The Supercalculators

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alex Bellos is brilliant at all things mathematical, but even he can't hold a candle to the amazing mathematical feats of the supercalculators. Alex heads to Wolfsburg in Germany to meet the contestants at this year's Mental Calculation World Cup. These men and women are the fastest human number crunchers on the planet, able to multiply and divide large numbers with no need to reach for a smart phone, computer or calculator. So how do they do it, and is it a skill that any of us can learn? Alex talks to Robert Fountain, the UK's two-time winner of this prestigious prize, about his hopes for this year's competition and the mathematical magicians of the past who have inspired him. He also meets Rachel Riley, Countdown's number queen, to find out what it takes to beat the countdown clock. Picture: The Supercalculators, Credit: Alex Bellos

Transcript

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0:26.0	Julie, but at your service.
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0:31.0	Neurons, on the ready go I'm Robert Fountain I'm a two-time winner of the
0:37.6	medal calculation world cup and the first one master of mental calculation and I'm Alex Bellas first Squand Master of Mental Calculation.
0:43.3	And I'm Alex Bellas.
0:50.7	This week's discovery on the BBC World Service, I'm entering the world of the supercalculators.
0:57.0	The fastest adders, multiplies and square routers on the planet.
1:07.0	If you're the best, the worst, the longest immersed, if you're the base, the ace, When did you first get interested in mental calculation as a sport something competitive?
1:19.0	It was Wednesday the 17th of December 1980 shortly after 5 p.m
1:23.8	you be serious I can be that precise because I just watched an episode of the TV
1:29.2	show record breakers and on it was a mental calculator Dutchman called Wynne Klein.
1:34.7	He was extracting the 13th through from a 100 digit number and I just found this amazing.
1:39.4	So that sort of
1:43.3	my my interest and how old were you at the time I was 11 so you were at an age where you could
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