The above video is just amazing. Dr. Arthur Benjamin performs feats of math in his head and even tries to explain some of the methods he uses to arrive at the answers. Just watch it. I guarantee you will be as amazed as I was.
Via Ted
Math Magic
December 17th, 2007 by Jamie Barrows | Arthur Benjamin, Math, Video
121 comments ↓
If you’re in LA this week, Dr. Benjamin is performing in the early round of shows at the Magic Castle, until December 23rd!
I’d always thought there would be no money in Maths…
that’s amazing … I wish he would visit egypt one day, would certainly go check him out.
OMG HE’s amazing!
I love it!
that nerd ought to be shot
OH - MY - GAWD!
what an arrogant little man. Interesting skill but how does it improve the world? Are we all better off? Are any of us better off?
Of course we are better off, he not only awes people but makes them laugh. What better than making people enjoy math, something that most people would never find enjoyable. There are countless ways an increased joy in math could have a profound impact on the world. For the simplest example, what if a parent saw his show and was so impressed that his or her kids should try harder in school so that they can be good at math too. Before you count someone off consider even the simplest ramifications of any one person’s effects on the world.
Arrogant? He’s entertaining people, it makes people laugh.
Shandooga needs to shut the hell up.
Someone found a passion of theirs and pursued it. They mastered their area and you have the GALL to say that they’re wasting their time because YOUR no better for it.
Sit down, shut up and understand that you’ll NEVER accomplish anything half as amazing as what Dr. Benjamin has done already.
Uhmmm, I guess I’m just not sophisticated enough. I thought the whole idea here was to be entertaining, unique and ‘magical’.
Nutty me, I never even considered that every act man undertakes must have some profound meaning and significant impact on our world. Sounds like a heavy responsibility.
I’m glad I live in my world and not Shandooga’s, although his post has cleared-up the definition of arrogant for me.
it’s……you’re…oh and nice rant.
That guy should try to get a job at NASA or something. Or be a teacher,
Well I’m sure that he would rather be a teacher than work for the government by any means. Those who hate upon the genius that it takes to formulate the numbers like the doctor there, should really take themselves into hand and figure out what their problems are.
Lol^^^^
Become a teacher but don’t work for the government
Shandooga, what have YOU done to improve the world? What’s that? Oh yeah, NOTHING…
Arthur Benjamin is a professor at Harvey Mudd University, a technical college in California, I saw him at an MAA conference where he performed a similar act.
He is evil and worships numbers, god is against numerology. Be careful of people who worship numbers.
I just loved it.Its just amazing thanx for it
jasmine
tech-chek.blogspot.com
Seriously……I hope that you are joking, why would God in any way hate numerology, if you believe in God, then you have to believe that God has given man our abilities, and so you must then naturally conclude that he would be proud of this man’s profound use of said abilities.
Enough of my ranting, religious bigots piss me off.
None the less, fantastic show, brilliant ability, and….cookie ^_^
Excellent.
He used this method. Anyone can learn it if he is ambitious enough and has free-time.
Day of week: http://memorymentor.com/what_day.htm
As for the math calculations: he used GMS system. He converted numbers to common ideas (nouns). You could hear he was talking about fish and cookie, and stuffs like that.
Read more here: http://memorymentor.com/gms.htm
Anyways its a nice show. At least people will see that we are capable of many more things besides sitting in front of TV.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4913196365903075662
Daniel Tammet - Math wiz
I saw this guy in person once at a conference in Mississippi. He’s very impressive. I can’t say I’m terribly amazed by his calculation of the day of the week (I’ve been doing that one since high school fairly easily, though he does it a bit faster). But he did square an arbitrary 5-digit number for us, along with some other impressive multiplications. He has at least one book too, but I never broke down and bought it.
Very impressive. That memory mentor website, however, from a few posters back is absolutely terrible. The day of the week calculation is an extremely simple easy plug and chug formula I learned in discrete mathematics last year.
Instead, they try and drag it out to a page long thing about mnemonics and don’t really ever arrive at the actual formula.
i agree he needs to die, we don’t need people getting smarter than they already are….
