Can you calculate the following numbers in your brain without the aid of calculators or adding machines?
37,691 × 37,691 = ?????
Did you succeed? If so, how long did it take you? Can you do it faster than you can do using a calculator?
Well, someone can just do that. He is Arthur Benjamin, who calls himself a 'mathemagician'. But is it really a magic, or one of the many possibilities the human brain is capable of attaining?
In his entertaining and fascinating TEDtalk speech, he demonstrated the jaw dropping capacity of his brain, or possibly that of the human beings, in what he says is the result of the fusion of his passions for mathes and magic.
He takes up two digit numbers he randomly receives from the audience and multiples them faster than the calculators the three individuals picked up from the audience use to compute the given numbers. He has actually shown to multiple two digit numbers faster than those three individuals could do using the short cut method to square a given number in their calculators. He had no difficulty doing the same even using three digit numbers.
In fact, he appeared to struggle a little bit when he was calculating the square of four digit numbers, but corrected his own mistake immediately. For me, this makes him more human and may validate the amazing power of his brain to be more of a human capability than some magical wonder beyond the realms of the potential of the average human beings.
Arthur makes his demonstration more entertain and even trickier when he takes up the challenge to multiply the three digit number with any four digit numbers. He would exactly tell the missing number when the three individuals do the multiplication using their calculators and tell him the resulting six or seven digit numbers in any order they like leaving out one of the digits for him to fill in. He made no mistakes in any of the three attempts. The chances of getting just all of these three attempts right by pure guessing is one in one thousand, he noted. He is also proud to point out that most of the calculators can not go beyond calculating five digit numbers which can only be done with some latest calculators.
In addition to computations, he proves the power of his amazing brain to tell the day of the week of their birth when some of the people in the audience tell him the year, month and the date they were born. He has even shown his capability to name the day of the week between 1600 years in the past and 3000 years into the future as much as the modern day app can help us confirm. Hence, it was not very difficult for him to tell that 13 June 2730 will fall on Friday.
Towards the end of his demonstration, Aurther explained how he does his wonders of computation by actually thinking loud as he multiples the square of five digit numbers resulting in ten digit numbers. He said he uses certain words as mnemonic devices to temporarily store the numbers he is multiplying to be able to retrieve them later and complete his computation. He actually declares that there is definately a method to his amazing power of calculation, which probably shows that his capability in computation is a learn behaviour than something which magically happens to him. This probably confirms that other human beings can also possibily learn his techniques and do all the wonders he has been able to demonstrate.
In his final demonstration, Arther admits that there may be 50% chance for him to make a mistake but doesn't want to be told his mistakes before he himself has the chance to correct them. But actually he did no mistake, and he finished his fascinating and entertaining demonstration with a big finish leaving the audience applauding to him in awe, and probably with something like this lingering in their mind, "Well, I can not definitely do the same."
But can't you?
37,691 × 37,691 = ?????
Did you succeed? If so, how long did it take you? Can you do it faster than you can do using a calculator?
Well, someone can just do that. He is Arthur Benjamin, who calls himself a 'mathemagician'. But is it really a magic, or one of the many possibilities the human brain is capable of attaining?
In his entertaining and fascinating TEDtalk speech, he demonstrated the jaw dropping capacity of his brain, or possibly that of the human beings, in what he says is the result of the fusion of his passions for mathes and magic.
He takes up two digit numbers he randomly receives from the audience and multiples them faster than the calculators the three individuals picked up from the audience use to compute the given numbers. He has actually shown to multiple two digit numbers faster than those three individuals could do using the short cut method to square a given number in their calculators. He had no difficulty doing the same even using three digit numbers.
In fact, he appeared to struggle a little bit when he was calculating the square of four digit numbers, but corrected his own mistake immediately. For me, this makes him more human and may validate the amazing power of his brain to be more of a human capability than some magical wonder beyond the realms of the potential of the average human beings.
Arthur makes his demonstration more entertain and even trickier when he takes up the challenge to multiply the three digit number with any four digit numbers. He would exactly tell the missing number when the three individuals do the multiplication using their calculators and tell him the resulting six or seven digit numbers in any order they like leaving out one of the digits for him to fill in. He made no mistakes in any of the three attempts. The chances of getting just all of these three attempts right by pure guessing is one in one thousand, he noted. He is also proud to point out that most of the calculators can not go beyond calculating five digit numbers which can only be done with some latest calculators.
In addition to computations, he proves the power of his amazing brain to tell the day of the week of their birth when some of the people in the audience tell him the year, month and the date they were born. He has even shown his capability to name the day of the week between 1600 years in the past and 3000 years into the future as much as the modern day app can help us confirm. Hence, it was not very difficult for him to tell that 13 June 2730 will fall on Friday.
Towards the end of his demonstration, Aurther explained how he does his wonders of computation by actually thinking loud as he multiples the square of five digit numbers resulting in ten digit numbers. He said he uses certain words as mnemonic devices to temporarily store the numbers he is multiplying to be able to retrieve them later and complete his computation. He actually declares that there is definately a method to his amazing power of calculation, which probably shows that his capability in computation is a learn behaviour than something which magically happens to him. This probably confirms that other human beings can also possibily learn his techniques and do all the wonders he has been able to demonstrate.
In his final demonstration, Arther admits that there may be 50% chance for him to make a mistake but doesn't want to be told his mistakes before he himself has the chance to correct them. But actually he did no mistake, and he finished his fascinating and entertaining demonstration with a big finish leaving the audience applauding to him in awe, and probably with something like this lingering in their mind, "Well, I can not definitely do the same."
But can't you?
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