Recently I posted on Mathematics and on a great mathematician of 20th century - Nicolas Bourbaki. Largely unknown today, Bourbaki is likely the last mathematician to master nearly all aspects of the field. A consummate collaborator, he made fundamental contributions to important mathematical fields such as set theory and functional analysis. He also revolutionized mathematics by emphasizing rigor in place of conjecture. .. .. … b u t - factually – Nicolas Bourbaki never existed !!! : Bourbaki - mathematician
To the modern day student
who is not studying mathematical tables and the like – every function is
fulfilled by gadgets -for simple calculations too, be it addition or
subtraction, one is inclined to look for a calculator, mostly on the cell
phone. Can the mind be faster than a calculator- yes, if you are !!
The Mind Sports Olympiad
(MSO) is an annual international multi-disciplined competition and festival for
games of mental skill and mind sports. The inaugural event was held in 1997 in
London with £100,000 prize fund and was described as possibly the biggest games
festival ever held. The MSO was the first event of its kind celebrating mental
skills and awarding gold, silver and bronze medals for each event and was
highly influential on the mind sports movement and competitions that have
followed since. The main MSO tournament has been held every year in England. In 2020, for the first time, the entire MSO
tournament was held online.
Fastest human
calculator in the world: After winning gold for India in the Mental Calculation
World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO), 20-year old Neelakanta Bhanu
Prakash has become the fastest human calculator in the world. Neelakanta Bhanu
Prakash is a student of Mathematics (Hons.) who is currently studying at Delhi
University’s St Stephen College and he holds world records along 50 Limca
records for his fastest ever Mathematics calculations.
A report by news agency ANI
citing Bhanu Prakash said that his brain is capable of calculating quicker than
the speed of a calculator. These records were earlier held by Math maestros
like Scott Flansburg and Shakuntala Devi and Bhanu Prakash believes that he has
done his bit to take India to the global level of mathematics. He said that at
MSO, London 2020 that was held on August 15, India for the first time won a
gold medal. It is to note that the MSO is considered as the most prestigious
international competition designed for mental skills and mind sports and is
held annually in London.
The great news
is : Neelakanta Bhanu Prakash, a 21-year-old Hyderabad boy, has become the
world’s fastest human calculator after winning the first gold for India in the
Mental Calculation World Championship at Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London. According to a report by
Times Now, the championship was held on 15 August. He also holds world records
and 50 Limca records for being the fastest human calculator in the world.
As per a report by Bangalore
Mirror, Neelakanta won the event that was held virtually with 30 participants
in the age group of 13 and 50 years. Participants from 13 countries including
UK, Germany, UAE, France, Greece and Lebanon took part in the contest. Neelakanta
was miles ahead of the Lebanese contender, who came second with a massive 65
points difference. The third place was secured by a contestant from UAE. A
graduate in Mathematics from St. Stephen’s College, Neelakanta had enrolled
himself for the SIP Abacus program when he was just 5 years old and completed
nine levels of Abacus. He has even won the International Abacus Champion '13
and National Abacus Champion '11 and '12.
Math prodigy Neelakantha
Bhanu Prakash Jonnalagadda (20) is a final year B.Sc student of Delhi’s
top-ranked St. Stephen’s College. He is also founder of Exploring Infinities
(EI, estb.2018), a proprietary firm promoted to boost children’s cognitive
development and popularise speed mental arithmetics and games through workshops
and year-long courses in schools. Newspeg. EI is offering gamified learning
modules on mobile apps to enhance cognitive abilities such as memory, sensory
precision and mental computation skills. It is all set to roll out its first
gaming app, which NBPJ says will banish maths phobia of class I-XII students.
The app’s design is the outcome of data and feedback from students of several
government and private schools with which the firm has been interacting over
the past three years.
The first son of Hyderabad
based couple J. Srinivas (a food processing company promoter) and J. Hema Shiva
Parvathi (a businesswoman), NBPJ suffered an accident when he was five, in
which he sustained severe head injuries and was bed-ridden for almost a year. During
his convalescence, his doting parents introduced arithmetic puzzles and mental
exercises to distract him and ease his pain. Soon Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash
Jonnalagadda developed a passion for complex mathematical calculations. At age
12, he was crowned national math champion in Bangalore (2011) and Pune (2012).
The following year he won an Arithmetic Prodigy Championship 2013 in Singapore,
and went on to break five math world records and 50 Limca Book of Records in
mental math racing past math maestros like Scott Flansburg and Shakuntala Devi.
While a student of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Public School, Hyderabad, young
NBPJ began conducting math learning classes for students and corporate
executives. At age 15, he co-founded Iscreamers Frozen Kingdom, an ice-cream
startup.
“Mathematics is an exact
science which greatly speeds mental growth. Regular practice greatly improves
decision-making skills, efficiency and memory. Arithmetic exercise is the key
to unlock the infinite potential of the brain,” says this maths wunderkind.
Bhanu - as he's known -
"thinks about numbers all the time" and is now the fastest human
calculator in the world. He compares mental maths to sprinting, saying nobody
questions people who run fast, but there's always questions around the point of
mental maths. "We celebrate someone like Usain Bolt when he does a 100
metre sprint in 9.8 seconds," he tells BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, "but we
don't say what's the point of running quickly in a world with cars and
planes.""It's about inspiring people that your body can do something
unimaginable - and it's the same with calculations and maths."
Bhanu has been helping
people in rural India connect with maths during lockdown. He says coming from a
middle-class family in India, the aim is usually to settle for a good job or
open a business, and not go into a niche field like maths. But given his flair
for numbers, Bhanu is about to complete his degree in Mathematics. Winning
championships and records, he doesn't "formally practise" as much
each day; instead he relies on "unstructured practise where I keep
thinking about numbers all the time". I practice with loud music on,
talking to people, catching and playing cricket, because this is when your
brain is being trained to do multiple things at the same time." He
demonstrates this by reciting the 48 times table in the middle of this
interview. "I will just add every taxi number which passes by me. If I'm
talking to someone I'm just going to count how many times they blink - creepy
as it may sound - it keeps your brain functioning."
'It's about inspiring
people'.. .. For Bhanu, his aim is not just to keep breaking records - though
he likes doing that too. "The records and calculations are just a metaphor
for saying that the world needs mathematicians. And math has to be fun for us
to say that this is a subject we love." His ultimate mission is to
"eradicate maths phobia", as he says lots of people are afraid of
numbers.
Another Indian
making the Nation proud.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
25.08.2020.
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