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Quick: What’s the cube root of 61,629,875?

Stumped? Shakuntala Devi, the woman known as the “Human Computer,” could tell you, and probably faster than any mathematical computer could.

Devi, who passed away on April 21 at age 83 in her hometown of Bangalore, India, toured the world as a prodigy for much of her life, making appearances on radio, television and in theaters, the New York Times reports.

In a 1977 appearance at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Devi found the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in just 50 seconds, besting a slowpoke Univac computer that took 62 seconds to make the same calculation. The root of a number (“X”) is equal to another number (“Y”) that can be multiplied by itself a given number of times to equal “X.” So the 23rd root of “X” equals “Y” multiplied by itself 23 times.

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Shakuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi (November 4, 1929 – April 21, 2013), Indian mental calculator known as the ‘Human Computer,’ has died.

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.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/26/shakuntala-devi-human-computer-math-prodigy-dies-india_n_3164180.html?ref=topbar

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