Meet Bhanu, the world's fastest human calculator

BHANU|TECHNOLOGY|INDIA

While the average person will reach for a calculator and add fingers and toes to the count when presented with huge numbers in millions, for 20-year-old Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, it is instant. Bhanu, known in India as the world's fastest human calculator, will work numbers in his head in seconds.

According to the Limca Book of Records, India's equivalent to Guinness World Records, Bhanu's mind processes numbers at an average speed of 12 per second, around 10 times faster than a regular brain.

Bhanu says he's able to make such complex calculations at breakneck speed through "structured practice."

"Let's say I am doing a multiplication of 8,763 multiplied by eight," he says. "I'll probably multiply: 8,000 by eight which is 64,000, 700 by eight which is 5,600, 60 by eight which is 480, three by eight is 24. And I add all of these. But this requires the human brain to remember all this.

On August 15, Bhanu, from Hyderabad in India's southern Telangana state, became the first Asian to win gold at the Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) in London. He's also the first non-European winner in the event's 23-year history.

In his competition debut, Bhanu beat 29 opponents from 13 countries to take the gold. His speed so extraordinary that judges made him jump through extra hoops and solve more calculations to confirm his accuracy.

 Life-threatening injury

In 2005, aged five, Bhanu fell from his cousin's scooter when it was hit by a truck, banging his head on the road. Bhanu fractured his skull and was put in a medically induced coma by doctors.

When he woke up almost seven days later, the doctors told his parents that Bhanu could be cognitively impaired for the rest of his life due to his head injuries. He spent the next year bedridden. 

During his recovery, Bhanu learned how to play chess and solved puzzles to keep his brain engaged, eventually progressing to math problems.

In 2007, aged 7, Bhanu finished third in the sub-junior category at a state level speed arithmetic competition in Andhra Pradesh state. His performance brought his father to tears, Bhanu says. "It wasn't the medal, it was what led me there that moved my father," he says.

Bhanu has since secured many wins, including the open category in India's 2011 National Speed Arithmetic Competition. And from the age of 13, he's represented India in international competition and broken four world records for fastest human calculation, power multiplication, super subtraction, and mental math: powers of two and three.

He's also broken 50 Limca records, earning comparisons with legendary Indian mathematician Shakuntala Devi.

"When I am attempting a world record it's almost like the world around me slows down," Bhanu explains, drawing a comparison with a DC Comics superhero.

"It's kind of like 'The Flash', where when he runs, everything else around is blurred. It definitely feels nice but also feels extremely liberating to actually do these complex calculations at this pace.

"So the neurons firing in the brain lead us to make believe that we are capable of doing things which we don't imagine. So I would say you almost feel like a superhero. Almost."

Making maths cool

Bhanu says he is passionate about his goal to eradicate math phobia.

In 2018, Bhanu founded Exploring Infinities, an educational organisation that aims to make math cool, challenging and interesting, by tracking cognitive ability development through arithmetic games.

"My experience began the day I went to a rural government school (in India) and realised kids there did not know that multiplication is repetitive addition," Bhanu explains. "That's what struck a chord and that's when I began my firm."

The organisation, which has half a million subscribers, works at the grassroots level in India and, pre-coronavirus, organised math bootcamps in Bangladesh and Indonesia. Its digital learning programme also has students from the United Kingdom and United States.

After years of struggling for state funding to take part in international competitions, he hopes his victory will usher in a new era of support for India's aspiring mathematicians to compete at the world level.