A “human calculator” from Malaysia appeared on Asia’s Got Talent recently and the video of his performance is something that you just have to see. Once the clip of the individual was posted on YouTube at the beginning of March, it quickly racked up over 22 million views and for good reason. It’s because 15-year-old Yaashwin Sarawanan is simply amazing.
So what is a human calculator, you might ask? Basically, it’s someone that can do complex math incredibly fast.
Give Yaashwin a mathematical problem and he will be able to solve it almost instantly, entirely in his head.
It’s not often that someone gets so much attention for their math skills, however, Yaashwin is something else.
He doesn’t even need to use a pen and paper!
When he first stepped on stage though, everyone was very skeptical.
Yaashwin told judges that his big talent was solving calculations in his head, and judge David Foster openly mocked the young man.
“That doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that would pull chicks. Does it help you get a girlfriend? Probably not,” Foster said.
What the judges didn’t know was that the young talent was about to completely blow their minds and have the entire world wondering whether he was actually a real person, or perhaps some sort of robot.
Yaashwin handed Foster a calculator and asked the judge to give him some sequences of two-digit additions to start.
For example, the first question: “46 + 23 + 89 + 25 + 14 + 76 +12 = 285”. It was too easy for Yaashwin. They decided to increase the difficulty.
Next, they did a sequence of two-digit multiplications. “45 x 29 = 1305”. Easy. Then they switched to division. “589 / 7 = 84.14285714285”. Too easy.
For the final trick, he had Foster just keep adding 74 on the calculator over and over again.
Yaashwin was able to spit out the next answer faster than Foster could even hit the equal button.
The audience couldn’t believe it, and eventually, they couldn’t keep quiet any longer — they all started cheering.
It is one of the most impressive math feats we have ever seen, and over the course of the performance, the judges’ opinions of Yaashwin completely transformed.
“It was astounding. You are the human calculator, there is no doubt about it,” Foster said.
The other judges commented on how amazing it was that Yaashwin was able to make a boring subject so fun.
“It was certainly fun to watch you beating the calculator,” judge Anggun said.
Judge Jay Park agreed.
“I don’t like math, so what you do was very impressive,” Park said.
No one ever thought that a “human calculator” could be so cool, but in the end, all three judges were won over.
They unanimously said yes to Yaashwin, sending him on to the next round of the competition.
Foster even decided to take back his girlfriend remark that he made at the beginning of the performance.
“You’re definitely getting a girlfriend after this airs,” Foster joked.
Yaashwin is the guy that every math teacher loves, and at the same time, the guy that every student asks to help with their homework. It is quite the talent he has, and one that we are sure will take him far in life as he gets older and progresses into adulthood.
Watch the full video of Yaashwin Sarawanan’s “human calculator” performance on Asia’s Got Talent below.
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