GIFT FOR CALCULATION

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 230, 24 June 1932, Page 18

GIFT FOR CALCULATION

Auckland Man’s Hobby ABILITIES AS A BOY Dominion Special Service. Auckland, June 22. Lightning mental calculations that make the non-mathematical mind reel are the hobby of Mr. P. Corbett, traveller for an Auckland business house, who knows how many spots there are 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 31 per cent, he will answer within three or' four sec--ends that it is £45/7/2, 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 seven—and write the answers down :—Seven sevens are 49, seven times that is times 343 is 2401.. At tin ever-increasing rate he continued the process to seven times 282,475,249, giving the correct result of 1,977,326,743 before pausing for breath. Checking Proves Accuracy. Submitting to a mild mental test he cubed each numerical quantity from 11 to 30 as quickly as the answers could be written. Subsequent checking proved their accuracy. Ho then added several nine-figure rows, writing the answer after only 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 occasion 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 £57/7/5. I was told by one business man that I would be as quick as 10 men at stocktaking. I can beat a calculating machine, especially on mulplication. .. . “People have asked me if I'do not memorise. l ean askure. you that Ido not, although in working out percentages I have a system of my own. Ordinary calculations I do by the long method, which everybody learns. The only difference is that I do them quickly. The very appearance of a number tells me what numbers will divide into it and what will not. A curious thing is that in my very early days at. school I was taken' out of one class and put into a lower class because I could not do my sums. Abilities as a Boy. “I went to the Te Aro School, Wellington, and from the age of 11 years onwards did all my school arithmetic mentally,” said Mr. Corbett. “I was able to do 20 sums while the other children were doing five. For four years running I won the Chamber of Commerce prize and won a junior free place and a Queen’s Scholarship with 100 per cent, in arithmetic in each case. When I was 11 years old I gave a demonstration in calculating to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. “Figures are in my mind all the time, and I find myself calculating subconsciously. 1 count the spots on the wall-paper, the people in the trains, and even the bars on the birdcage. Take the beads on that lampshade. In half a scallop there are 16 strings and about 60 beads on a string. That is 1920 heads to a scallop, and 11 scallops gives 21,120 beads on the shade. While I am talking to you I am counting the buttons on your coat and the spots on your tie. If I go to the pictures I count the number of people and calculate the takings at the box office. Mimi the steps when you go out. There are 37.” There were.