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The Genius Calculators

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The Mathematical Traveler

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Abstract

We have reviewed how human beings struggled to discover all the kinds of numbers that now fill our mathematical world. While much of this discovery occurred because of a methodical plodding by societies of ordinary men and women, some advances have been due to the efforts of singular individuals. How is our understanding of numbers related to our intelligence as human beings, especially the intelligences of exceptional people? If there were no exceptionally talented individuals, what level of mathematics would we have achieved? Have the exceptionally bright really made particularly revolutionary contributions? Can exceptional people manipulate numbers in special ways, thus achieving insights into numbers denied to the rest of us? Our first effort will be to review some cases of individuals who seem to have had a calculating ability far beyond the average person.

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End Notes

  1. Steven B. Smith, The Great Mental Calculators (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983).

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  2. Darold A. Treffert, Extraordinary People (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989).

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  3. Steven B. Smith, p. 97.

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  4. Ibid., p. 289.

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  5. Ibid., p. 245.

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  6. Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (New York: Harper Perennial, 1985), p. 203.

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  7. Treffert, p. 41.

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  8. W. W. Rouse Ball, “Calculating Prodigies,” in The World of Mathematics, Vol. 1, p. 467.

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  9. Steven B. Smith, p. xv.

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  10. Treffert, p. 220.

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  11. Ibid., p. 222.

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  12. A. E. Ingham, The Distribution of Prime Numbers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 3.

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Authors
  1. Calvin C. Clawson
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© 1994 Calvin C. Clawson

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Clawson, C.C. (1994). The Genius Calculators. In: The Mathematical Traveler. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6014-6_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6014-6_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-44645-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6014-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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