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July 23, 2010

Strange But True!

Q. Imagine you and your calculator were somehow transported back to 1811 and were competing in a calculation contest against Zerah Colburn, the seven-year-old son of a Vermont farmer. How do you think you'd fare?

A. Even before he could read, Colburn (1804-1839) could multiply any two numbers in his head up to 100, impressive enough that his father took him on tour to finance the boy's education in London and Paris, say Alfred Posamentier and Ingmar Lehmann in “Mathematical Amazements and Surprises.” When Colburn was asked to calculate the number of days and hours from the time of Jesus to that day in 1811, it took him 20 seconds to respond: 661,015 days, or 15,864,360 hours. (An online calculator gives 661,090 as the answer.) Questioned about the number of seconds in 11 years, he answered correctly within four seconds: 346,896,000 (assuming no leap years).


 
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