Many of you have compared the ability to memorise 22 digits in 4 seconds with the time of calculating the root.
Well, the point is that you do not have to read the entire number to calculate the root if you just know that it is a perfect 13th power.
You can get the first digits of the result by inspecting the first digits of the power (and memorising logarithms or doing some other good estimation). And the last digits of the result can be found by inspecting just the last digits of the power.
Two more remarks:
* If someone is interested in competitive mental calculation, the mailing list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MentalCalculation/ is the right place for you. Last month, there was the first Mental Calculation World Cup (http://www.recordholders.org/en/events/worldcup04/ whith 17 calculators from 10 countries
* World records for mental calculation are published in "The Book of Alternative Records" (http://www.alternativerecords.co.uk/). However, because some tasks are "easier" than others, we decided to publish a record for calculating 9 tasks in a row (one power ending in 1,..., one power ending in 9) instead of records for single tasks. (Anyway, Gert did a great job with his single task result!)
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Many of you have compared the ability to memorise 22 digits in 4 seconds with the time of calculating the root. Well, the point is that you do not have to read the entire number to calculate the root if you just know that it is a perfect 13th power. You can get the first digits of the result by inspecting the first digits of the power (and memorising logarithms or doing some other good estimation). And the last digits of the result can be found by inspecting just the last digits of the power.4 / whith 17 calculators from 10 countries ..., one power ending in 9) instead of records for single tasks. (Anyway, Gert did a great job with his single task result!)
Two more remarks:
* If someone is interested in competitive mental calculation, the mailing list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MentalCalculation/ is the right place for you. Last month, there was the first Mental Calculation World Cup (http://www.recordholders.org/en/events/worldcup0
* World records for mental calculation are published in "The Book of Alternative Records" (http://www.alternativerecords.co.uk/). However, because some tasks are "easier" than others, we decided to publish a record for calculating 9 tasks in a row (one power ending in 1,