Shakuntala Devi, otherwise known as the “human computer,” is the subject of Google’s homepage doodle today, as the search giant celebrates her 84th birthday.
Devi traveled with her father’s circus in India as a child, wowing people with her ability to calculate large sums in her head. He had apparently discovered her talents while playing a card game with her when she was just 3.
She made her way in to the Guinness Book of World Records in 1982 when she multiplied two thirteen-digit numbers in less than thirty seconds.
Sadly, Devi passed away earlier this year, as a result of respiratory illness.
Google, never one to shy away from celebrating brilliant mathematical minds, has chosen to illustrate Devi’s memory with an appropriate calculator-inspired animated doodle.
