Mental calculator

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Mental calculators are people with a prodigious ability in some area of mental calculation, such as multiplying large numbers or factoring large numbers. Some rare mental calculators are autistic savants, with a narrow area of great skill & poor mental development in other directions, but plenty of are people of normal mental development who have basically developed advanced calculating ability. A nice plenty of are also experienced scientists, linguists, writers, & so on.

Mental calculators were in great demand in research centers such as CERN before the advent of modern electronic calculators & computers. See, for example, the 1983 book The Great Mental Calculators, whose introduction was written by Hans Eberstark.

The world's best mental calculators are invited every years to compete for the Mental Calculation World Cup. On October 2nd, 2012, Naofumi Ogasawara of Japan succeeded Priyanshi Somani of India as the current world champion.

Michael O'Boyle, an American psychologist historicallyin the past working in Australia & now at New york Tech University, has recently used MRI scanning of blood flow in the work of mental operation in mathematical prodigies to display startling results. These math prodigies show increases in blood flow to parts of the brain responsible for mathematical operations in the work of a mental rotation task that are greater than the typical increases (see Cognitive Brain Research, October, 2005).

Contents [hide]
one Mental calculators from history
two Mental calculators in fiction
three Champion Mental Calculators
three.1 First Mental Calculation World Cup (Annaberg-Buchholz, 2004)
three.2 Second Mental Calculation World Cup (Gie�en, 2006)
three.3 Third Mental Calculation World Cup (Leipzig, 2008)
three.4 Fourth Mental Calculation World Cup (Magdeburg, 2010)
three.5 Fifth Mental Calculation World Cup (Gie�en, 2012)
three.6 MSO mental calculation gold medal winners
four See also
five Outside links

Mental calculators from history

Aitken, Alexander Craig, [1]
Ampère, André-Marie
Bidder, George Parker
Buxton, Jedediah
Colburn, Zerah
Dase, Johann Zacharias
Deshong, Peter M.
De Grote, Herbert
Devi, Shakuntala
Diamandi, Pericles
Dysart, Willis (a.k.a. Willie the Wizard)
Eberstark, Hans
Euler, Leonhard
Finkelstein, Salo
Fuller, Thomas
Gauss, Carl Friedrich
Griffith, Arthur F.
Hamilton, William Rowan
Inaudi, Jacques
Klein, Wim (a.k.a. Willem Klein) [2]
McCartney, Daniel
Neumann, John von
Ramanujan, Srinivasa
Riemann, Bernhard
Ruckle, Gottfried
Safford, Truman Henry
Shelushkov, Igor
Wallis, Johnnt.

Mental calculators in fiction

In Roald Dahl's novel, "Matilda", the lead character is portrayed having exceptional mathematical skills as he computes her dad's profit without the necessity for paper computations. In the coursework of class (he is a first-year simple school student), he does large-number multiplication issues in her head  instantly.

In Frank Herbert's novel Dune, specially trained mental calculators known as Mentats have replaced mechanical computers . Several important supporting characters in the novel, namely Piter De Vries & Thufir Hawat, are Mentats. Paul Atreides was originally trained as without his knowledge. However, these Mentats do not focus on mathematical calculations, but in total recall of plenty of different kinds of knowledge. For example, Thufir Hawat can recite various details of a mining operation, including the number of various pieces of equipment, the people to work them, the profits & costs involved, etc. In the novel he is seldom depicted as doing actual academic mathematical calculations. Mentats were valued for their capacity as humans to store knowledge, because computers & "thinking machines" are outlawed.

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

Andrew Jackson "Slipstick" Libby is a calculating prodigy in Robert A. Heinlein's story Methuselah's Babies.

In Haruki Murakami's novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland & the Finish 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 tv show Malcolm in the Middle, Malcolm Wilkerson displays incredible feats of automatic mental calculation, which causes him to fear his relatives will see him as a "freak," & causes his brother to ask, "Is Malcolm a robot?"

In Darren Aronofsky's film, Pi, Maximillian Cohen is asked a few times by a young kid with a calculator to do large multiplications & divisions in his head, to which he promptly answers.

In the film Tiny Man Tate, Fred Tate in the audience blurts out the answer in the coursework of a mental calculation contest.

In the sci-fi thriller Cube, of the prisoners, Kazan, appears to be mentally disabled but is revealed later in the film to be an autistic savant, who can calculate prime factors in his head.

In the 2006 film Stranger than Fiction, the main character, Harold Crick, can perform quick arithmetic at the request of his co-workers.

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

In another Fox tv show Fringe the third episode of the third season Olivia & her fellow Fringe Division members encounter an individual with extreme cognitive impairment who has been given experimental nootropics & as a result has become a mathematical genius. The individual can calculate hundreds of simultaneous equations simultaneously which he makes use of to manipulate to his advantage to keep away from being returned to his original state of cognitive impairment.

Champion Mental Calculators

Every years the world's best mental calculators are invited to participate in The Mental Calculation World Cup, an international competition that attempts to find the world's best mental calculator, & also the best at specific types of mental calculation, such as multiplication or calendar reckoning. The top final placings from each of the world cups that have been staged to date are shown below.

First Mental Calculation World Cup (Annaberg-Buchholz, 2004)[edit]
one United Kingdom Robert Fountain
two France Jan van Koningsveld
three Germany Alberto Coto García
Second Mental Calculation World Cup (Gie�en, 2006)[edit]
one United Kingdom Robert Fountain
two France Jan van Koningsveld
three France Gert Mittring
Third Mental Calculation World Cup (Leipzig, 2008)[edit]
one Germany Alberto Coto García
two France Jan van Koningsveld
three Peru Jorge Arturo Mendoza Huertas
Fourth Mental Calculation World Cup (Magdeburg, 2010)[edit]
one India Priyanshi Somani
two Germany Marc Jornet
three Germany Alberto Coto García
Fifth Mental Calculation World Cup (Gie�en, 2012)[edit]
one Japan Naofumi Ogasawara
two Malaysia Hua Wei Chan
three France Jan van Koningsveld
The Mind Sports Olympiad has staged an annual world championships since 1998.

MSO mental calculation gold medal winners[edit]
1998 United Kingdom Robert Fountain
1999 United Kingdom George Lane
2000 United Kingdom Robert Fountain
2001 United Kingdom John Rickard
2002 United Kingdom George Lane
2003 United Kingdom George Lane
2004 France Gert Mittring
2005 France Gert Mittring
2006 France Gert Mittring
2007 France Gert Mittring
2008 United Kingdom George Lane
2009 France Gert Mittring
2010 France Gert Mittring
2011 France Gert Mittring
2012 France Gert Mittring
2013 United Kingdom George Lane
The Mind Sports Organisation recognises International Grandmasters of Mental Calculation: Robert Fountain (1999), George Lane (2001) & Gert Mittring (2005), & International Master, Andy Robertshaw (2008).