Have you ever wondered that one can do mathematical calculations faster than a calculator? Yes, there were people who have done this like Ramanujan, Shakuntala Devi and many others. But recently there is another man, aged 20, Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash who can perform mathematical calculations 10x faster than a normal human being.
What's 869,463,853 times 73? It's 63,470,861,269 and it takes just 26 seconds for Bhanu, known in India as the "world's fastest human calculator," to work it out in his mind. Bhanu says he's able to make such complex calculations at breakneck speed through "structured practice."
"Let's say I am doing a multiplication of 8,763 multiplied by eight," he says. "I'll probably multiply: 8,000 by eight which is 64,000, 700 by eight which is 5,600, 60 by eight which is 480, three by eight is 24. And I add all of these. But this requires the human brain to remember all this.
"The methods which I use are very similar to general methods but certain things, basically it is brain optimization. I optimize my methods and make them better than before.
"At the end of the day whatever I call my methods, sometimes it just happens. There's a certain process, obviously, but since you have trained your brain, it just happens."
He became the first Asian to win gold at the Mental Calculation World Championship at the Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London on August 15.
Bhanu beat 29 opponents from 13 countries to take the gold in the competition and his speed was so extraordinary that judges made him jump through extra hoops and solve more calculations to confirm his accuracy.
At the age of 5, in 2005, Bhanu faced a tragic accident which resulted in head injury with 85 stitches in his skull. He spent a one whole in year on bed and that time he tried to keep his brain busy in solving puzzle and playing chess. Bhanu finished third in the sub-junior category at a state level speed arithmetic competition in Andhra Pradesh state. His performance brought his father to tears, Bhanu says. "It wasn't the medal, it was what led me there that moved my father," he says. Since then Bhanu secured many positions and records even leveling India’s legendary mathematician Shakuntala Devi.
In 2018, Bhanu founded Exploring Infinities, an educational organization that aims to make math cool, challenging, interesting and immersive, by tracking cognitive ability development through arithmetic games.
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