Replies

I read a fascinating book about an autistic man who could do the rain man thing, multiply numbers quickly. Well, he was coherent enough to explain how he did it. He said when normal people are shown a bush they know it's a bush. When they're shown a cat they know it's a cat. When they're shown a cat in a bush, well you get the idea. That's what he said it's like. The number 829386524 looks like a bush to him. The number 1928734 looks like a cat to him. Put the cat in the bush and that's what the 2 numbers multiplied together look like to him.

I don't remember the name of the book unfortunately.

Great Simpsons episode where Homer is in an insane asylum:

Homer: What's his problem?
Michael Jackson:He's an idiot savant. he can multply any two numbes together.
Homer: (To savant) 9 times 5?
Savant: (Without skipping a beat) 45
Homer: Wow!

I think I have begun to understand why certain numbers "look" like something.

I've been doing a lot of Plains Indian beading lately, which involves a lot of counting out of teeny-tiny beads (Czech No. 11s). You use the same number of beads over and over again -- just in different color combinations. Mostly odd numbers. This particular pattern required 7s and 9s and 11s.

After I had beaded on this project for a couple of days, I started "seeing" 7s and 9s and 11s just by looking -- didn't have to count any more. I checked myself for awhile, but just quit counting because it was so much faster to "see" the numbers.

I guess these people are talented (or practiced) enough to "see" really big numbers, and primes, and stuff like that.