A CALCULATOR

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1932, Page 2

A CALCULATOR

AUCKLAND "MAN’S HOBBY. ABILITIES AS A BOY. Auckland,' June 22. Lightning mental calculations that non-mathematical mind reel are the hobby of Mr P. Corbett, traveller for an Auckland business house,, £ who knows how many spot. 3 there are f on a.yard of wallpaper and the number of paces between Onehunga and Auckland. ' Should he be asked the amount of interest due on £1296 at 3.} per cent, he will answer within three of four seconds that it is £45 )f| *?s 2d, and with equal facility will reply that 28 cubed is 21,952. “I have had no training,” said Mr Corbett, in an interview. “It is a gift that was born with me. . Take an easy example—the progressive multiplication of ’ the figure efcven—and write the answers down :—Seven sevens are 49, seven tiin.es that is 343, ' seven times 343 j l3 2401...” At an everincreasing rate he continued the process to seven times 282,475,294, giving the correct result of 1,977,326,743 before pausing for breath. CHECKING PROVES ACCURACY. Submitting to a mild mental test ho cubed each numerical quantity from 11 to 30 as quickly as the answers could be w'ritten. Subsequent checking proved their accuracy. He then added several nine-figure rows, • writing the answer only after a second’s pause to scan the problem, and commencing on the left-hand of the column first. There was not a moment of hesitation between the, first figure and the last. “In the ordinary routine of my business I have no occason to use -figures,” said Mr Corbett,’ “but rapid calculation such as this should be useful in costing or stocktaking. For instance, 1967 .yards of cloth at 7d a yard are worth £57 .7s sd. I was told ■ by one business man that I would be as quick eg ten men in stocktaking. I can beat a calculating machine, especially on multiplication. “People have risked me if I do not memorise. I can assure you .that I

k do not, although in working out perventages I have a sysiem of my own. ’’Ordinarily calculations I do by the which everybody learns,. ence its that I do them HSSHhHHhHb very appearance of a me what. numbers will it and what will not. A is that in my early days "‘as taken out of cne class a lower class because’ I ES AS A-BOY. {lt& Te 'A"o‘Sc’liohr/AVelt BHhEhHHBShB Rom the age of 11 years all my school arithmetic Mr Corbett. “I was while the ’other For four V * Y.^'.:■>? *• of junior