We should really take this guy to Vegas... Brainetics founder Mike Byster wows area students with mental math ability

An article from Wednesday's paper about a Chicago man who has been speaking to Rochester students this week, wowing them with his ability to compute numbers like a human calculator. (Maybe IBM wants him to go against Deep Blue? Jokes.)

Article:

By Elliot Mann
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

Mike Byster rattled off numbers in front a packed elementary school auditorium Tuesday morning, spitting out numbers like a semi-automatic calculator, drawing oohs, aahs and laughter from the cross-legged sitting students.

"151, 302, 604, 1,208, 2,416, 4,832 ..." Byster said to the Hoover Elementary School crowd, computing through 25 multiples of 151 in rapid-fire delivery, faster than most people would be able to read on a prepared list.

Byster, the creator of Brainetics, will visit nine Rochester schools this week to show students a different way to process and think about numbers. He has developed patterns within mathematics that allow him to compute equations at the speed of a finger snap.

During one exercise, the 50-year-old had the students add five four-digit numbers. By adding numbers from the ones column and then subtracting the answer from 100, students added 1,036, 1,543, 1,268, 1,784 and 1,696 without pen and paper. The students, a mix of third through fifth graders, needed less time that it would have taken to find the "calculator" program on a laptop.

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LINK: Math whiz gets students excited about numbers