Benutzer:Bassoonist/Shakuntala Devi

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Shakuntala Devi (* 4. November 1929; † 21. April 2013), bekannt als "Menschlicher Computer", war ein Wunderkind und eine Kopfrechnerin.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Aufgrund ihrer außerordentlichen Talente schaffte sie es 1982 in das Guinness-Buch der Rekorde.^[1][2][3]

Shakuntala Devi wurde in Bangalore, Indien,^[2][3] in eine orthodoxe Kannada Brahmin Familie geboren.^[1][6][7] Ihr Vater sträubte sich Tempelpriester zu werden^[3] und schloss sich stattdessen einem Zirkus an, wo er als Trapezkünstler, Löwendompteur, Seiltänzer und Zauberer arbeitete.^[1][2][5][8] Devi's Vater entdeckte ihre Fähigkeit sich Zahlen zu merken als er ihr einen Kartentrick beibrachte, als sie ungefähr drei Jahre alt war.^[1][2][5]

Her father left the circus and took her on road shows that displayed her ability at number crunching.^[2] She was able to do this without any formal education.^[1][3] By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at the University of Mysore.^[2][3]

In 1944 Devi moved to London with her father.^[9] She returned to India in the mid-1960s and married Paritosh Bannerji, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service from Kolkata.^[9] She and her husband were divorced in 1979.^[9] Devi returned to Bangalore in the early 1980s.^[9]

Devi travelled the world demonstrating her arithmetic talents, including a tour of Europe in 1950 and a performance in New York in 1976.^[2] In 1988 she returned to the US to have her abilities studied by Arthur Jensen, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen tested her performance at several tasks, including the calculations of large numbers; Examples of the problems presented to Devi were calculating the cube root of 61,629,875, and the seventh root of 170,859,375.^[3][4] Jensen reported that Devi was able to provide the solution to the aforementioned problems (the answers being 395 and 15 respectively) before Jensen was able to copy them down in his notebook.^[3][4] Jensen published his findings in the academic journal Intelligence in 1990.^[3][4]

In addition to her work as a mental calculator, Devi was an astrologer and an author of several books, including cookbooks and fictional novels.^[2][5][8]

• In 1977 in USA she competed with a computer to see who gives the cube root of 188132517 faster, she won. That same year, at the Southern Methodist University she was asked to give the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds.^[1][4] Her answer—546,372,891—was confirmed by calculations done at the U.S. Bureau of Standards by the Univac 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.^[10]
• On June 18, 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds.^[2][3] This event is mentioned in the 1982 Guinness Book of Records.^[2][3]

In April 2013, Devi was admitted to a hospital in Bangalore, India with respiratory problems.^[1] Over the following 2 weeks she suffered from complications of the heart and kidneys.^[1][2] Devi died in hospital on April 21, 2013.^[1][2] She was 83 years old.^[2][3]

Devi is survived by her daughter, Anupama Banerji.^[3][8]

Some of her books include:

• Puzzles to Puzzle You (New Delhi: Orient, 2005). ISBN 978-81-222-0014-0
• More Puzzles to Puzzle You (New Delhi: Orient, 2006). ISBN 978-81-222-0048-5
• Book of Numbers (New Delhi: Orient, 2006). ISBN 978-81-222-0006-5
• Perfect Murder (New Delhi: Orient, 1976), OCLC 3432320
• The World of Homosexuals (Vikas Publishing House, 1977), ISBN 978-0706904789
• Figuring: The Joy of Numbers (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), ISBN 978-0-06-011069-7, OCLC 4228589
• In the Wonderland of Numbers (New Delhi: Orient, 2006). ISBN 978-81-222-0399-8
• Super Memory: It Can Be Yours (New Delhi: Orient, 2011). ISBN 978-81-222-0507-7; (Sydney: New Holland, 2012). ISBN 978-1-74257-240-6, OCLC 781171515
• Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child (New Delhi: Orient, 2005). ISBN 978-81-222-0316-5
• Astrology for You (New Delhi: Orient, 2005). ISBN 978-81-222-0067-6

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Shakuntala Devi strove to simplify maths for students In: The Hindu, April 21, 2013. Abgerufen im July 9, 2013 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Haresh Pandya: Shakuntala Devi, ‘Human Computer’ Who Bested the Machines, Dies at 83 In: The New York Times, April 21, 2013. Abgerufen im July 9, 2013 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} Obituary: Shakuntala Devi In: The Telegraph, April 22, 2013. Abgerufen im July 9, 2013 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Arthur R. Jensen: Speed of information processing in a calculating prodigy. In: Intelligence. 14. Jahrgang, Nr. 3. University of California, Berkeley, USA, S. 259–274 (lk.net [abgerufen am 9. Juli 2013]).  Fehler beim Aufruf der Vorlage:Cite journal: Der Parameter 'date' hat ungültigen Wert. Referenzfehler: Ungültiges <ref>-Tag. Der Name „JENSEN“ wurde mehrere Male mit einem unterschiedlichen Inhalt definiert.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Obituary: India's 'human computer' Shakuntala Devi In: BBC News, April 22, 2013. Abgerufen im July 9, 2013 
6. ↑ Science: Numbers Game In: Time, July 14, 1952. Abgerufen im July 9, 2013 
7. ↑ IBTimes Staff Reporter: Math Genius and Guinness Record Holder Shakuntala Devi Passes Away at Age 83 In: International Business Times, April 22, 2013. Abgerufen im July 23, 2013 
8. ↑ ^{a b c} She made learning maths as thrilling as magic In: The Bangalore Mirror, April 22, 2013. Abgerufen im July 9, 2013 Fehler bei Vorlage * Parametername unbekannt (Vorlage:Cite news): "author2; author1"
9. ↑ ^{a b c d} India's math wizard, Shakuntala Devi In: Yahoo! India News, April 22, 2013. Abgerufen im July 9, 2013 
10. ↑ Steven Bradley Smith: The Great Mental Calculators: The Psychology, Methods, and Lives of Calculating Prodigies, Past and Present. Columbia University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-231-05640-0. 

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