Fountain is font of all knowledge (From Warrington Guardian)

Fountain is font of all knowledge

TECHNOLOGY is slowing the development of creative minds.

Robert Fountain - recently named Mental Arithmetic World Champion - said people did not test their brainpower enough any more.

"Mental arithmetic is helpful because it teaches you other skills," he said.

"It encourages creative thinking, but its only real use now is to demonstrate a skill like a magician."

Mr Fountain, who works at NNC in Knutsford, beat 17 others to win the first Mental Arithmetic World Championships.

But he said people were no longer testing themselves because almost everyone had a calculator on their computers or mobile phones.

Olympic

"You might work out how many points your Premiership team needs to stay up, but beyond that you don't need mental arithmetic any more," he said.

"Although it is nice to know that you are not being short-changed."

Mr Fountain, 35, figured out the answers more accurately and faster than the rest of the field at the championships in Annaberg-Bucholz, Germany.

He is a previous winner of the mental arithmetic Olympic Games and won his school title at 11.

Despite his skills NNC bosses insist he uses a computer in the safety analysis department at Booths Hall.

"Computers are doing everything now," said Mr Fountain.

Questions he faced at the championships involved multiplying two eight digit numbers - and figuring out days of the week over a 500-year period.

"It is a bit of a shameful skill and conjures up images of train spotters and anoraks," he said. "It's when I am up at 1am with a stopwatch in one hand and a pen in the other that I think it is a bit sad."

Mr Fountain, who lives in Rudheath, can figure out the most complicated of sums in 30 seconds - and believes we all could with a bit of practice.

"The best way to do it is when you see a number ask yourself what can be said of it?" he said. "It is a case of number sense as opposed to arithmetical ability."