"Human calculator" Aaryan Shukla, who broke the world record for the fastest time to mentally add 100 four-digit numbers last month after accomplishing the feat in 30.9 seconds, has revealed the technique he uses during an interaction with industrialist Anand Mahindra on X.
The 14-year-old's response came after Mahindra heaped praises on him and was curious about the technique. "Thank you very much, Sir. I am a mental calculator (human calculator). The technique is called 'Flash Anzan' where you have to process the numbers flashing on the screen at lightning speed. The base is Abacus. While I have been training for last eight years to achieve this. Thanks!" Shukla wrote to Mahindra.
The math prodigy also broke six Guinness World Records in a single day during a mental maths competition in Dubai. The Guinness World Records shared the feat on their website:
Fastest time to mentally add 100 four-digit numbers - 30.9 sec
Fastest time to mentally add 200 four-digit numbers - 1 min 9.68 sec
Fastest time to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers - 18.71 sec
Fastest time to mentally divide a 20-digit number by a ten-digit number (set of ten) - 5 min 42 sec
Fastest time to mentally multiply two five-digit numbers (set of ten) - 51.69 sec
Fastest time to mentally multiply two eight-digit numbers (set of ten) - 2 min 35.41 sec
Speaking about his daily routine, Shukla said, “Daily practice is one of the important aspects to prepare for competitions... so I practise for about five or six hours daily.”
As a mental calculator who performs "impossible" sums at lightning speed, the teen said it was difficult to explain what happens in his mind during those crucial moments. "A lot of things in mental calculations happen in a flash of a second, so I cannot say what happens inside my head... I just do it naturally. Basically, it’s so fast that you can’t think, you just need to do the calculations," he told Guinness.
Talking about how he keeps himself relaxed when he is not doing homework or crunching numbers, Shukla said Sahaja Yoga meditation helps him keep calm and focused. “I also love travelling and due to the mental maths […] I travel to many countries!” he said.
His parents said that he started mental calculations when he was six.
“Since childhood, he was very good […] with numbers. He enjoyed studying and playing with numbers," Shukla's mother told Guinness World Records. “At the age of six he started the practice of mental calculation, and he was very good, so we started doing some research on this. […] At the age of eight we went for an international competition and he won medals and trophies, which were great achievements.”
Since then, Aaryan has become a world champion and is even one of the founding board members of the Global Mental Calculators Association (GMCA).
When his father was asked if he had any concerns about his son’s unique abilities at such a young age, he said: “Aaryan enjoys numbers and mental calculations. We as parents have a role to make sure that he doesn’t get overloaded or stressed when practising […]. But [being a world champion and record holder] now he has to carry some responsibility also. So it is a balance between his age and his responsibilities."
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