LONDON (AFP) – The world’s fastest human calculator on Tuesday broke his own record for working out a 200-digit number using nothing but brain power to produce the answer in just over 70 seconds.
Alexis Lemaire, a 27-year-old Frenchman, correctly calculated the 13th root of a random 200-digit number from a possible 393 trillion answers.
The so-called ‘mathlete’ produced the answer of 2,407,899,893,032,210 in 70.2 seconds, beating his previous record of 72.4 seconds, at London’s Science Museum.
A computer was used to produce a random 200-digit number before he sat down to calculate the answer in his head.
The museum’s curator of mathematics, Jane Wess, said: “He sat down and it was all very quiet — and all of a sudden he amazingly just cracked it.
“I believe that it is the highest sum calculated mentally.
“He seems to have a large memory and he’s made this his life’s ambition. It’s quite remarkable to see it happen. A very small number of people have this extraordinary ability; nowadays there is only a handful.”
Lemaire, who attends the University of Reims in northern France, began demonstrating his prowess by finding the 13th root of a random 100-digit number but gave up trying to improve his performance when he calculated an answer in under four seconds in 2004.
Like an athlete, he trains his brain daily for the far harder task of finding the 13th root of 200-digit numbers.
‘What-time-is-it?’ is really a big question for me now. I myself cannot find a good answer for that question. After finished my works, I told myself that I am a free man now and I have been spending time doing nothing but sleeping and eating. I know that there is nothing to worry about my academic work anymore, it should be a happy time and I should enjoy the remaining time left in Japan. However, when I start thinking about the future sometimes, my thought is getting mixed up again. It is different from the two-year time in Japan, the future is really uncertainty… Forget about it… Let’s enjoy present life and think tomorrow for those tomorrow things… An optimistic thinking again…
Finally, the sun has shined in my sky. I have completed my course works and finished my writing. In short, I have sucessfully accomplished my two-year mission in Japan…wow
It has been a long time that I have not posted or even visited my blog. And, it has been much longer time that I have always wished today would come. Finally, the day has come. I have finished my two years on academic works at APU. In other words, I have just submitted the final draft of my thesis on the 20th of July and a report for my final class on the same date. I feel so relief after I have done that. I do not have any burden any more (at this time). But the other thing is that I have to wait for the result which is coming soon. It is out of my reach now, I have done my parts and I just hope that everything will be going on well. Anyway, I will be free and just enjoying my life in Japan for the rest of the remaining time before I may pick up another burden again.
It has bee quite a long time that I have not visited my blog. As a man said, everything must have its reasons. My case is not different, I have my own reasons too. It is because I was busy with my thesis writing. It was a tough time for me and I was thinking of giving up a few times before I finished the first draft of my work. The thesis writing was occupying about 95% of my thinking. Everytime, eat, sleep, ride a bus…, my brain was thinking about it. However, I have submitted it a few weeks ago to an examining committee. I was so relieve after submitting and I went out to travel a few days after that. After the trip, I became lazy. Lazy to think, lazy to read, lazy to study, lazy, lazy, lazy… till now. I do not know why the laziness has occupied me for such a long time.
I woke up quite early this morning. Guess what time? 7:00 o’clock… Wow…amazing. Actually, I did not want to wake up at that time. It’s because I had to attend a study trip to Oyama village with my friends and my professor. The purpose of this study trip was to conduct interview with the President of Farmer Union in order to gain information regarding One Village One Product movement which was first started in that village. We had a nice discussion but my professor had to work so hard translating from English to Japanese and vice versa. Anyway, we had collected alot information as expected and we also had very good chatting all along both ways.
May the god of this New Year bless you with all the best…
I had a party with my Cambodian friends at school yesterday. We cooked Khmer food to celebrate the occasion and we had a small drink to cheer for our friendship. This is my second Khmer New Year celebration abroad and it is also my last year. I am looking forward to enjoying this occasion again next year with my family and friends back home.