As Harry said, he’s a professor at Harvey Mudd College and was one of my favorites while there. He’s got such an amazing memory that on the first day of class he’ll go down the list and call out names briefly looking up to see their faces. When he’s done with the whole list, he looks back up and rattles off everyone’s name as he looks at them.
Oh and he has worked for the government as well, doing some consulting for the NSA.
Oh and I also love those that would call him arrogant. If only they actually got to meet him and see how cool he was.
umm i think he had some help with the last part because he messed it up. if you listen he says “77, 862 … 77, 862 that becomes cookie fission” (or something) (at 14:11) and then he says “cookie fission is 77,822 .. that seems right ill go on” yet he still gets the right answer?
Anybody else notice he’s wearing an earpiece?
Photoshopped!
But can he balance his checkbook?
God doesn’t exist.
Numbers, however, do.
And they created the universe.
Then there was light.
Amen.
That is absolutely amazing.
this dude sold books under the same name “mathemagics.” i bought one of those, it was, i think late 90s or early 00s. it came with a thin book, some of his techniques with 2, 3 digit squaring, adding, division and it included “math games.” and it also came with 4 cassettes. wonder where my copy went… hmmm….
i wonder if he has anything new?
that was awesome.
this guy is garbage
look up Daniel Tammet on youtube…watch that and you will be AMAZED!!!
Can anyone tell me how/why I guessed 22 and 47 when he asked for the first 2 digit numbers?
This is kinda fun, and I definitely wouldn’t dis on him or anything. However, there are actually quite a bit of academics who can do much more difficult calculations in their head. In fact, there are quite a few fourteen year olds that can.
Still, it’s silly to dis on him.
hey lee harvey,
how would the human race advance if people weren’t getting smarter?
back in the late 90’s he sells a video “Mathemagics” that teaches math skills. it was sold around $80~90 i think.
oh…i get it!
AFTER every time he says “thank you very much”, the audience instantly applauds
it’s like a jedi mind trick. quite the magician, i must say.
Everyone ever heard about the guy that can take the thirteenth root (am i saying it right?) of a 200 digit number in a few seconds which is a little faster than this guy.
But it still is awesome.
Big Deal
Found a website that has maths stuff similar to what Art uses, it’s called Vedic Maths.
http://www.vedic-maths-ebook.com/download.htm
There is an ebook under part one to download at no cost.
It’s ok, not very long though but got a few useful things from it.
Am I the only one who sees the ear piece in his ear?
Hey Skeptic,
I don’t see it there… Can you give us a time frame we can look at?
Amazing!He should be employed to save the world from impending natural disasters in any of the vulnerable are.
Not to be a downer, but on the 3 digit squares he got 2 answers wrong… not that I’d have done nearly as well as he did or to put him down… but: (he said) 457^2=205849. According to my calculator and my verification 457^2=208849. The second mistake was 722^2=(he said) 513,284. The correct answer is 521,284.
Don’t want to be a downer… just saying he’s making mistakes. Don’t get him to do your taxes, stick to your calculator.
Great stuff. Pls shoot Shandooga someone. He was a failure in school maths and wouldnt beenrolled in the local amateur magic class. He is just envious.
@Al,
I wouldn’t say this guy is garbage. Daniel Tammet is amazing, but he’s a savant. His brain is wired differently than yours or mine or Dr. Benjamin’s. Daniel sees numbers in his mind as colors, shapes and sounds. He does math in his head by just reading the “landscape” in his mind.
Further, Dr. Benjamin can *teach others* how to do what he does. Daniel Tammet cannot. I don’t think anyone could be taught to think the way that Daniel Tammet does. I mean, c’mon the guy’s not only a wiz with numbers, but he learned Icelandic in just around seven days!
Cheers and happy new year!
Chris
Sorry Chris, but Icelandic isn’t terribly difficult. It’s just Old English. If you’ve studied any old English at all, Icelandic becomes a snap. (Shakespeare is considered Modern English). I think your idea of how he turns things to colors, shapes, and sounds is a poetical way of doing it. If I spent 5 hours a day every day for the next month learning how to square numbers, I’m sure I could do just as well.
