cameras.
Alberto Coto García is a mental calculator and was the world champion in mental calculation from 2008 to 2010.
Stig Åvall Severinsen is a Danish freediver. He is a four-time world freediving champion and holder of multiple Guinness World Records. He also wrote Træk Vejret – mere energi, mindre stress (2009), published in English in 2010 as Breatheology – The Art of Conscious Breathing.
Miksike MentalMath is a project for students to improve their mental calculation skill. The project consists of online JavaScript-based mental training and competing platform and competitions that are held on national and international levels. The project was developed by Kalev Põldsaar of Estonia.
Ben Lee is a British electric violinist and composer/producer. He is one half of the electric violin band FUSE with Linzi Stoppard.
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.
Dr Amit Garg is an Indian mathematician and mental calculator. He currently works as founder and Chief Scientist at ORMAE, a firm registered in USA, UAE & India which engages in building innovative products, consulting and training in Operations Research and Data Science.
Ireneo Bughao was awarded with Ripley’s Believe It or Not's cartoon in January 1997, with a caption that states: “Ireneo Bughao of Manila, Philippines is able to calculate the specific day of the week of any day in the past or future – faster than a computer!”. He has thought of and perfected a mathematical formula, where he can determine and give accurate answers with ease and astounding speed to those who would like to know the day they were born, or what day a date shall fall centuries from now.
The Brain is a Chinese scientific reality and talent show originating in Germany. The show's aim is to find people with exceptional brainpower. This show is produced under Endemol and has been sold to multiple countries in Europe, China, Russia and United States to date.
Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash is a human calculator from India, and is titled as the "World's Fastest Human Calculator". BBC said "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.
