Is the answer 2,397,207,667,966,701? [ Alexis Lemaire ]

COSMOS magazine ^ | Friday, November 16, 2007 | Agence France-Presse

[SunkenCiv]

The question is, if *he's* not a geek, who is? ;')

Fast thinking: Alexis Lemaire's calculation is checked by observers Bernadette Corcoran (R) and Linda Faulcon, 15 November 2007, at the New York Hall of Science. Lemaire calculated the 13th root of a 200-digit number in 72.438 seconds which is a world record time. Image: AFP

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[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[Always Right]

Lucky guess!

[ElkGroveDan]

He really is a smart guy. I used to tutor him and he caught on very well.

[flat]

“I use an artificial intelligence system which I use on my own brain’

the very same thing i do....only i just don’t blab it around a lot because see i don’t like to brag at all...

[Yo-Yo]

I thought the answer was 42?

[Publius6961]

See? He's got everybody fooled. Since most people don't have the means to check the answer, even if they knew the original 200-digit number.

The correct answer is 2,397,207,667,966,747

Just saying...

[dynoman]

.

[SunkenCiv]

:’D I wonder if he can spot a bogus number right away? Y’know, multiply the stuff, get the product, add one, ask him to derive the root. Y’know... [five seconds into it] “this isn’t a valid multiple.”

[SunkenCiv]

unrelated sidebar:

Lazzarini eats humble pi (posthumously)
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf096/sf096m18.htm

[Lokibob]

“72.438 seconds”

Even that is a geek number. 72 1/2 was close enough.

.....Bob

[willyd]

Chances of him using this trick to get a woman? 1 over 2,397,207,667,966,701

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, heh, noticed that too... it’s like ST:TOS’s early days of Mister Spock dialogue.

[SunkenCiv]

Maybe he’ll find someone in whatever bank pays him millions to work for them. ;’)

[Redcloak]

I'll bet he knows exactly when Judge Wapner's on.

[Santa Fe_Conservative]

How did he know how much is in my bank account???

[SunkenCiv]

It’s the number of times your heart will beat in 60 million years. ;’)

[VanShuyten]

Did he do weird stuff unintentionally? We had a genius over for for an evening, and while she was looking through my cassette tapes, she not only alphabetized them, but organized them so that the greatest number of titles was exposed. I just stack them up and then scatter them on the floor when I’m looking for a particularly obscure one.

[Sender]

...most of his rivals are only able to work out the 13th root of a 100-digit number

Slackers.

[montag813]

This is nice, but since we have computers and don’t need people who can do this, it seems all he is qualified to do is work in McDonald’s.