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 mental calculators are autistic savants, with a narrow area of great skill and poor mental development in other directions, but many are people of normal mental development who have simply developed advanced calculating ability. A good many are also experienced mathematicians, linguists, writers, and so on.

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

Michael O'Boyle, an American psychologist perviously working in Australia and now at Texas Tech University, has recently used MRI scanning of blood flow during mental operation in mathematical prodigies to display startling results. These math prodigies achieve blood flow to parts of the brain responsible for mathematical operations at six to seven times the typical flow (see Cognitive Brain Research, October, 2005).

Contents

[edit] Mental calculators

  • Aitken, Alexander Craig, #6 in "The 100 Greatest" [1]
  • Ampere, Andre, #86 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Andrews, Henry, #55 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Annich, Pierre, #85 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Arago, Domingo Francisco, #87 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Arrago, Roman Semyonovich, #22 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Arrhenius, Svante August, #97 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Arumogam, #14 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Attar, Mohammed El, #56 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Benjamin, Arthur T., #21 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Bidder, George Parker, #2 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Bidder, George Parker Jr, #53 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Blesins, George, #45 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Buxton, Jedediah, #15 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • C.A.P., #33 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Cerebriakhof, Mikhail, #82 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Cerebriakhof, Petrof, #83 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Chikvashvily, Aron, #59 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Colburn, Zerah, #9 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Coq, Mattieu le, #80 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Coto, Alberto
  • Dagbert, Maurice, #19 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Dase, Johann Zacharias, #7 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Deshong, Peter M., #24 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Devi, Shakuntala, #37 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Diamandi, Pericles, #23 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Diamandi, Urania, #58 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Dismer, #78 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Dysart, Willis Nelson, #49 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Eberstark, Hans, #12 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Euler, Leonard, #51 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Ferrol, #39 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Fields, Rube, #17 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Finkelstein, Salo, #8 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Finn, Charles, #99 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Finn, George, #98 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Flansburg, Scott, [2], [3]
  • Fleury, Louis, #13 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Focie, Meho, #81 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Frankl, Moritz, #20 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Frost, R. H., #88 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Fuller, Thomas, #16 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Gadzhansky, Borislav, #52 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Gamm, Rüdiger, de:Rüdiger Gamm
  • Garry, James, #18 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Gauss, Carl Friedrich, #79 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Genlis, #69 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Goldshtein, David Naumovich, #25 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Grandmange, #35 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Greene, Brian
  • Griffith, Arthur F., #29 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Grote, Herbert B. de, #96 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Hagarman, Abraham, #73 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Heywood, #95 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Hurk, Antoon van den, #77 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Hutchings, William S., #57 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Inaudi, Jacques, #1 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Kahn, Ludwig, #92 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Kimura, Eiji, #5 in "The 100 Greatest" [4]
  • Klein, Leo, #32 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Klein, Wim (a.k.a. Willem Klein), #3 in "The 100 Greatest" [5]
  • Koningsveld, Jan van
  • Lacy, M. M. J. R., #90 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Lane, George
  • Law, John, #61 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Lemaire, Alexis
  • Leonard, Richard, #36 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Lidoreau, Paul-Aumont, #27 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Majorana, Ettore
  • Manglamele, Vito, #26 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Mantilla, Miguel Alberto, #63 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Marathe, Shyam, #42 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • McCartney, Daniel, #50 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Mills, Edward, #43 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Mittring, Gert
  • Mole, John, #46 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Mondeux, Henri, #28 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Mongeon, Ernest, #54 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Moore, Oscar, #67 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Movahhed, Ali Bayat [6]
  • Murray, Frederica, #68 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Neumann, John von, #41 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Nobokov, Vladimir, #100 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Osaka, Mlle, #64 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Peek, Kim
  • Pierini, Luigi, #76 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Porson, Richard, #44 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Portal, Marius, #11 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Prikhodko, Igor Josefovich, #94 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Prikhodko, Josef Zinovievich, #72 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Prolongeau, #65 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Pughiesi, Piemontais, #84 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Pugliese, Guiseppe, #75 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • R., Van, #93 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Ramanujan, Srinivasa, #89 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Riemann, Bernhard
  • Roby, John, #62 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Ruckle, Gottfried, #10 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Safford, Truman Henry, #4 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Serrano, Jaime García, Colombia, Sea Usted Una Computadora Humana ISBN 987-561-086-0
  • Shah, Divesh [7]
  • Shelushkov, Igor, #60 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Sidis, William James, #66 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Stepanov, Oleg
  • Succaro, Vincenzo, #71 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Tammet, Daniel
  • Tesla, Nikola, #91 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Tischer, August, #34 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Trachtenberg, Jakow
  • Tulsi, Tathagat Avatar
  • Verhaeghe, Oscar, #47 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Vinckler, #70 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Wallis, John, #40 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Watson, George, #38 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Whately, Richard, #31 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Winn, John, #30 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Zaneboni, Ugo, #74 in "The 100 Greatest"
  • Zubritsky, Vladymir, #48 in "The 100 Greatest"

[edit] Mental calculators in fiction

In 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.

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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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