Zerah Colburn (math prodigy)
Zerah Colburn ( born September 1, 1804 in Cabot, † March 2, 1839 in Norwich) was a mathematical prodigy of the 19th century, which was famous for his performance in mental arithmetic. In a contest he beat the mathematician William Rowan Hamilton.
Life
Colburn was born 1804 in Cabot, Vermont. When he already reciting the multiplication tables after a few weeks schooling, his father checked his math skills and was confirmed when Zerah 13 correctly multiplied by 97.
Zerah skills developed quickly so that he could calculate tasks such as the number of seconds in 2,000 years, the product of 12,225 and 1,223, or the square root of 1,449 after a short time. At age 12, he was able to calculate in six seconds to think the number of hours in 38 years, two months and seven days.
He is said to have solved complex problems in your head, including about whether the sixth Fermat number
Is a prime number, which he denied and called 641 as a divisor of. However, it is possible that this Zerah knew from the literature, as Leonhard Euler had recognized this in 1732.
His father took the skills of his son financially exploited, in which he traveled with him through the states of the Midwest, and parts of the southern United States and vorführte Zerah performances of his mental arithmetic performance.
The two left Vermont in winter 1810-1811. During a stay in Hanover (New Hampshire), the then President of Dartmouth College, John Wheelock offered to to take over the promotion and funding further education of Zerah, Zerah but father refused. In Boston excited Zerah skills quite a stir, so that he was visited by professors from Harvard College and other prestigious representatives of various professions, and the newspapers were filled with articles about his computing skills.
After further stations father and son sailed in January 1812 to England then to travel through England itself, Scotland and Ireland and finally to spend 18 months in Paris, where Zerah was admitted to the Lycée Henri IV, from which, however, his father rebuked him short it away again, and finally in 1816 an impoverished return to England.
There was a short time Frederick Hervey, Earl of Bristol at the time, aware of Zerah, and took him to Westminster School, where he remained until 1819. As a result of his father's refusal to comply with certain requirements of the Earl, Zerah the school was made, after which his father suggesting him to study acting. Zerah followed this request and was a few months of Charles Kemble informed, but both Zerah itself, as well as his mentor after the first public appearance were convinced that he was not suited for the stage. Then Zerah took a position as an assistant in a school and opened shortly after his own school. In addition, he pointed out astronomical calculations for Thomas Young.
After his father's death in 1824 the Earl of Bristol and other friends financed his return to the United States. Although Zerah training was rather unusual, he showed talent for languages . In Fairfield (New York), he worked as an assistant teacher at an academy in order to draw in March 1825 to Burlington ( Vermont), where he taught French and at the same time continued his studies at the University of Vermont. Towards the end of 1825 he joined the Methodists, to settle down finally after nine years as an itinerant preacher in 1835 in Norwich ( Vermont). Shortly thereafter he was appointed Professor of Languages at the Norwich University, a position he held until his death. He died on 2 March 1839 of tuberculosis.
Family
His nephew of the same name was a renowned engineer for locomotives, as well as technical journalist.