Salo Finkelstein
Encyclopedia
Salo Finkelstein was a mental calculator
, ranked eighth in the "100 Greatest Mental Calculators". He was born in Lodz (then within the Russian Empire
, now Poland
) to a Jewish family.
While at school he was above average in mathematics, and discovered his calculating abilities as well as his faculty in memorizing numbers. At the age of 23, he began demonstrating this in public but lost interest for some time. He found employment with the Polish government in State Statistical office.
In 1928 he performed before Professor Hans Henning in the Free City of Danzig
. Henning previously tested other calculators, Dr. Ferrol and Gottfried Ruckle, and found Finkelstein to be superior. In 1931 Finkelstein went on an international tour demonstrating his abilities and submitting himself for tests.
In 1932 he arrived in the United States
and tried without success to find employment in a bank as a checker of calculations. In 1937 an article was published that described and analyzed his abilities, with the general conclusion that although he could perform calculations much more rapidly than most people, his thinking processes seem to obey the same laws and are not indicative of any unnatural powers. In particular, during multiplication, the time for performing operations was proportional not to the numbers of digits in multiplied numbers, but to the number of separate "acts of attention" necessary to perform multiplication by ordinary rules. Also, the correctness of the results was not always 100 percent, decreased rapidly with the growth of the number of "acts of attention", and apparently depended on concentration.
After failing to secure himself a job that matched his abilities and unwilling to become a stage calculator, he attempted a career playing chess
between 1941–1949. After that his further fate is unknown.
Mental calculator
Mental calculators are people with a prodigious ability in some area of mental calculation, such as multiplying large numbers or factoring large numbers...
, ranked eighth in the "100 Greatest Mental Calculators". He was born in Lodz (then within the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, now Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) to a Jewish family.
While at school he was above average in mathematics, and discovered his calculating abilities as well as his faculty in memorizing numbers. At the age of 23, he began demonstrating this in public but lost interest for some time. He found employment with the Polish government in State Statistical office.
In 1928 he performed before Professor Hans Henning in the Free City of Danzig
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
. Henning previously tested other calculators, Dr. Ferrol and Gottfried Ruckle, and found Finkelstein to be superior. In 1931 Finkelstein went on an international tour demonstrating his abilities and submitting himself for tests.
In 1932 he arrived in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and tried without success to find employment in a bank as a checker of calculations. In 1937 an article was published that described and analyzed his abilities, with the general conclusion that although he could perform calculations much more rapidly than most people, his thinking processes seem to obey the same laws and are not indicative of any unnatural powers. In particular, during multiplication, the time for performing operations was proportional not to the numbers of digits in multiplied numbers, but to the number of separate "acts of attention" necessary to perform multiplication by ordinary rules. Also, the correctness of the results was not always 100 percent, decreased rapidly with the growth of the number of "acts of attention", and apparently depended on concentration.
After failing to secure himself a job that matched his abilities and unwilling to become a stage calculator, he attempted a career playing chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
between 1941–1949. After that his further fate is unknown.
External links
- Salo Finkelstein at The Great Mental Calculators
- The 100 Greatest Mental Calculators
- Chessgames