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 actors and got the part of 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 languages at norwich university in vermont. he wrote an autobiography in which he tried to explain how he did his calculations.