Scott Flansburg, better known as “The Human Calculator”, is the annual host and ambassador for World Maths Day, and a math educator / media personality. Flansburg can subtract, add, multiply, divide, and find square and cube roots in his head almost instantly with calculator accuracy. Continue reading for a video and more information.
Scott has stated that he was nine years old when he first discovered his mental calculator abilities, after he was able to solve his teacher’s math question without needing to write down the calculations. Afterwards he would keep a running tally of his family’s groceries at the store, so his father could give the cashier an exact check before the bill had been rung up. In his youth he also began noticing that the shape and number of angles in numbers are clues to their value, and began counting from 0 to 9 on his fingers instead of 1 to 10.
The Guinness Book of World Records listed him as “Fastest Human Calculator” in 2001 and 2003, after he broke the record for adding the same number to itself more times in 15 seconds than someone could do with a calculator. In 1999 Flansburg invented a 13 month calendar that uses zero as a day, month, and year alternative to the Gregorian calendar that he called “The Human Calculator Calendar.”
