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World's fastest 'human computer' maths genius dies



A legendary maths wizard dubbed the world's fastest 'human computer' has died.

Shakuntala Devi died age 83, at a Bangalore hospital following respiratory problems on Sunday.


Ms Devi was a child prodigy and gained world fame in 1977 when she calculated the 23rd root of a more than 100 digit number in 50 seconds - 12 seconds faster than the best performing computer at that time.


Three years later she multiplied two randomly-generated 13 digit numbers in 28 seconds.

She was named in the Guinness Book of World Record for her outstanding ability.


She had the ability to tell the day of the week of any given date in the last century in seconds.


Ms Devi came from a humble family - her father was a circus performer and it was while she was playing cards with him at the age of three that he discovered her calculation abilities.


At the age of six, she demonstrated her skills in her first public performance at University of Mysore and two years later, she again proved herself successful as a child prodigy at Annamalai University.

'God's gift. A divine quality,' said Ms Devi once when she was asked about her ability.


She also said nobody in her family had shown a head for numbers - she had no formal education.


'Not even remotely, although my father was a stage magician,' she said.


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Ms Devi was a child prodigy and gained world fame in 1977 when she calculated the 23rd root of a more than 100 digit number in 50 seconds - 12 seconds faster than the best performing computer at that time

Her mathematical gift was never recognised by the Indian government and she developed moved her interests to astrology.

She made a small personal fortune and owned a home in Bangalore, three properties in London and an apartment in Manhattan

She wrote numerous books such as Fun with Numbers, Astrology for You, Puzzles to Puzzle You and Mathablit.Ms Devi was hospitalised a couple of weeks ago for critical respiratory problems and she later developed heart and kidney problems. She is survived by a daughter.

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