COMPUTATION BY A CHILD. P 7 



pletely succeeded in, raising the number 8 progressively up to Remarkable 



the sixteenth power : and in naming the last result, viz. powersof com- 



^ r> i » • . m t-, i putation in a 



281,474,976,710,656, he was right m every figure. He was then child. 



tried as to other numbers, consisting of one figure ; all of which 

 he raised (by actual multiplication and not by memory) as high 

 as the tenth power : with so much facility and dispatch, that the 

 person appointed to take down the results was obliged to en- 

 join him not to be so rapid. With respect to numbers consist- 

 ing of two figures, he would raise some of them to the sixth, 

 seventh, and eighth power j but not always with equal facility : 

 for the larger the products became, the more difficult he found 

 it to proceed. He was asked the square root of IO6929, and 

 before the number could be written down, he immediately an- 

 swered 327. He was then required to name the cube root of 

 268,336,125, and with equal facility and promptness he replied 

 6-45. Various other questions of a similar nature, respecting 

 the roots and powers of very high numbers, were proposed by 

 several of the gentlemen present, to all of which he answered in 

 a similar manner. One of the party requested him to name the 

 factors which produced the number 24/483, which he imme- 

 diately did by mentioning the two numbers 94 1 and 263 j which 

 indeed are the only two numbers that will produce it. Ano- 

 ther of them proposed 171395, and. he named the following 

 factors as the only ones (hat would produce it ; viz. 5 x 34279, 

 7x24485, 59X2905, 83X2065,35X4897, 295x581, and 

 413x415. He was then asked to give the factors of 36083 5 

 but he immediately replied that it had none j which in fact was 

 the case, as 36083 is a prime number*. Other numbers were 

 indiscriminately proposed to him, and he always succeeded in 

 giving the correct factors, except in the case of prime numbers, 

 which he discovered almost as soon as proposed. One of the 

 gentlemen asked him how many minutes there were in forty- 

 eight years j and before the question could be written down, he 

 replied 25,228,800) and instantly added, that the number of 



• It had been asserted and maintained by the French mathematicians, 

 that 4,294,967,297 (= 29 2 + 1) was a prime number: but the cele- 

 brated Euler detected that errour by discovering, that it was equal to 

 6,700,417*641. The same number was proposed to this child, who 

 found out the factors by the mere operation of his mind. 



seconds 



