Mangalore/Bangalore, April 21 (PTI) : Shakuntala Devi, aged 83, a famous and much venerated Indian mathematician, genius and popularly known as “Human Computer” for her ability to make complex mental calculations, died at Bangalore hospital on April 21,Sunday, following respiratory problems.
News of her death at Bangalore hospital was declared by D.C.Shivadev, Trustee, ‘Shakuntala Devi Educational Foundation Public Trust,’ told to PTI. Doctors declared her dead at 8.15 am, he said.
Shakuntala was hospitalized a couple of weeks ago for critical respiratory problems and she developed heart and kidney problems later, Shivadev said.
In 1977, Shakuntala extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally,12 seconds faster than the Univac-1108. In 1980,18th June she solved the multiplication of 13 digit number 7,686,369,774,870 and 2,465,099,745,779 picked up by the computer science department of imperial college, London and solved the question in a flash of time and took 28 seconds to solve the entire problem. She even occupies a place on the 1995 Guiness Book of Records for her skills and written numerous books like Fun with Numbers, Astrology for you, Puzzles to Puzzles you and Mathablit and had the ability to tell the day of the week of any given date in the last century in a jiffy.
Shakuntala Devi was born on 4th f November,1939 in Bangalore in Brahmin Priest family and was recognized as child prodigy.
