Thomas Fuller was an African man who was sold into slavery in 1724 at the age of 14. He became famous for his amazing ability to solve difficult math problems in his head, earning him the nickname the "Virginia Calculator."


One day, someone asked him how many seconds there were in a year and a half. After thinking for only two minutes, he quickly answered, "47,304,000." Then, he was asked how many seconds a man had lived if he was 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours old. Fuller answered in just a minute and a half, saying, "2,210,500,800."


Another man, who was working the problem out on paper, said that Fuller’s answer was wrong and that it was actually much smaller. Fuller quickly responded, "Top, massa, you forget de leap year." Once they added in the leap year, the numbers matched exactly.

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