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The Great Mental Calculators: The Psychology, Methods, and Lives of Calculating Prodigies Past and Present

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The book is divided into three sections, covering the psychological aspects of rapid mental calculation, the mathematical methods involved, and brief summaries of the lives of the great calculators (which include particular methods used by each person). There are extensive quotations from the calculators themselves, explaining their methods and how they learned. The book is so well-written it's hard to put down, yet it covers the topic in great depth. Smith surveys all the prior literature on the subject, and has also interviewed many of the living calculators. His knowledge of both math and psychology is impressive. This is a MUST for anyone interested in the subject, or just interested in improving their calculating abilities.

In this book the subject of mental calculation is developed in all its aspects. The reader may be bored by some of the detailed description of the calculators' performances. But those description are necessary for a complete discussion. There is also a thorough discussion of the various psychological implications and technical aspects of mental calculation.

If you love maths and play with numbers it is a great book for you

The best book of mental calculation of the world.
You will be impressed by Klein's method to extract the 13th
root of a 100-digit number in 1mn28s, the very famous world
record of mental calculation. But do not forget that Alexis
LEMAIRE extracted it in 13s: 44800613, also divisible by 13,
in the year 2002=154x13! This is another story...