Below is an extract from an article in The Telegraph sent by my Mum. Quite impressive, although his last quote is phenomenally pretentious.
"A French computer science student has stunned the world of mathematics by working out the 13th root of a 200-digit number in his head in under nine minutes. By arriving at the 16-digit answer from 390 trillion possibilities, Alexis Lemaire, 24, pulled off the most difficult feat of mental arithmetic ever attempted. Mr Lemaire was presented with a random 200-digit sprawl on a computer and asked to work out its 13th root. The answer, multiplied by itself 13 times, would match the figure on the screen.
"Thirteenth roots are a yardstick in mental arithmetic, because 13 is a prime number whose roots cannot be obtained by combining those of other numbers. Yet Mr Lemaire appeared only mildly satisfied by his feat. At his next record attempt, he said, his brain would work even faster. 'As this was my first attempt, I was cautious.' On June 3, he will try to find the right answer in less than three minutes. In a few months, he believes that he will break the one-minute barrier. 'If I do that, without being pretentious, it will probably be the best piece of mental calculation ever,' he said."
