TED Video Review - Mathemagic

TED Video Review - Mathemagic

             In this innovative TED video, the presenter performed some mathematical calculations that seemed impossible to do in ones’ heads. At first, he started with multiplying two three-digit numbers together, randomly getting the numbers from the audience. In this first part, the performance was rather insipid, since such calculation didn’t seem too hard to do. Following that, Mr. Benjamin (the performer) started to square the two and three digit numbers, beating the calculators to the answers. Still, this part was also banal, since the calculation wasn’t as challenging as I hoped. However, as the show continued, Mr. Benjamin started to perform prodigious calculations that made my mouth ajar. He started to astonish by squaring four-digit numbers insanely fast. At first, I was dubious whether he had a former negotiation with certain audiences. Of course, my doubt proved false as he chose the audience randomly as possible and answered with incessant speed. Next thing Mr. Benjamin did was to find the missing number in the product of two three digit numbers when the volunteer told the other numbers scrambled. This was far more cryptic than the performance before it since his speed of calculation was as fast as the one before. The calculations were concise and were worthy of acclaim. Next, Mr. Benjamin started to figure out the birth ‘day’ regardless of what year, month, or day. At this point of the show, he seemed so auspicious; I didn’t even have a chance to awe. When the show became a bit tedious, Mr. Benjamin moved on to the days in 1800’s. Some audiences’ futile efforts to refute performer’s skills were beaten down by accurate calculations from Mr. Benjamin. His last and best magical calculation was squaring five-digit number, thinking out loud what’s going inside his head when he is calculating. When he started, I found out what he meant be ‘thinking out loud’ because he used words in place of numbers to facilitate the calculation. The indifferent mind that I tried to keep in the start of the video was apprehensive about the chance of Mr. Benjamin getting the wrong answer. After a while, the performer, still a bit vacillate, shouted out the answer, and he was right. This TED video didn’t only give me awe and astonishment, but it also gave a lesson that profound knowledge or skill in one thing can be only obtained by having much fervor and by being a fanatic. Throughout the video, I felt that Art Benjamin, the performer, had an incredible passion and could feel that he put enormous effort and time to achieve the show. This told me that if someone wanted to be best at any field at all, they had to put their best efforts. It was a very entertaining video and learned a lot about calculations and what it takes to be a master of some field.