Thomas Fuller: The Virginia Calculator's Exceptional Mind

 Born into slavery in 1724, Thomas Fuller, often dubbed as the "Virginia Calculator", was a prodigious African intellect known for his phenomenal mental arithmetic skills. At the tender age of 14, Fuller was bound in servitude, but his spirit remained unshackled, his mind a ceaseless whirlwind of numbers and calculations.

Fuller's talent came to the fore when he was posed with a series of intricate mathematical problems. In one instance, he was asked to calculate the total number of seconds in a year and a half. Without any tools or aids, and relying purely on his mental prowess, Fuller provided the astonishingly accurate answer of 47,304,000 seconds in under two minutes.

In another instance, he was challenged to determine the total number of seconds a man would have lived if he was 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours old. Fuller responded swiftly, taking less than a minute and a half to produce the astounding figure of 2,210,500,800 seconds.

However, one of the men testing Fuller's abilities, while verifying the answer on paper, declared Fuller's response incorrect. The man argued that the calculated result was significantly lower than what Fuller had stated. Quick-witted as always, Fuller promptly retorted, "'Top, massa, you forget de leap year." The man had overlooked the additional seconds contributed by the leap years. Upon accounting for them, he found that Fuller's calculation was, indeed, spot-on. 

The incidents serve as a testament to Fuller's extraordinary mental acuity and remarkable ability to perform complex calculations. His story is a compelling reminder of the boundless potential of the human mind, irrespective of the circumstances of one's birth.