Shakuntala Devi-Human Computer

Shankuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi —Human Computer, is a calculating prodigy, Her calculating gifts first demonstrated themselves while she was doing card tricks with her father when she was three.They report she "beat" them by memorization of cards rather than by sleight of hand. By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at the University of Mysore.n when she was eight, she had success at Annamalai University by doing the same.

In Dallas she competed with a computer to see who give the cube root of 188138517 faster, she won. 

In 1977 At university of USA she was asked to give mentally the 23rd root of 91674867692003915809866092758538016248310668014430862240712651642793465704086709659 32792057674808067900227830163549248523803357453169351119035965775473400756818688305 620821016129132845564895780158806771 (201-digit number).

She answered in 50seconds. The answer is 546372891, She did this 12 seconds faster than the Univac-1108. 

On June 18, 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 answered the question in 28 seconds this time is more likely the time for dictating the answer (a 26-digit number) than the time for the mental calculation.Her correct answer was 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730. This event is mentioned in Guinness Book of Records 1995.

Shakuntala Devi has authored a few books. She shares some of the methods of mental calculations in her books.

Puzzles to Puzzle You

Figuring: The Joy of Numbers

Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child  

Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child  

In the Wonderland of Numbers  

Super Memory: It Can Be Yours  

More Puzzles to Puzzle You  

Figuring: The Joy of Numbers

Book of Numbers

Her other books include

 Astrology for You

The World of Homosexuals  

Major DP Singh

Major DP Singh

Major D P Singh was "declared dead" in an army hospital in July 1999 after a Pakistani mortar exploded just a meter away from him during the Kargil War. He was revived by a specialist, only to be told three days later that his right leg would be amputated below his knee because gangrene had set in.

Two months later, he was still at the hospital, weighing a mere 28kg, his stomach operated upon twice, a major part of his intestine cut, suffering partial deafness, and doctors giving up on trying to extract the 40 splinters still embedded in his body!

Ten years later, Singh ran the 2009 Delhi Half Marathon — a distance of 21 km — in 3 hours and 49 minutes  with a special leg provided by the Army’s Pune-based Artificial Limb Centre.

Running is about willpower. You don’t need sponsorship. It’s just you and 21 km

"When the doctors told me about the amputation, the first thing I told myself was now I will show the world how disabled people live. I was sure I will never compromise the way I lived. It was difficult for me to even walk initially. But over years, my mind and body found alternatives to work around the restrictions I was put through. Today, I can walk normally; my gait is as good as any normal person's. Yes, it took me 14 years to be able to start running," says Singh.