Matt Savage vs Zerah Colburn
Two savants, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Matt Savage | Zerah Colburn | |
| Field | Science | Mathematics |
| Sub-field | Astronomy | Mathematician |
| Born | 1992 | 1804 |
| Died | living / not documented | 1839 |
| Country of birth | - | - |
| Star sign | Taurus | Virgo |
Who they are
Zerah Colburn
In the winter of 1810, in a one-room farmhouse in Cabot, Vermont, a labourer named Abia Colburn overheard his six-year-old son chanting numbers by the fire. The boy — who had barely six weeks of schooling and whom the family had quietly assumed was slow — was reciting his multiplication tables. His father, half disbelieving, set him a problem: multiply 13 by 97. The child answered at once, and correctly. Within two years Zerah Colburn would be standing before audiences in London, extracting roots and naming the factors of large numbers faster than the mathematicians…
Full biography of Zerah Colburn →
What they share
- Both are documented on this site with a verified biography.
Where they part
- Different fields: Science for Matt Savage, Mathematics for Zerah Colburn.
- 188 years separate their births (1992 and 1804).
- Their lifetimes never overlapped.
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Matt Savage or Zerah Colburn?
- Zerah Colburn. Matt Savage was born in 1992, Zerah Colburn in 1804.
- What field is each of them in?
- Matt Savage is filed under Science (Astronomy). Zerah Colburn is filed under Mathematics (Mathematician).
- Were they contemporaries?
- No - their lifetimes do not overlap.