What gets me about the video is that none of the people with the calculators caught his 2 mistakes. Were they really random people, or people whom he chose beforehand so as to avoid the embarrassment in case he did make a mistake. But it’s hard to say. In one case (of the 2 mistakes) you can see the second person to the left shaking her head… was she doing it because she caught his mistake but was too polite to say anything, or she had been coached prior to the airing to say anything?
Anyways, I think he’s got a lot of stuff memorized. It’s like a chess player memorizing openings, the board, etc., to the point where they can play the game without looking at the board and pieces. If I could visualize and keep in my memory the numbers, it wouldn’t take me long to square 3 digit numbers. It’s a matter of will power, persistence, and determination to acquire a skill like that, in my opinion.
hmm, this is quite clever. Multiplying numbers by drawing lines… It’s nothing as fast as Art but hey it’s pretty cool none the less.
http://memorymentor.com/blog/mental-tips-tricks/multiplying-using-lines/
Like Steven said, persistance and time on your hands and you could do *amazing* things too!
Anyone ever hear of the Knight’s tour??
@ Steven other than coming across as patronising (which I am sure was not the intent) Your critique of Chris seemed to miss the point.
If Mr Daniel Tammet is a savant then it is not unfair to state that “I don’t think anyone could be taught to think the way that Daniel Tammet does”
Furthermore, knowing the root influences of a language does not make learning it any easier to be honest. Apptitude in a subject allows ease not the knowledge that ‘oh yes, that’s an olde english form there’
And I might also suggest you take a look into synethesia.
What a gift, how wonderfully entertaining and inspiring! I do not think him arrogant any more than someone who is good at painting sells his art!
@traveller “Genius” is about effort. I knew a mentally handicapped kid who spent all his time studying maps and memorizing where cities, lakes, rivers, and mountains were. As it so happens, you could tell him any city and he could point it out to you on the map. Was he born with it? no. He worked at it obsessively. Some people sit on their butts watching TV all day. These are the people who look at others and put labels on it such as ’savant’ as if they were born with it rather than what it really took: an obsession to learn how to do something and a lot of time to make it happen. Talent is 99% myth.
Look at Mozart. Known to all as one of the greatest. From the time he was 2 years old his dad forced him to learn how to play the piano. I met one kid, 6 years old, who was memorizing botanical terms. From the time he was a toddler his mother started reading books to him, showing him videos, etc. Is it no surprise that the kid is going to become a ’savant’?
I thought he was supposed to do magic? These are just math tricks.
I have a cat named Mr Package. What’s your cat’s name?
My cat is called DEBUSSY
My dog is called OFENBACH
Great, excellent
Leaving out a digit is very very simple if you choose the right number to multiply with. There is a reason why he chose 8 649 and not one of the three other.
FANTASTIC…
WHAT HE IS DOING IS ENTERTAINING.
WHY ADD ANYTHING ELSE TO HIS ENTERTAINMENT?
Numbers don’t exist
It’s a concept, therefore it was invented by humans. 3 oranges exist, and yes there is 3 of them, but there is no 3 
for the bit about guessing the extra digit he uses a number which is a multiple of 3, 8649*(random number) 354 = 3061746
now take 6 in any order, 0,7,1,3,6,6 (leaving 4) sum them you get… 7+1+3+6+6=23, 2+3 = 5
This means either 1, 4 or 7 has been left over. As for any multiple of 3 the digital root must be 3, 6 or 9.
That’s as far as I get
Hope someone else can work the rest out.
@ Steven - It is possible to see numbers as colours and shapes. It’s a well documented phenomenon called synesthesia, and furthermore, Daniel Tammet actually has it. It means parts of your brain develop unusual connections, so some people with synesthesia see colours when they hear a word, or can taste sounds. Don’t be patronising when you don’t even know the background.
I NEED THIS GUY FOR THE LOTTERY
what a cheater, he has an ear-piece… figure it out…
He said 457 squared is 205849. That’s wrong! It’s 208849.
