Scott Flansburg

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Scott Flansburg is listed as 'the fastest human calculator' in the Guinness Book of World Records.^{[citations needed]}

1 His Life, His Projects and Career
2 The "Human Calculator" Press
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] His Life, His Projects and Career

(John) Scott Flansburg was born in Herkimer, New York on December 28, 1963. He served in the U.S. Air Force (1982-1988) and had a tour of duty with the Office of Special Investigations in Tokyo, Japan. He then returned to the United States and became an advocate of teaching math in an innovative fashion. In 1989 he drew the attention of Mr. Regis Philbin. Mr. Philbin is the individual that is credited for naming Scott, "The Human Calculator" during his appearance on The Regis and Kathy Lee Show. In 1991 he began working on a project called Turn On the Human Calculator In You, a series of tapes that was subsequently on Mike Levy's Amazing Discoveries and then published by Media Arts of Reston, VA (1991). Turn On the Human Calculator In You was one of the most successful early infomercials touted as having in excess of 125 million viewings. The follow-up product was called Mega Math with Kevin Tredeau(1996) which added a video and workbook and was later published by Tru Vantage International of Niles IL.

He has subsequently appeared on countless television shows including Oprah (see www.myspace.com/thehumancalculator), Ellen, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Good Morning America, Discovery Channel's 'More Than Human', and thousands of local radio and TV shows.

Scott is also a paid-motivational speaker. He is well known in the Phoenix area where has lived for over ten years (The Arizona Republican Mon Oct 4, 2004) where he developed his Theory of Nine concept and Human Calendar. The Human Calculator has given thousands of "gratis" appearances to elementary schools around the US. Scott is also an avid golfer. Scott presently earns a living from his various publishing activities and as a spokesman for companies like Qwest and Kraft Foods. Scott additionally has a poker product, The Poker Eye, for The World Poker Store and occasionally plays professionally in Las Vegas where he now resides (2008).

The Human Calculator's principle is simple if not a bit incendiary. Make math fun and individuals become better working out the everyday math problems of life. He is basically the coolest math teacher-- but still a math-teacher nerd at his core. His favorite trick, which you can learn from his books and tapes, is to figure out the day of the week that your were born if you tell him the date. It takes a second for him but can be explained and done by mere mortals. Many of his techniques to make math simpler are contrary to school of thought that feels that one must understand the traditional ways of how math problems are done rather than doing them in sometimes terribly simple alternative methods.

He is the best selling author of Math MagicWilliam Morrison and Harper Collins 1993 and Math Magic for Kids William Morrow and Harper Perennial 1996 as well as infomercial products including Turn on the Human Calculator In You1991 Media Art, Reston, VA and Mega MathTru Vantage International. (1997)

Recently, Scott invented, a quintessentially simple, if not quirky The Human Calendar(1999), a 13-month calendar that uses zero as a day/month/year.