It is amazing to me how extraordinary the human mind can be. Today’s little story is a great example of how amazing the human brain and its capabilities really is!
It is also a sad reminder of how people can wrongly assume the intelligence or ability levels of other human beings solely based on the color of their skin or culture. I hope that this story helps to remind you of the now only the power of the mind…but also the value that each person has.
Thomas Fuller, an African sold into slavery in 1724 at the age of 14, was sometimes known as the “Virginia Calculator” for his extraordinary ability to solve complex math problems in his head. He was asked how many seconds there were in a year and a half, he answered in about two minutes, 47,304,000. Again he was asked how many seconds a man has lived who is 70 years, 17 days and 12 hours old, he answered in a minute and a half 2,210,500,800.
One of the men was working out the problems on paper, and informed Fuller that he was wrong, because the answer was much smaller. Fuller hastily replied, “‘Top, massa, you forget de leap year.” When the leap year was added in, the sums matched.
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Resource Credit:
Richard Strachan-Ancient History and Mystery Lovers
My Good Time Stories 
How interesting; I never knew that! Math has never been my thing and I wonder if even the kids these days are getting the 4 that I used to get; reading, writing, english and arithmatic anymore; which really they need. My Father was a “Dagwood” number cruncher in his head too! Thanks for the article!
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I agree with you…i am certainly not a math person either!! I thought that this was a very interesting story as well!!!
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