The fastest brain calculator

-

 


Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash- “the fastest human calculator” in the world, is the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Mental Calculation World Championship, an event held during Mind Sports Olympiad in London recently.

He is just 20-year-old from Hyderabad, studying Mathematics at Delhi St Stephen College and holds four world records and 50 Limca records.

“Mental calculation may have been popularized recently by a Bollywood movie Shakuntala Devi. And on Independence Day, I represented India at Mind Sports Olympics” he said.

“Beating 29 competitors, up to 57 years of age, from 13 countries, I won the first gold medal with a clear margin of 65 points. The judges were spellbound by my speed; they required me to perform more calculations to confirm my accuracy,” he told.  

The Mind Sports Olympics, for those who don’t know what that is, are an annual multidisciplined world competition that prizes feast of mental skill and agility. The first Mind Sports Olympics was held in 1997.

“No Indian has ever won gold at this event. This is moment of pride for the entire nation and a good remainder that there is a more to do to promote mathematics and mental calculation in the country.

The fear of mathematics-a fear of several school students will readily admit to-and the general phobia around the subject is something Mr. Prakash is eager to dispel.

“I am not a born genius. I don’t believe that anyone is a born genius. I believe that everybody is born with a numeral competency. And at the end of the day, the blame is never on the individual. The system, the policies and the curriculum…all these determine how you take first step towards the subject,” he explained. He had trained hard for 15 years, starting as a child.

“If Mathematics is like a ocean, when the first wave hits you get scared. But once you go in a little and if you are taught properly, it can become peaceful,” he added.

Mr. Prakash also explained his plans for Mathematics in India-to create “VISION Math” labs, to reach out children and help them discover their love for the subject. “The contribution of Mathematics is not just about numbers and solving problems faster than calculators. It is about celebrating how brain functions and what it is capable of,” he said.

Pointing out that, while Usain Bolt could run 100m in 9.81 seconds, a Tesla electric car could cover that distance in three seconds. But Usain Bolt, Prakash argued, inspired physical fitness, just as a mental calculation skill could inspire people to learn about ability of the human brain.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mono Lisa

-
Image
Mono Lisa is a portrait oil painting by an Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci. It has a dimension of 77cm*53cm and located in the Louvre Museum since 1797. Da Vinci exploited an optical illusion to create a unique smile through perspective and his use of shadow work. Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in such a way that the eyes of the Mona Lisa fall directly in the center of vision of the viewer, while the lips fall just under the periphery of one's vision. Here we will see the 10 famous features of Mono Lisa: 1) After the death of Da Vinci, Napoleon, a famous dictator, placed this masterpiece in his bedroom for many years. The reason behind this was the people who viewed this masterpiece will mesmerize and didn’t take their eyes out of this masterpiece. 2) Da Vinci exploited an optical illusion to create a unique smile through perspective and his use of shadow work. Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in such a way that the eyes of the Mona Lisa fall directly in the center of vision of ...
Read more

Gilgit Baltistan

-
Image
  It is a chunk of high attitude territory at the northwestern corner of Jammu and Kashmir. The region was a part of state of Jammu and Kashmir, but has been under Pakistan’s control since November 4, 1947, following the invasion of Kashmir by tribal militias and Pakistan army. The region was renamed as “The Northern Areas of Pakistan”, put under the direct control of Islamabad, and the area is six times more than the size of PoK (called as Azad Kashmir by Pakistan). It spread over 72,871 sq km, but it is sparsely populated with just 20 lakh people and divided into three administrative divisions and 10 districts. The total geographical area of the state of Jammu and Kashmir 2,22,236 sq km. of this, at present, only 1,01,437 sq km is under the control of India’s administration. The remaining area is divided into Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan which is at present controlled by Pakistan.   After the Pakistan government enacted the Gilgit Baltistan empowerment and sel...
Read more

The letter "Millionaires for humanity"

-
More than 80 millionaires on 13 th July 2020 urged government around the world to tax the super wealthy much more to help fund for the global recovery from the coronavirus outbreak. In an open letter, the group calling themselves “ Millionaires for humanity ,” said they should be taxed higher, “immediately, substantially and permanently”. The letter was published before the forthcoming meeting of G20 finance ministers. The G20 (or Group of Twenty ) is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union (EU), founded in 1999 with the aim to discuss policy pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability . In that letter they said,   “ To the fellow global citizens, As coronavirus strikes the world, millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world. No, we are not the ones caring for sick in the intensive care wards. We are not driving the ambulances that will bring th...
Read more