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Daniel Tammet is a 27 year-old math and memory wizard. He can calculate numbers to hundreds of decimal points in seconds and learn new languages in a week. He is a savant… with a difference. Unlike most savants, he shows no obvious mental disability, and most importantly, he can describe his own thought process.
Daniel Tammet first came to worldwide attention in March 2004 on international Pi Day (3/14, of course) when he recited, from memory, Pi to 22,514 decimal places. It took over five hours and set a new European record. The event, which Daniel named “Pi in the Sky”, coincided with Einstein’s birthday and took place in front of Einstein’s blackboard at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, England.
To him, Pi isn’t an abstract set of digits; it’s a visual story, a film projected in front of his eyes. He learn the number forwards and backwards and, last year, spent five hours recalling it in front of an adjudicator. He wanted to prove a point. “I memorized pi to 22,514 decimal places, and I am technically disabled. I just wanted to show people that disability needn’t get in the way.”
Photographic memory?
Idiot savant?
(I didn't see the show)
He probably memorized pi.
Kim peek might be who you are talking about. And the first answer of Savant is true. But they no longer call it Idiot Savant. And Savant is someone who is extremely gifted in one particular area. As for Kim's condition, I suggest you google it. If I remember right he has certain problems at the stem of his brain. But I'm not a M.D., and it's been a few months since I've seen his biography.
There is a worldwide group of folks who have taken the trouble to learn pi (π) to many, many decimal places. Those who are best at it do have exceptional memories, but there are tricks for learning long strings of numbers. For example, you don't learn 3.1415926... . Instead you learn 3,141 5,926... etc. Of course, for those who only need a practical number of decimal places, there is always: "Yes, I want a drink, alcoholic of course" where the words have 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, and 6 letters respectively. I wouldn't try to learn π to 200 digits that way, however.
We used to call them "idiot savants"; we now just use "savants"
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