Shakuntala Devi

Some Stories of Indian Mathematician

Shakuntala Devi The Human Calculator

Story Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi Regarding Politeness

It was the time when some school students were about to visit Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi , where She was performing at a local university. One of the students was preparing a question to ask her. Once she met the students, she took questions from the students. He then submitted the question; The question was what would be the 13th power of 7. She smiled and asked him to ask some harder questions, but he insisted on her answer to the same question.

She then answered the question, for which the student replied that she has wrongly answered it. She rather than getting scared or getting nervous, she started explaining to him why how she was right.

Some Stories of Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi

shakuntala devi

She even explained to him why the way he did the calculation because of which he got the wrong answer.

For Example The student has asked her to calculate what would be the 13th power of 7? And when the student has said that she has given the wrong answer for it, then she said, ‘First you computed 7^2 = 49, and then 7^4 = 49^2 = 2401, and then 7^8 = 2401^2 = 5764801. And then, for the next step, to get 7^12, you multiplied 7^4 by 7^8, and you then just have to multiply by 7 to get your answer. But when you multiplied 2401 by 5764801, that’s why you got the wrong answer.

Story of Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi Regarding Knowledge

It was the time when Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi was just five years old, and she solved the maths problems of 12 years students. This shows how knowledgeable she was and how much she loved maths. Not only she was able to solve the answer, but she was also able to explain it quickly and easily.

Stories of Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi Regarding Her Calculation Speed

Twenty-eight seconds which changed her life...

In front of the world, she calculated the 23rd root of 201 digit number. This was the first-ever time in history when someone calculated such a number within seconds without any errors. This amazed the world. Not only that, she received a standing ovation from the top mathematicians of the world.

In the Computer Department of Imperial College London, She multiplied 2 13 digit numbers and answered in nearly 28 seconds.

This marvellous work of her has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Record in 1982 as she beats the world's fastest computer.

Story of Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi Regarding Astrology

This is a story of a guy, who meets Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi, who was disturbed in his life because of various factors like his education, school life, personal life and all. He tried a lot of things, but nothing was working out. One day somehow their parents saw an ad in the newspaper stating that Shakuntala Devi would be conducting Astrological Reading in Mumbai.

As their family members believed in family member brought him to Shakuntala Devi to predict their son's future.

She took her date of birth and other details and started doing the astrological reading.

She predicted that his life would go completely downhill from the 10th class and he wouldn't even do his further education. But She suggested some of the tips and tricks that would change his life. She said that if he would listen to her words, then his life would completely change and would achieve a lot of things in his life.

Years later, after following the steps and guidelines given by her, that guy completely changed his life, and he got graduated from the top college with a good rank.

Story of Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi Regarding Vegetarian

Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi was vegetarian for lifelong from childhood. She used to eat pancakes and maple syrup in the United States as vegetarian food was scarce. American pancakes used to be like South Indian Breakfast like Dosai.

Dr Arthur Jensen, a researcher on human intelligence at the University of Califonia at Berkeley, considered Shakuntala Devi was the subject of Scientific Research.

The research says that regular consumption of pancakes may cause mental disorders. This research was used in Oscar- Winning Film is known as RainMan which has been released in 1988

The paper was then used as a reference for the Oscar-winning film Rainman (1988). In the movie, Dustin Hoffman plays a genius with mathematical abilities similar to those of Ms Devi but who is socially inept—and obsessed with pancakes! Devi laughs at this typical non-vegetarian misconception. Jensen's thesis was that Devi was an exceptionally well-rounded individual and math genius as well as a compassionate, inspiring role model.

Memories of Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi with her father

When Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi was five years old, her father asked her to memorize the card sequence and asked her to calculate the next move within seconds, and she did that without taking any time. This is where her father realized that she was very good with her memories.

Story of Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi in terms of Inspiring People

It was the time when Indian Mathematician Shakuntala Devi used to go to different Schools and Colleges. She used to conduct workshops and seminars in various schools and colleges.

Once she was conducting a seminar in a High School in New Jersey where almost 2, 000 and more students and teachers have attended the Seminar where she asks all these students and teachers if they loved Mathematics, one hand went up, and that was the hand of the math teacher.

On seeing this, she said, "Why do children dread mathematics? Because of the wrong approach. Because it is looked at as a subject."

To Inspire the students to learn maths she said,

"Without mathematics, there's nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers." She even said "Numbers have life; they're not just symbols on paper. " and continued saying "Students shy away from Maths, but in reality, Maths is the best friend of man."

Telling more about her life and how she learned maths, she said, "I haven't had any formal education." and continued saying "Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It's about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life."

She said, "Perhaps anyone could do it if they had played with numbers for hours every day since early childhood."