Maths whizz wows onlookers

A 38-YEAR-OLD German with degrees in psychology, education and computer science needed only 11.8 seconds to calculate the 13th root of a 100 digit number in his head, setting a new record.

Onlookers with electronic calculators needed more time to solve the problem than Gert Mittring who beat the previous record of 13.55 seconds.

But his feat will not be immortalised in black and white in the Guinness Book of World Records, because the book no longer recognises root calculations of random numbers due to the difficulty of standardising the challenge, a spokesman said.