Zerah Colburn facts for kids

Zerah Colburn was an amazing child who was born in Vermont in 1804 and passed away in 1839. He was known as a child prodigy, which means he had incredible skills at a very young age. Zerah became famous because he could solve super difficult math problems in his head, really fast! But even with his amazing talent, he didn't become a famous mathematician when he grew up.

Zerah Colburn: The Young Math Whiz

Early Life and Amazing Skills

Zerah's dad was a carpenter, and his family, with six children, didn't have much money. When Zerah was five years old, he started school. After just six weeks, his dad heard him doing multiplication sums. His dad asked him to multiply 13 by 97. Zerah immediately said "1261"! This showed how special he was.

Traveling the World

Zerah's dad realized his son was very gifted. He took Zerah to Boston to show his skills to important people. They asked Zerah tough questions like "What is 1449 times 1449?" Zerah quickly answered "2,099,601." Someone else asked him how many seconds were in 2000 years. He said "63,072,000,000."

People were so impressed that they raised money in Boston to help pay for Zerah's education. Even so, his dad took him to Europe. In London, people asked him even harder questions. For example, they asked if 4,294,967,297 was a prime number (a number that can only be divided by 1 and itself). Zerah said "No, it can be divided by 641."

People wanted Zerah to explain how he did these calculations, but he couldn't say how his brain worked so fast. He became very famous. Even Napoleon was planning to meet him, but he lost the Battle of Waterloo and couldn't make the visit.

A Different Path

Zerah went to school in Paris and then in London. But by the time he was 15, people weren't as interested in helping him with his math education anymore. He then joined a group of actors who traveled around performing plays. He even played the part of Richard III in a play by Shakespeare.

He met another prodigy named William Rowan Hamilton, who also had amazing talents and later became a famous mathematician. But Zerah soon got tired of math. He decided to become a Methodist minister, which is a type of religious leader. He also taught languages at Norwich University in Vermont. Zerah even wrote a book about his own life, called an autobiography, where he tried to explain how he did his amazing math calculations.

When Zerah died in 1839, most people had forgotten about his incredible math skills.

Interesting Fact

Zerah, just like his father, had 12 fingers and 12 toes.