What is Zerah Colburn?
{{tone|date=May 2021}} {{Orphan|date=May 2009}} '''Zerah Colburn''' (born Cabot, [[Vermont]], [[1804]]; died [[1839]]) was a [[child prodigy]]. He became famous when he was a little boy because he could do unbelievably difficult sums very easily. However, he wasted his [[talent]] and never became a useful [[mathematician]]. Zerah’s father was a [[carpenter]]. He and his wife had six children, and they had very little money. When he was five he started to go to school. After six weeks his father heard him doing [[multiplication]] sums. His father asked him what 13 times 97 was. The boy immediately said “1261”. His father took him to [[Boston]] to show him to famous people. They asked the boy questions: what is 1449 times 1449? The boy said “2,099,601”. Someone else asked him how many seconds there were in 2000 years. He said “63,072,000,000”. His father looked for rich people who would pay for the boy’s education. In Boston $5000 was raised so that he did not have to be shown off in public all the time. Nevertheless, his father took him to [[Europe]]. In [[London]] people asked him more questions, e.g. is 4,294,967,297 a [[prime number]]? The boy said “No, it can be divided by 641”. People wanted the boy to explain how he did these calculations, but he could not say how he did it. He became famous. [[Napoleon]] was going to meet him, but he lost the [[Battle of Waterloo]] and was not able to make the visit. He went to school in [[Paris]] and then in [[London]], but by the time he was 15 people were not interested in helping him any more. He joined a touring group of [[actor]]s and got the part of [[Shakespeare: Richard III|Richard III]] in the play by [[Shakespeare]]. He met [[William Rowan Hamilton]] who was also a [[prodigy]] and who did become a famous mathematician. Zerah soon got fed up with mathematics and became a [[Methodist]] minister. He taught [[language]]s at Norwich University in [[Vermont]]. He wrote an [[autobiography]] in which he tried to explain how he did his calculat