Mathematic Prodigies

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 March 1914, Page 4

Mathematic Prodigies

In Mexico there is a boy, aged U years, Miguel Alberto Mantilla, the son of a bank manager, who knows the calendar, not for one year, but for all time past. He can answer correctly, with scarcely a pause, any question relating to days of the week, holidays, etc., in any year in the Christian era. Asked on one occasion by a visitor who had been testing him with the assistance of a perpetual calendar how he found the answers to questions, he replied: "I see a Black ball go around and around in my head, and then I read the number and 1 answer." Ceylou has its mathematical prodigy in Arumogam, who is now only 17 years of age, and first discovered his marvellous gift when he was 11. He can answer by mental arithmetic difficult problems, which ordinary mortals would take several minutes to work out on paper, in less than three seconds. There is no trace of talent in his ancestry, and his parents are poor, unlettered people. There is another Tamil boy calculator, also 17 years of age, who is prepared to work oxit any arithmetical problem mentally, and, up to the present, no problem, however difficult, has token him longer than five seconds to eclve.

"Romanoff, the French liprhtninp calculator, jug-pries m an extraordinary fashion with' figures, and can also answer any. questions relating to ihe calendar.