Magic is tricks. Your job is to find out how he does his tricks. Don’t ask me; I don’t know and I don’t care. Even if he is legit, what good is it? Now that we have calculators his ’skill’ is pretty much useless unless he can get people to pay to watch his ‘magic’.
This man is gifted and is willing to share it…
Absolutely amazing…
Wish I could do that…
The worl is filld with ilitterits…as is witnessed above
Religious people (opposite of Christian) tend to be filled with pride and judge negatively those of us who have achieved…..makes them mindless, skeptic, etc
AND we also have a large number of idiots….
They do not like hard working smart people
Vedic maths seems to be what this maths is all about, and here is method everyone should learn
http://memorymentor.com/vedic-maths/30/
My six year old can do this.
Omg he’s amazing, he has a calculator in that little head! a 12 digit calculator…Shandooga (the guy ALL the way up), i think you need to go out and knock sum sense in. Thats like impossible to b honest, who the fuck would be able to do that except some crazy big calculators. The person with the calculator didn’t even had the time to press buttons. I do admit that he’s gifted, believe it or not. Though I think your jealous because you can’t b like him.
well it just shows what can be done , peaple that choose
to saythat they cant show there ngnoreance
This man has done more than you give him credit for. Look at how many of you are so curious that you have gone to your calculators to figure it out. That is called stimulation. If someone can stimulate you to make an effort to learn, even if you are trying to disprove his actions, he has made an improvement in you. Your lives have been enriched if you don’t recognize it. He is greater than you think!
“Don’t be patronising when you don’t even know the background.” I guess it would be patronizing if I corrected your spelling. In any case, it’s a romanticism, a poetic way to help people try to conceptualize something. Benjamin said nothing of colors when he was trying to share his mental process. He was using a mnemonic device. He probably has some algorithms coordinated with words and certain number combinations. Like everything else, once you get the few kinks of any trick figured out, it’s usually pretty simple.
I have a terrible memory for numbers. So, whenever I get a telephone number I convert it to a word or two. For instance, right now my number is Applilab. It’s almost like Apple lab. Ask me the number, I can’t tell you without looking at the key. I’ve had 935-Babe. There’s nothing genius about relating words to numbers.
There’s probably not a person here who couldn’t learn how to do what he does, providing you can put down the TV remote long enough to figure it out.
This man has an amazing gift for Math, and on top of it he is entertaining and likes to perform in front of crowds. More power to him….
Thats pretty good but some of his calculations are wrong. 457^2 is 208,849 not 205,849 and 722^2 is 521,284 not 513,284. I am sure the calculator helpers were probably just embarrassed to correct him
“I am sure the calculator helpers were probably just embarrassed to correct him” either that, or they were plants.
For those who can’t see the ear piece, enlarge the video to full screen. In the first couple seconds of the vid, when his name “Arthur Benjamin” appears on the screen, notice in his right ear, there’s the ear piece. I’m not, by any means, implying that he’s cheating, I’m merely pointing out that the piece does exist. I know this is quite possible; I’ve a good friend who can do similar tasks, not nearly as quick but can still do them none the less.
I THINK THIS IS SO UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!!!!!!!!
SUPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[…] amazing. Watch it. Originally added to ruvens’s video collection by ruvens This video came from http://www.whatjamiefound.com/2007/12/17/math-magic/ No Comment Watched It LOL’d Loved It Hated It Tell ‘em 0 0 ratings rate […]
The following is an essay I wrote on my meth card game.
———————————————————
Marsh Kaminsky
Copyright 2004
THE STORY OF MATHINO
“I don’t like math, and I’m not good at it.” Those annoying words are uttered all too often today by children and adults alike. Americans frequently say them with pride, accompanied by a smirk, as if being a math wimp was some kind of badge of honor. As a Certified Public Accountant, my livelihood depended on math. Much of my life revolved around my ability to understand, nurture and massage numbers. How could I prepare tax returns without knowing math?
