Shakuntala Devi

 

Shakuntala Devi

Profession: Writer and Mathematician

Nationality: Indian

Born: November 4, 1929
Birthplace: Bangalore, Mysore, British India

Historical Events

• 1980-06-18 Indian "human computer" Shakuntala Devi sets a world record by mentally multiplying two random 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds; She correctly answered that 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 = 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 !
• Shakuntala Devi (1929-2013) was best known as “the human computer” for her ability to perform lengthy calculations in her head, swiftly.

• 1. Devi holds the Guinness World Record for “Fastest Human Computation.”

  In 1980, she correctly multiplied two 13-digit numbers in just 28 seconds at Imperial College London.
• 2. 

   She wrote a novel.

  When Devi stopped touring the world doing shows featuring her arithmetic prowess, she wrote several books on math and her techniques, including “Puzzles to Puzzle You,” “Super Memory: It Can Be Yours” and “Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child.” But decades prior, in 1976, Devi also wrote a crime thriller called “Perfect Murder.” Written entirely in the first-person, the story explores what happens when a lawyer, motivated by greed, decides to kill his wife to escape the marriage.
• In one famous interview on the BBC in 1950 (recreated in the biopic), her answer to a mathematical question was deemed incorrect, before the host later acknowledged that in fact, the computer’s answer was wrong and Devi was right.