A fun demonstration of playing with numbers

[xiphias]

My aunt actually emailed this link around. In it, Arthur Benjamin (a math professor at Harvey Mudd in his day job) does fifteen minutes of impressive mental arithmetic. If you enjoy numbers, you may enjoy this.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/199

Comments

[anhelometuo.livejournal.com]

That was awesome. And very sick. I wish I could do that. Thanks!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Apparently, the guy has a book on how to do that.

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

Professor Benjamin was regarded as one of the really good math professors when I was a student at Mudd. Unfortunately, even though I took five math classes while I was there, I never had a chance to take one from him.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I can see why. Not so much the facility with arithmetic itself -- by the time you go to Harvey Mudd, I suspect you really ought to be beyond arithmetic -- but because of how engaging and interesting he is as a performer.

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

Not only was that super cool, but I'm totally smitten with the idea of a whole auditorium full of people who love it so much they surge to their feet at the end for a standing ovation.

[stickylatex.livejournal.com]

He actually made a couple of mistakes on the three-digit squares (I have no idea why FOUR people onstage with calculators told him he was right!), but it's still very impressive!