With that in mind, I sat on the edge of my four year-old son’s bed one evening, preparing to read him Green Eggs and Ham. As I looked at the book, I wondered whether he would grow up to dislike numbers and become a certifiable math wimp like so many others. The thought made me cringe. After stewing about this for a week, I made a decision that is forever etched in my memory. “I will teach Daniel mathematics!” I remember shouting those words to no one in particular. My son probably wondered what his silly Daddy was yelling about.
The next day a little voice in my head asked me a reasonable yet disquieting question: “Okay, big shot, what do you know about teaching math to a little kid?” I wanted a way to teach him math that would ignite his interest in the subject. Knowing my son and his very short span of attention, I knew my project was doomed unless he really enjoyed what he was doing. So how do I proceed?
A few days after my teaching decision, I went to Harrahs casino in Reno for some much needed rest from enduring yet another murderous tax season. I soon found myself watching my money slowly disappear at a 21 table. It must have been fated, because I began to think about how one cannot play 21 unless one can do simple addition. I did not know it at the time, but Harrahs just showed me the way. Card games are the answer!
I started by acclimating my son Daniel to the look and feel of playing cards and the numbers on them. I did this by teaching him the simple game of War. While War reinforced the concept of more or less, it did little else in teaching him math. Worse yet, because the outcome of a game of War is determined by pure luck, there is never any strategic thinking involved. But on the plus side, I saw how much he enjoyed our uninterrupted time together. In fact, I was enjoying it too. Furthermore, I could not fail to notice how much he enjoyed competing with me. His competitive nature and desire to win turned out to be crucially important factors in the lessons that would soon follow.
Next, I thought back and remembered a card game called Casino my father taught me when I was a teen. While I sensed that Daniel was not quite ready for quadratic equations, I figured he could handle a card game that involved simple addition to the number ten. Well, if he ate up War, he soon gorged on Casino.
The object of Casino is to “capture” as many cards as possible, particularly those with point values such as the four aces. One way to capture a card is by a simple match — a player matches a card in his hand with one on the table. Hence, a player can capture a five if he has a five in his hand. It took about two minutes to explain that to him. There are, of course, other ways of capturing cards which, as one might guess, involve addition. A player, for example, can capture a 3 and a 5 with an 8 in his hand. What’s more, a player can “build” numbers — a procedure that creates mathematicians. Building is exciting as it involves a strong element of risk. I might put a 3 on a 4 and build 7s. If Daniel had a 7 in his hand, he could capture my build. Furthermore, in an attempt to steal my 7s build, he could change it to a card he had in his hand. To illustrate, he could add a five from his hand and change my 7s to a 12. Nothing gave him more pleasure than that.
From the onset, my major goal was not to stuff my son’s head full of math facts. Sure, I wanted him to know the basics, like the addition and multiplication tables by heart. But I did not want him to learn math (algebra in particular) as I did in high school by memorizing meaningless formulas where I’d plug in some numbers. Overall, I guess I wanted him to be enthralled with mathematics and, of course, to think mathematically. I know kids will learn if they are bored, but they will learn so much more if motivated by a sense of joy and fun. That’s how kids are. Now that I think about it, adults are like that too.
.
We played Casino constantly — maybe a few hundred games over the next four or five months. Because of the constant practice, Daniel became quite adept at simple addition.
One day I had a brainstorm that changed everything. If a player, I wondered, could put a 2 on a 5 and build 7s using addition, why couldn’t he/she build 3s instead by using subtraction? I taught Daniel the new “rule” and he accepted it immediately. Not yet six years old, Daniel had no idea that subtraction was a school subject. He thought it was just another rule of the game. After a few months of playing with both addition and subtraction, he asked me, “Any more new rules, Daddy?” His words were music to my ears.
“The new rule is called multiplication. Want to try it?”
Since multiplication is just a fancy way of adding the same number more than once, I approached him with that strategy. “Daniel, five times three is simply a way to add the number three, five times.” After a few days of practice with this new intriguing rule, he got the idea.
