- Shakuntala Devi
Shakuntala Devi (Kannada: ಶಕುಂತಲಾ ದೇವಿ) is a
calculating prodigy who was born onNovember 4 ,1939 inBangalore ,India . Her father worked in a circus as atrapeze andtightrope performer, and later as ahuman cannonball . Her calculating gifts first demonstrated themselves while she was doing card tricks with her father when she was three. They report she "beat" them by memorization of cards rather than by sleight of hand. By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at theUniversity of Mysore . At the age of eight she had success atAnnamalai University by doing the same.Unlike many other calculating prodigies, for example
Truman Henry Safford , her abilities did not wane in adulthood. In 1977 she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally. OnJune 18 ,1980 she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She answered the question in 28 seconds. However, this time is more likely the time for dictating the answer (a 26-digit number) than the time for the mental calculation (the time of 28 seconds was quoted on her own website). Her correct answer was 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730. This event is mentioned on page 26 of the 1995Guinness Book of Records ISBN 0-553-56942-2.In 2006 she has released a new book called In the Wonderland of Numbers with Orient Paperbacks which talks about a girl Neha and her fascination for numbers.
ome of her books
*Puzzles to Puzzle You
*More Puzzles to Puzzle You
*Awaken the Genius in Your Child
*Book of Numbers
*Astrology for You
*Figuring -- The Joy of Numbers
*Mathability
*In the Wonderland of NumbersExternal links
* [http://www.vedicmathsindia.org/human_computer.htm Biography of Shakuntala Devi]
* [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1988/04/1988-04-02.shtml Hinduism today, 1988]
* [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2000/5-6/2000-5-17.shtml Hinduism today, 2000]
* [http://www.suntimes.co.za/2002/02/03/news/durban/ndbn11.asp Sunday Times (South Africa), 2002]
* [http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/19707497.cms Times of India]
* [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030420/spectrum/book7.htm A book by her]
* [http://azyyati79.fotopages.com/?entry=1011906 Astrology Predictions by Shakuntala Devi - Some insight]
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