Mental calculators

Willis Dysart

Willis Nelson Dysart (March 15, 1923 in Omega, Georgia - November 8, 2011) was an American mental calculator. His talent for arithmetic emerged at the age of three after his mother taught him to count. He quit school in the third grade (age 9) and pursued a career as a lightning calculator. In 1938 Robert Ripley featured Dysart in his 'Believe It Or Not' newspaper column and introduced what would become Dysart's stage name - 'Willie the Wizard'. In 1940 Dysart was recruited by a local radio station to tally votes in the US presidential election. Dysart would very quickly (much more quickly than rival radio stations aided by calculating machines) give "the exact standing of any candidate on the board, including his current total, the percentage of votes counted at that point and the probable outcome of the contest on the basis of existing information". Not content with that, Dysart would provide a little entertainment by, for instance, asking for the birth dates of the candidates and immediately giving the years, months, hours, minutes and seconds they had lived to that moment. Dysart has given many live demonstrations of his skill at a range of venues. He has also appeared on numerous television shows, including I've Got a Secret, You Asked For It, The Art Linkletter Show and The Joe Pyne Show, which made him famous in the United States. He has also been the subject of psychological studies. Although excelling at all kinds of arithmetic, Dysart's most startling demonstrations have been in addition and multiplication. Multiplying a pair of three-digit numbers is for Dysart a trivial task, which is why he breaks larger numbers into groups of three digits before multiplying them (many of the multiplications reported to have been made by Dysart involve six or nine-digit numbers). In this respect Dysart is unique among the documented calculators, some of whom – most notably Dutchman Wim Klein – multiplied large numbers by breaking them up into groups of two-digit numbers but never three-digit numbers. It took Dysart less than 10 seconds to multiply a pair of nine-digit numbers. Dysart died on November 8, 2011 in Long Beach, California. (Wikipedia).

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DesmosLIVE: An Exploration of Desmos + Mathalicious

Kate Nowak of Mathalicious explores a few Mathalicious lessons with Desmos

From playlist Desmos LIVE

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The 1943 St. Louis Glider Accident

The History Guy remembers the 1943 St. Louis Glider Accident. It is a nearly forgotten tragedy that underscores the difficulty in managing military contracts in time of war. The History Guy uses media that are in the public domain. As photographs of actual events are sometimes not availab

From playlist US History

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Peter Dybjer: Intuitionistic Type Theory (Lecture III)

The lecture was held within the framework of the Hausdorff Trimester Program: Types, Sets and Constructions

From playlist HIM Lectures: Trimester Program "Types, Sets and Constructions"

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Make a Platinum Electrode

In this video we make a working platinum electrode using easy to get materials. Signup for your FREE trial to The Great Courses Plus here: http://ow.ly/qLR730acnj2 The Great Courses Plus is currently available to watch through a web browser to almost anyone in the world and optimized for

From playlist Electrochemistry

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Peter Dybjer: Intuitionistic Type Theory (Lecture II)

The lecture was held within the framework of the Hausdorff Trimester Program: Types, Sets and Constructions

From playlist HIM Lectures: Trimester Program "Types, Sets and Constructions"

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Make Sodium Magnesium Oxide Aggregate - A Substitute for Sodium Metal

In this video we make sodium magnesium oxide aggregate. A useful substitute for sodium metal in most cases. Doing this is very simple, we combine 30g of magnesium metal turnings or powder and 40g of sodium hydroxide in a metal container. The mixture is ignited with sparklers or a fuse and

From playlist Pyrimethamine

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FAIL: Gallium and Aluminum Thermite

In this video we fail at making thermite from the gallium infused aluminum. The objective was to see if the weak gallium infused aluminum could be used to make aluminum powder without going through the arduous filing step necessary for bulk aluminum. Turns out the gallium infused aluminu

From playlist Fire & Pyro

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Extract Diethyl Ether and Heptane from Starter Fluid

In this video we obtain the useful solvents diethyl ether and heptane from car starter fluid. Sign up for a free trial at audible: http://audible.com/nurdrage First, spray the car starter fluid into a flask. Setup a fractional distillation apparatus around the flask but cool the condenser

From playlist Pyrimethamine

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Lab Equipment: Aspirator Vacuum Pump

In this video we demonstrate the Aspirator Vacuum Pump. A very important piece of lab equipment for generating a vacuum. It's very cheap and ingeniously simple by using the venturi effect to harness the power of a high speed water jet to create the vacuum. Because of such operation, it's v

From playlist Lab Equipment

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Make Dioxane from Antifreeze

In this video we make Dioxane. Signup for your FREE trial to The Great Courses Plus here: http://ow.ly/qLR730acnj2 The Great Courses Plus is currently available to watch through a web browser to almost anyone in the world and optimized for the US market. The Great Courses Plus is currentl

From playlist Pyrimethamine

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Make Ethyl Propionate by Fischer Esterfication and Molecular Sieves with a Soxhlet extractor

In this video we synthesize Ethyl Propionate by Fischer Esterification but help along the process using molecular sieves and a soxhlet extractor. Esters are formed by reacting acids and alcohols. A byproduct of this reaction is water. Unfortunately the water present can react back with th

From playlist Pyrimethamine

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Make p-Chlorophenyl Acetonitrile - Step 4 in Pyrimethamine Synthesis

In this video we make p-chlorophenyl acetonitrile from the p-chlorobenzyl chloride and the sodium cyanide in a previous video. ( Complete pyrimethamine playlist so far: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU79801KtVAU1XsTwHaKkqQoBgz_VYmPS ) Fortunately this is a very mild process and

From playlist Pyrimethamine

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Seething Lane

Samuel Pepys, Queen Elizabeth the First, Charles Dickens and a whole bunch of skulls. Seething Lane has a lot to say for itself. https://www.patreon.com/jagohazzard

From playlist London

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Make Sodium Metal Without Electrolysis Using Domestic Chemicals

In this video we show how to make sodium metal without electrolysis using domestically available chemicals. First 40g of sodium hydroxide and 30g of magnesium are place in a steel container with a fuse or sparkler and lit. A heavy lid is quickly placed over the mixture and allowed to burn

From playlist Fire & Pyro

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Peter Dybjer: Intuitionistic Type Theory (Lecture I)

The lecture was held within the framework of the Hausdorff Trimester Program: Types, Sets and Constructions

From playlist HIM Lectures: Trimester Program "Types, Sets and Constructions"

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Willem Klein | Mental calculator