Faster than a calculator? Guinness world record "Human Calculator"

The "Human Calculator" Faster than a calculator?

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Closed Caption:

how fast can you divide 673 by nine
well Scott Flansburg has already done it
he holds the Guinness world record for
the fastest human calculator and he's
here to talk about the American map
challenge but first we're going to
challenge him a bit ourselves all right
we'll let you prove a little bit of your
mathematics sounds good morning Scott
things in with me and you make math look
so easy are you a genius or what is your
label how did you get to that point I
have a gift to be able to understand
numbers and see numbers in a new way and
I've discovered a revolutionary approach
is going to change the way kids are in
math around the world
so can anyone do what you do two basic
extent this is going to get exactly
right well that's because I get you
sometimes it's pretty wild i actually my
brain goes so fast my mouth slows me
down
are you okay well to prove that point
leave a few equations are you know you
have not seen any of these equations
beforehand we should point out okay
let's see if you can figure them out
we're going to ask you to add 4 3 digit
numbers together okay
397 was 7 23 plus 5 99 plus 1 84 1903 oh
yes it is all right here's a tougher
question or it's a long division
question okay
I like being one asking me yes final
answer 923 / 730 1.8 by someone for 285
oh my gosh we only had to pull yeah I'm
sorry got carried away with it okay all
right last one or if you've proven your
point out that you can do equations
backwards
yes actually usually all right i will
multiply a number by itself three times
and give you the answer then you tell me
what number I started with right so just
tell me the answer you got don't tell me
then we started with there is the answer
and i'll do the cube root
ok 9 1267 397
that was really fast and you're right
well that's very good
so I think you proved your point as we
said now you're here to promote the
American map challenge which is an
effort as you said to get kids in this
country excited about math
yeah how do you do that because that
would have been a tough sell for me
I think most kids get off the wrong foot
when it comes to math they have a bad
experience very young maybe they had to
go to the board and figure something out
in front of all their friends and then
you know right in that from that moment
on they have decided as soon as I don't
have to do any more math I'm not going
to so that that age limit 9 to 13 is for
kids really identify whether they love
or hate math and so we're trying to
reach out to all those students to
inspire them to be more comfortable with
numbers to build number sense and just a
opens up so many doors of opportunity
that kids just shut when they choose not
to do man i think a lot of girls do that
to that used to be the case but girls
are sneaking in statistically to average
out everything because then you just
used to be the way it was you know last
generation and the on this is a free
online math challenge you have the kids
get involved how is that you just go to
American math challenge com it's not
hosted by mathletics . com
and it's sponsored by mathcounts
Foundation which runs the biggest
contest in America to find the best
mathletes
and so we're using this contest to find
the ambassadors for world math date so
this will give all the students in
America a chance to warm up and
understand how the system works on
mathletics calm its 60 second live
racing create your own avatar and race
kids were on the world and get points
for every answer you get right all right
you wanted to teach us the math trick
that you just recently discovered you
know that the nine equation is very done
we look at calculator there's 10 buttons
but there's no 10 it's really zero
through nine so i teach kids to count
like this if you want to think like a
human calculator and if you keep them
fingers of have 10 digits 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 0 through 9 are the 10 digits to
make up all the numbers in the universe
ok
the secret two numbers is everything
goes back to nine so look at ten the
first number after nine is 10
it's written with the one in 2010 add up
the digits 1 + 0 gives you one
what's 10 take away one now so try the
next number 11 add up its digits one and
one is two eleven take away 2 is 9-12
take away 3 night every number just add
it up take it away the answer is nine
this works for every number one matter
to you
in general great question the way we
teach kids math is to use their memory
if u is u 8 + 8 you'll tell me 16 but
you've memorized it you don't really use
our calculator sense we use our memory
and so i'm using this tends to turn on
the calculator in the brain of all the
students in America and around the world
because this is the missing chapter in
math if students would learn this
numbers would line up make more sense in
a better number sense that our teachers
could teach our kids more math because
most kids by 4th 5th grade they can't do
arithmetic so why are they going to do
algebra right and so this is to help all
those kids that are afraid of math and
even the parents the American math
Challenge just is it about students it's
about parents sitting down their
students were challenging them to go
onto mathletics calm and to pick their
worst part of math and just give us five
minutes and should let me show you how
we teach it and help your child and
yourself overcoming anxiety with math
yet his parents have just as much
anxiety sometimes doing their fifth
graders mascot plans Berg thanks so much
so nice to meet you that's often the
better wrap