Adapting multiplication to Mathino (somewhere along the line we changed the name) was a problem since the largest number in the game is twelve. The trouble was . . . the product of a two number multiplication is frequently more than twelve. However, my knowledge of a tax depreciation method called “summing of the digits” provided a solution. In short order, Daniel learned that 8 x 8 really equals 10 because the sum of the digits of the product (64) equals 10. He was enthralled with this new rule.
Now I was on a roll! After a few months of practice with multiplication, I gradually began to introduce four more new rules: division, powers, roots and negative numbers.. I suspect that if I could have incorporated integral calculus into the game, his competitive spirit would have prompted him to learn that too.
Mathino is a deceptively easy game. Played at its simplest level with just addition, a five year old child can easily pick up on the play of the game in less than an hour. But at its most sophisticated level with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, negative numbers, powers and roots all being played in tandem, Mathino would challenge a college math professor.
During a game, I never allowed Daniel to use a calculator. Instead, I provided him with hard copy multiplication and power tables. Daniel sometimes spent five or more minutes going through mental math calculations before deciding on a favorable move. I never hurried him as I knew that this constant mental practice was acclimating his brain to the world of mathematics. I was also fascinated by his grasp of intricate strategic nuances. Whether he knew it or not, he was also learning odds, percentages, logical thinking skills, along with the importance of a good memory
Besides all the other things that Mathino taught him, I used the game to show him how to win graciously and how to lose without having a snit.
The following incident happened when Daniel was in the first grade. His teacher called and told me that they were discussing the number five in class when Daniel raised his hand and piped in with, “A five is not just a five. It is also a two plus three, a seven minus two, a negative two plus a positive seven, a five times one, ten divided by two, and the square root of twenty-five!” The teacher said she almost fell over. Such is the power and magic of Mathino.
END
Postscript
Throughout the last twenty years I must have decided at least ten times to market Mathino. From years of teaching the game to many young students and teachers, I knew it would be a great success. But somehow, something always happened to interfere with those plans.
One of those happenings was a case of Multiple Sclerosis. Now at sixty years old and confined to a wheelchair, I no longer have the strength to market the game. But on the other hand, I know that Mathino is far too good a math teaching tool to just let it wither and die. Accordingly, I have decided to freely give the game away to parents and teachers. That way, I know the game will never die.
Marsh Kaminsky
My grandson Mark Biundo is my personal mathmagician and I will forward this to him for evaluation. The performance was very impressive.
Marsh…God bless you and make your last years fruitful and peaceful.
LOL…Not good at math,it’s my worst subject…
He is wrong on some of his calculations. IE 722 x 722 = 521284 not 513284. Follow along yourself if you don’t believe me!
As Josh pointed out, Dr. Benjamin made a couple mistakes with the three digit numbers, but that didn’t detract from an amazing show. His couple of quips added to the pleasure of witnessing his performance.
Perhaps the best thing I got from this was Marsh Kaminsky’s comments. He made up a great game for his son, and even taught him some of life’s lessons along the way !
While teaching Junior High math for 33 years, I too learned a few things about making it FUN. It only took me about 20 of those years to learn that little fact, but it made my last teaching years even more rewarding than “just” setting the district record with 100’s on regents etc. I wish I had known about “Mathino”, because I’m sure that the early adolescent that I was teaching/learning with, sure would have enjoyed the challenge of that game.
Sad [for me] that not all comments were positive about this show, because of my love for math. But I’m very glad that I noticed, and read the comments, because Marsh has also taught/reminded me of one of life’s BIG lessons. You know the one: the one about TODAY IS A GIFT, tomorrow is a mystery and yesterday is history. So thanks Marsh for your inspiring comments!!
yo, Shandooga. Die. ur making us worse off. some one found something that they are good at and you turn that against them.
heaven: why the heck do you think God is against #’s? there are many many things out there that are worse and He’s not against them. and whatever happens to this guy, he should not die.
steve: ur backwards
Dr. Benjamin is simply amazing. I want to be that good.
Benjamin is indeed good, not only at the math skills but at the showmanship. He is right to emphasize the “magic” (performance) connection. It’s conceivable that he’s cheating with the earpiece. That’s a psych question, not math, but it would so completely undercut his showmanship that I think it’s very unlikely he’s cheating — especially so obviously.
