Scott Flansburg, a world-renown and celebrated personality and bestselling author known also as “The Human Calculator,” stopped by Woodlands Academy to showcase his amazing mathematical prowess while promoting the American Math Challenge, an online K-12 mathematics competition to be held on October 26-27 that serves as the official warm up for World Math Day 2011.
Appropriately dubbed, “The Human Calculator” by television personality Regis Philbin, Flansburg has been entertaining people with his math skills for over 20 years. A self-described “mathlete,” he has been interviewed by numerous high-profile programs, including NBC’s The Today Show, Oprah, The History Channel, Stan Lee’s Superhuman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Dateline NBC, ABC’s Good Morning America, Larry King Live, Howard Stern, Fox News and The Discovery Channel’s How’d They Do That?
Flansburg has also appeared as keynote speaker for Tony Robins Seminars, NASA, IBM, The Smithsonian Institution and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and now Woodlands, among many others. Also a best-selling author with HarperCollins, Flansburg wrote Math Magic and Math Magic for Kids.
It was his superhuman speed and precision that made him a world record holder. To earn his Guinness World record, Flansburg had to add the same number to itself more times in 15 seconds than a person could do with a calculator.
What makes him so amazing? Certainly the extraordinary math skills that allow him to perform seemingly impossible mathematical problems completely in his head set him apart from the everyday mathematician. Both his speed and accuracy are unparalleled, and leave any calculator (and its user) in the dust. But what’s more amazing is his dedication to math itself, and his pledge to help both students and adults alike overcome their math hesitations. “Experience math,” he urged students. “Don’t memorize it.”
Before arriving on the Woodlands campus, Flansburg made stops at WGN-Chicago and other media outlets. You can see his interview on the WGN Morning news here.
There is no doubt Scott Flansburg wowed a group of teenagers initially more interested in lunch than a math assembly. He is what you would call a mathematical “rock star,” and by the end of his short presentation, mesmerized students feverishly lined up for pictures and autographs on, of course, their calculators!
Click the links to learn more about Scott Flansburg, The American Math Challenge powered by Mathletics, or World Math Day 2011.
