Talk:Shakuntala Devi

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Tried to expand a bit. Her faith seems important to her, many of the sites about her are Ganesha related or even New Age, so felt like adding it.--T. Anthony 04:45, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I see since I was gone the sources were removed and the tone set to more story-telling. It was a nice story so I'll put it on the talk page if someone is mad I removed it.--T. Anthony 06:45, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Okay now that that's done I returned it to the version I did and then did some clean up. She is a rather unusual person so the temptation to get kind of peculiar or over-awed in doing an article on her is maybe inevitable. Still that should probably be resisted.--T. Anthony 06:55, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Story 2 Is it better? 3 Vandalism 4 Is she stll alive and where she lives? 5 intro part

[edit] Story

A story about her goes like this - January 24, 1977 . A cold and windy Monday afternoon at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas .

A beautiful young lady smartly clad in a sari, walked up to the stage. She sat down on a chair smiling at the hundreds of students and professors assembled in the hall. A scholarly professor wrote a 201 digit long number on the black board at her side. The number occupied 10 lines and took four minutes to write. After finishing the number, the professor took out a stopwatch from his pocket and with a nod at the lady he started the timer. There was absolute silence in the hall.

The young lady took one long look at the number and closed her eyes. Seconds ticked by. In deep concentration she appeared to have gone into a trance. At the fifty-second mark, the lady opened her eyes and slowly pronounced the answer, '546372891'. The professor then checked it with the result given by the computer. Yes, she was correct. The number given by her is the 23rd root of the 201 digit long number. Earlier that day, the fastest computer of the time, Univac 1108, had taken 62 seconds to give the answer.

Every member of the audience jumped to their feet and applauded the genius who beat the computer.

I removed this as not encyclopedic in tone, but here it is for those who want it.--T. Anthony 06:46, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

A source of the 23rd-root story can be found on the back cover of her book "Figuring: The Joy of Mathematics" (ISBN 0140118500)

Nad 19:18, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is it better?

There are three sources and I removed the storyish aspects.--T. Anthony 06:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

The Univac 1108 was released in 1964. Are you saying that no advances in computer science was made from 1964 to 1977 (when this anecdote supposedly occurred)?

Superlative statements such as "fastest computer of the time" need to be sourced please.

[edit] Vandalism

Removed vandalism that ran thus:

Shakuntala Devi is a scam artist. You will see her ad's for being a astrologer who can predict your future and solve your problems in India Abroad and other newspapers. First of all she will try to sell you all sort of Indian necklaces which have holy powers, for 500 dollars or 1000 dollars. Than she will only give you a two or three minute generic talk of how your life will be long and your health will be fine. This lady is a first class charlatan and hustler. She is not worth the 65 dollar telephone consultation she charges or even worth a in-person visit. People please be careful of her sales marketing gimmicks and spread the honest word after you indulge in her services on here. So people can be careful and aware of this Cheat and Thief. She is no Devi.

Retained for curious interest :) --Shreevatsa 17:36, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is she stll alive and where she lives?

[edit] intro part

intro part says but over the years her father had done a variety of circus acts.

What does it have to do in the intro part. And an advice for user Shreevatsa, please read WP:Civil and other policies before making some of the best revert summaries.nids(♂) 10:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

It is relevant, in that some (if not many) calculating prodigies have been "performers", being exhibited (or exhibiting themselves) for their talent at handling large numbers. In any case, any reasonable biography should include some childhood background. In fact, I think the fact that she began life in a circus is more relevant than details such as caste. I agree that the "but" is probably out-of-place, though.

As for the other thing (calling her talents "mathematical prodigies"), it is both grammatically (a prodigy does not mean "gift" or "talent") and factually (see my view here) wrong, so it was not clear whether it was inserted out of ignorance (many people, all of them non-mathematicians, seem to think she is a mathematician) or was a deliberate act ("vandalism"). Ignorance is not a shameful thing; we all have lots of ignorance; so I don't think suggesting ignorance of a particular word is uncivil. I apologise if I offended you. --Shreevatsa 10:14, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Read the intro again. It says not her but her father had done a variety of circus acts. It would have been relevant if She would have done those acts by herself. Moreover, this statement is poorly sources, so i was right in removing that. Anyways, i will wait for your comment.nids(♂) 11:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

She lived in a circus when she was a child, and performed card tricks in it at three. The first three external links (as of now) mention it. I agree that these statements are poorly sourced, like the rest of the article. I wouldn't oppose deleting this article ;-) Shreevatsa 13:07, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

You mean the statements, or the whole article.nids(♂) 18:09, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I meant the whole article. I was pointing out that the particular statement you wanted removed was no more unsourced than the rest. The whole article is full of poorly sourced statements (hence the {{unreferenced}} tag at the top), and if there isn't enough biographical material about her from good sources, I don't see any alternative but to either accept the existing sources (the ones in the External links section) or delete the article. Shreevatsa 00:43, 9 September 2006 (UTC)