As for his techniques [nerd commentary on a nerd performance ;-]:
#1. He probably knows all the 2-digit squares by heart. (I know a lot of them, and I don’t even use ‘em very often. I didn’t sit down & memorize them, I just find it easy to remember such things, and no doubt Benjamin does, too.)
#2. He’s VERY good at addition, probably even with very large numbers.
#3. For 3-digit squares, they aren’t too hard to compute if you already know the 2-digit ones. During the grand finale, he told us the pattern he uses: 329 [for example] = 300 squared (90,000: 9 is easy, and just remember that squaring always doubles the number of zeros) plus 29 squared (841: remember #1) plus 300*29*2 (8700 doubled = 17,400). Remembering #2, that gives 108,241. (Yes, I DID use a calculator. I’m not performing, and I’m not as good at these things as he is.)
#4. Determining the missing digit presumably comes from the technique of summing the digits and “casting out 9’s” (as it is colloquially called, because 9 “equals” 0 in this system: sum-of-digits of 10-1 = 1-1 = 0). Remember, he already knows one of the factors of the big number, namely 8649, whose sum-of-digits is 0. When you multiply 8649 by absolutely ANYTHING (whole numbers only), the sum-of-digits of the answer is going to be 0 times the sum-of-digits of the other number. Try it yourself. (That’s right, he gets to multiply by 0. The second number is completely irrelevant. Cute!) So if you tell him a bunch of digits that add up to, say, 2, he knows that the missing one must be “negative 2″, or 9-2 = 7. Again, try it yourself.
#5. The interesting part for me was the finale, when he revealed something else that I know other arithmetic whizzes use: “cookie fission”, i.e., a code that uses a different part of his brain for storage, so he can concentrate on the arithmetic. I heard of one whiz who thinks of all the 3-digit numbers as individual “friends”, rather than words. Same idea of using a technique that plays to the capabilities of a different part of the brain. (I do something similar with 2-digit numbers, thinking of them as distinct entities — not friends, though! Again, I’m not in their league, but I understand what they’re doing.)
A nerd footnote for wolfmankurd: Whether numbers and other math concepts “really exist” is actually a point of philosophical disagreement among mathematicians themselves. It ain’t obvious. Some think they are “real”, waiting to be discovered. Some think they are just linguistic devices, special words and phrases that can be combined meaningfully in just certain ways (like, say, colors and nouns: “green barn” is fine, “green fear” is not). And some think they are constructed, existing precisely because we “built” them, just like a house.
Why Don’t play the lottery or stock market the odds are in your favor
Now that is magic.
no one notices but he makes a mistake at the 4 minute mark
The Guys an autistic sevant that’s not intimidated by people…..
This guy is pretty good at what he does, but there are much more talented savants out there. This kid who is only 25 is brilliant and is the leading record holder for reciting Pi, which he did up to 22,500 places. Check him out and see some real magic.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4913196365903075662
HOLY SLIDE RULE BATMAN !!!
This is a wonderful example of one human awakening to their potential………this is going to be happening more and more often……check out the canadian sky to see what’s been appearing there, there are several photo albums at my website.
Keep an open mind and heart…..it’s how the Truth gets in.
r u guys retarded, hes wering an earpeice
how do you do that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get off the earpiece, people, have you never heard of an in-ear monitor? He’s mic’d so he has to have a monitor, did you see any along the front of the stage?
And religious freak up there needs to study the bible some, God (capital G for those of us who truly respect Him) applied significant numbers to countless things throughout scripture, not the least being Himself (7) and satan (6).
Simply amazing. His love, passion and dedication to numbers is remarkable to say the least. His sence of humor is fantastic and he is charming. Keep up the great work Arthur. I now have chills thanks to you.
Okay, this guy is freaking amazing. I appreciate his talent so much. I love math!
However, I’m a bit curious as to why no one has caught his mistakes. He made to mistakes on squaring two numbers. When asked to square 457 he says, 205,849 but the answer is 208,849. When asked to square 722 he says 513,284 but the answer is 521,284.
