Indian "Human Computer" Shakuntala Devi passes away
World-renowned Indian prodigy mental calculator and astrologer Shakuntala Devi (83) passed away. She was known as “Human Computer”.
Shakuntala Devi was born in Bangalore, India and in her initial childhood years she worked in Circus and road-shows with her father where she displayed her amazing ability at number crunching.
She developed the concept of ‘mind dynamics’.
Shakuntala Devi later entered the field of Astrology and commenced offering astrological advice to hundreds of people, including celebrities, politicians, etc.
Some special achievements:
- In Dallas in 1977 she gave cube root of 188138517 faster than a computer in a competition.
- In a US University, she gave 23rd root of 201-digit number : “916748676920039158098660927585380162483106680144308622407126516427934657040867096593279205767480806790022783016354924852380335745316935111903596577547340075681688305620821016129132845564805780158806771” as 546372891 in 50 seconds and the answer to this question took a UNIVAC 1108 computer (fed with 13000 instructions) 62 seconds (12 seconds more than 50 seconds).
- In 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. This event is mentioned in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records.
She also authored famous books like:
- Puzzles to Puzzle You
- More Puzzles to Puzzle You
- Book of Numbers
- Perfect Murder
- Figuring: The Joy of Numbers
- In the Wonderland of Numbers
- Super Memory: It Can Be Yours
- Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child
- Astrology for You
Month: Current Affairs - April, 2013
Category: Awards, Honours & Persons in News