Slashdot Mirror
Math Whiz Breaks Calculation Record
keyshawn632 writes "The Associated Press reports that Gert Mittring, 38, needed only 11.8 seconds to calculate the 13th root of a 100-digit number in his head at a math museum in Giessen, a small town, located in western Germany.
It's worth noting though that his feat will not be recognized by The Guinness Book Of World Records because of the difficulty of standardizing such mathematical challenges."
I can say all fifty states in a quarter of a second!
I can do that with my eyes closed. It'll just take me a bit longer.
Just memorize the 13th root of every 100-digit number in existence. Sheesh.
Obligitory Family Guy quote:
Lois: Peter, why would they make you presidesnt?
Peter: Maybe it's because I can recite all 50 states in a quarter of a second - RARF!
Lois: Peter, that was just a loud yelping noise
...Mittring will now go for the record of longest lifespan without losing one's virginity.
you misspelled "forty-two".
Just as I read this article, what would start playing in my playlist but Mr. Roboto. I wonder if he has parts made in Japan?
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?
I think a better joke would be.
And that would be the only rooting this guy will ever do in his life
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
Get this guy some sappho juice.
It's worth noting though that his feat will not be recognized by The Guinness Book Of World Records because of the difficulty of standardizing such mathematical challenges.
That's the problem when dealing with a highly subjective field like mathematics.
Unfortunately, he _still_ can't pound a 6" spike into a 2x4 with his penis. And everyone knows, a girl's got to have her standards.
Gert Mittring was disqualified when judges noted a small sticker on his chest in a post-event checkup. It was discovered that he had Intel Inside.
The news set off a legal feeding frenzy. SCO sued Mr. Mittring for using the company's super secret 13th root finder source code. Microsoft then added to the man's woes by suing for patent infringement over Microsoft's patents on 100 digit numbers. RIAA then sued him for including "8675309" in the answer -- obviously a stolen clip from "Jenny" by Tommy Tutone.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I read somewhere that you only need about 50 digits of pi to describe a circle the size of the observable universe to within the diameter of a proton, let alone a chocolate donut.
This isn't to say that 1350 digits wouldn't be useful! If you ever wake up in an alternate universe (you were warned about operating quantum machinery while drunk!) just look up pi in a math book. The degree of trouble you're in could correlate to the digit at which your memorized value, and the local value of pi, diverge.
If pi only diverges after 1000 or more digits, you're probably alright, except for having to re-memorize pi.
If pi diverges after 100 digits, there may be some minor historical divergences, like, say, President Nixon being impeached, or Bush winning a second term. The mind boggles!
If pi diverges after 30 or 40 digits, look out the window. Do dinosaurs roam the earth? Since you're surrounded by ruthless, math-book-publishing carnivores, consider donating yourself to the primate house of the zoo.
If local pi begins with a number other than 3, you should start to get worried, or maybe implode.
I can do the 23rd root of a 163 digit number in 5.8 seconds, and I wasn't even trying. I've climbed Mt. Everest in an hour and a half. I can rewrite the Linux kernel in under an hour. I can count up to ten thousand coins in no more than a minute.
And yet, curiously, it takes me almost...-checks watch- five minutes to make a stupid, useless post on /. Strange eh?
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
First, figure out the "year number". This part -- and the month number -- take some practice. Here's the first few to get you started:
1900 - 0
1904 - 5
1908 - 3
1912 - 1
1916 - 6
1920 - 4
1924 - 2
1928 - 0
And it repeats thusly. Note that the "year number" starts at 0 for the beginning of the century, and is decreased by two (modulo seven) every leap year.
In case you're interested in the other 75% of the time, simply add one to the year number for every year you add. Thus, 1901 becomes 1, 1902 becomes 2, etc.
The "month" number requires memorization of another table, which cannot be recalculated as quickly as the year number:
Jan - 0
Feb - 3
Mar - 3
Apr - 6
May - 1
Jun - 4
Jul - 6
Aug - 2
Sep - 5
Oct - 0
Nov - 3
Dec - 5
Add the month number to the year number. If your year is a leap year and your month is January or February, subtract 1.
Next, add the day number. The day number is the day. :P
Now, add or subtract sevens as necessary until you end up with a number between 0 and 6:
0 - Sunday
1 - Monday
2 - Tuesday
3 - Wednesday
4 - Thursday
5 - Friday
6 - Saturday
The result will be the day of the week.
If your desired date does not begin with a "19", you have to add a century number as well. I believe 2000 is a leap year, since every 100 years is not but every 400 years is. Thus, the century number of 2000 is 6 (or, equivalently, -1). 1800 is 5, 1700 is 3, etc. (I am not certain of these.)
As an example, today's year number is 5, the month number is 3, and the day number is 24. After compensating for the century by subtracting 1, we obtain 31. This reduces to 3 (by subtracting 28), which corresponds to Wednesday. Since it is Wednesday, and since I am in a large empty room, I further deduce that the lecture has ended.
Let me try some rough math with the help of a calculator.
To memorize 22 digits, this guy takes ~4 seconds. So for 100 digits that would take about 18 seconds.
Now I forgot, he did what in 11.8 seconds
Does anyone have a math book I can borrow? I really need to look something up.
Of course, to be fair, it should be noted that the above poster is a postdoc lecturer at MIT who is teaching Mathematics for Computer Science this semester and wrote the course notes, including a substantial portion involving number theory.
Oh God, now that I think about it . . . you're putting this on the final, aren't you? NOoOOOooOooOoOOoO!!!!!
Dude, chicks are so turned off by guys who will be able to remember phone numbers like that.
Having such a memory leads to other problems:
a) She will expect you to remember her birthday/holidays
b) She will know you will remember all the dumb things she said the last time you got in a fight
c) She will know you are smart enough to balance the checkbook (less money for her!)
My advice: Play dumb. It turns them on for some reason.