None the less, the man is AWESOME!
Professor Benjamin has a DVD course on The Joy of Mathematics through The Teaching Company. Very stimulating.
hahaha shereese i agree, theres someone giving him the answers, prob through the headphones, and him asking someone he knows for the calender thing. its a crazy, fake world out there
That guy is amazing, I don’t care what you say!
As for the earpeice, he’s probably just hearing impaired.
-Boo
These tricks are older than any history……..i am feeling sleepy….yaa….
can I copy this video for my student and how??????
what a nerd, but i thought it was cool
Oh my… this is sexy! lol
He did make 2 mistakes and (not to be too skeptical) but check out exactly at 7:22, his right ear.
YOUR SHOW IS WONDERFUL.. I AM A RETIRED MATH SCIENCE TEACHER. ARE THERE ANY BOOKS TO TEACH HOW THESE CALCULATIONS CAN BE DONE WITH EASE?
Hey MacAuslan, as a poet and non-number person, I want you to know that “green fear” is indeed very good as a metaphor. I think that for this guy, numbers are his metaphors. Sorry all you math geniuses for inserting this humanities footnote, but I just love “green fear” and think there may be a poem brewing somewhere back there…so much more fun than square roots for me. I’m impressed as hell by the guy and just wish my mind could think that way. I can’t even SAY numbers that fast!
…wow, very fast with that day-of-week calculation!
takes me probably 20 times longer…!
As for that 8649n puzzle, where TED asked audience
members for arbitary 3-digit N’s followed by supply-
ing the ‘missing digit’ in the (7-digit) product, the
only hint I’ll give is: “Digital Root.” Ok, on your
own on that one. With just a little practice, you’ll
also master that neat ‘trick,’ another great one to
present to learners.
I have seen Art’s show twice, and I can assure you that he is not cheating in some way like using an ear piece or trained helpers. In one of these shows, which he gave to a room full of mathematicians, in the second half of the show, he explained his method for every trick. He uses a lot of basic algebra and some memory tricks for remembering long strings of numbers. Even knowing how each trick is done, most of us were still very impressed with his speed and accuracy.
It saddens me to hear posters suggest that he’s arrogant. I have met with him on several occasions, and I have found Art to be one of the most humble and at the same time, most intelligent people I’ve ever met. His mathematics research and publication records are astounding, and he’s just a really nice guy.
Can’t wait to show this to my grandson who is a math wiz. Eleanor
He is entertaining; you can tell he loves what he is doing; it would be a real honor to learn from him. He owns the audience as much as any comedian does. And he doesn’t have to be common or vulgar to do it. I’d love to meet him - not to have a private show but just to talk with him because he seems so approachable, so funny, so secure, has such a rapport you know you’re going to be in for a good time.
Do I think he cheats and has answers given to him? No way. Anyone can do some of the things he does on a lower level but with the same speed. There’s nothing really outrageously difficult to it and he tells you that flat out up front. The earpiece? Watch Ready, Steady, Cook - every chef has an earpiece. I don’t think they are getting recipes. I think there is some other reason they have to wear them.
Think on this - his delivery is superb. He makes the whole thing enjoyable. Anyone remember Tom Lehrer? Base 8 anyone?
And a nerd? Precisely NOT; he seems to have exactly what the nerd lacks - the ability to interact with people.
as the heir and C.O.O. of a 4th generation wholesale distributor, who could use an intense accounting overhaul…we sure could use this guy in some meetings…down to his knack for dates!
OMG! your amazing! My husband & I are in awe of Dr. Arthur. He is extremely talented!!!!!!!! VERY IMPRESSIVE!
I must also point out (as did ONE other person above)….
The “earpiece” is a microphone. How else would everyone in the entire room hear him?
I shared this clip with my 7th grade math students—-and even REGARDLESS that a few mistakes were made, my students had their mouths dropped for the duration of the 15 minutes. Amazing short clip to EXCITE young students and push them to have an importance of “mental math skills.”
Well, this guy is truly amazing.
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