Tyson
Veteran
If you want to demonstrate how big India is, why don't you just say the population of India is 1.3 billion, and the population of the United States is 300 million?
"World's smartest kid" solves rubik's cube
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ElectricDoodie
Veteran
Because that doesn't add any perspective to it and to me, is bland and boring.
I don't know how you missed this point, after I have stated it so many times.
Joker
Veteran
Yea, I figured that out when I was 10 by myself (cept it was a little different, but still fast)
And when I was 11 I was able to divide any number (whole) by either 9 or 11 freaking quickly by myself. And a bunch of other tricks (when I was in Grd 4 I was doing Grd 9 math)
Tyson
Veteran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM0dbwDc2FE
Have you heard of Arthur Benjamin?
http://www.math.hmc.edu/~benjamin/
Now *that* guy... he can do math quickly in his head. He actually performs at the Magic Castle (www.magiccastle.com). It's quite impressive. You can race him multiplying two 5 digit numbers, and you'll loose with a calculator because you can't press the button fast enough. I think I could beat him given a www.daskeyboard.com as opposed to a four function calculator.
Bryan
Premium Member
But when you add information that adds no value to the statement, it's meaningless.
The top 25% of Indians at American Football would be more than the entire US. This tells us absolutely nothing about how many Indians know about football. It's just noise that confuses people. Just like bringing up IQ in the same statement. It doesn't really say anything about India's IQ.
Now a statement like: If you take all the illiterate people in India, it would be greater than the entire population of the US. Now, this gives us some information, but not much. India could be about the same size, but completely illiterate, or India could be 100X the size of the US, and only 99% literate. You can't determine core facts from this statement.
If you state that India is 4X the size of the US, and they have a literacy rate of 66%, this gives you cold hard facts.
ElectricDoodie
Veteran
I wasn't trying to add meaning or value to it, and I've already stated it. I just found it to be an interesting way to put it.
Tyson
Veteran
Hey, did you know that half of the world is below average in intelligence?
(Fine Stefan, measured by median.)
(Fine Stefan, measured by median.)
Joker
Veteran
ElectricDoodie
Veteran
Yes, I did.
Tyson
Veteran
And is that statement interesting to you?
ElectricDoodie
Veteran
Stefan
Legend
How fast does he do it?
Tyson
Veteran
I'm not sure... I haven't seen it in person. I've only heard of his show. He has a few books out, but from what I understand the set-up...
I'd imagine he can do it in under 5 seconds. That's just a guess though... I'm estimating based on what I understand the setup to be. Chris Dzoan would know more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4vqr3_ROIk
I can't actually watch this now because I'm at the office. But I think that clip should give you an idea of the type of things he does.
Stefan
Legend
Well, the world record (from a mental calculation world cup) for doing it ten times is 102 seconds:
http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/memory.html#8x8
So I think on average he must take longer than 10 seconds.
Ah yes, I'm watching that already on his website. And I'm appalled!
At 3:41 he says "457 squared is 205849". That is wrong, but his moron checkers confirm it!
At 4:00 he says "722 squared is 513284". That is wrong, but his moron checkers confirm it!
WTF? He could probably spit out random numbers and nobody there would notice or care!
Watching the rest now...
Bryan
Premium Member
So stuff isn't interesting if you know it? That means you know nothing interesting.
tim
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He got his big final right, though.
Tyson
Veteran
Yes, I apologize if I misrepresented anything, but I of course did make it clear that I have not seen him in person. The other thing to keep in mind is that most people in the world are really stupid. Your average person's intelligence is so low, that yes, people aren't used to thinking critically, and you can get away with a lot of stuff during a performance.
I do find it fascinating (and interesting) how much of the world's progress has been driven by such a small percentage of people at the top.
qqwref
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If the performer is fast enough at mental calculation, no normal person (i.e. audience member) would be fast and accurate enough to be sure he made a mistake 
I like the idea of ten tasks in a row. I should try that sometime.
I like the idea of ten tasks in a row. I should try that sometime.
ElectricDoodie
Veteran
I can't believe how much you are misinterpreting everything. Because someone does not find something interesting after already seeing it many times, does not mean that it is not interesting in itself. It could still be interesting to someone else. I cannot believe this is seriously your argument. I believe you are just trying to troll me.
Now, that statement Tyson gave was something that was more common knowledge and made it less interesting for me. If you found it interesting, I'd like to know why.
Stefan
Legend
Yes, and everything else as well (as far as I can tell, couldn't check the missing digit trick). I'm just astonished that he can get away with that. Once he got two of six digits wrong and his judge loudly proclaimed "Yes". WHY? I suspect she actually failed to check and just tried to hide that. What she should have done is say "wait a moment..." and then do it properly. Nothing embarrassing about it. I remember seeing the same thing in a documentary about Kim Peek ("Rain Man") and another with Ruediger Gamm (mental calculator), they made mistakes and just got away with it.
I'm a bit surprised, btw. It was a nice show, but I didn't know they have that kind of stuff at TED. Guess they need some fun between the serious talks
They all had pocket calculators, they just had to square a three-digit number, and they got into TED. They should be able to do that. And again, more importantly: if they can't check it, they should say that! Or at least NOT say he's correct without actually checking!
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