Evergreen Park Student Can Multiply Faster Than A Calculator

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Fifteen-year-old Chaz Barnes doesn’t know quite what to make of his newfound celebrity. The Evergreen Park Community High School sophomore can square any number from 1 to 100, and multiply any double-digit number with another — and he can do it faster than a calculator.

“Have you always been good at math?” Patch asked.

“Not really,” he said nonchalantly.

It wasn’t until four months ago when Barnes figured out how to square numbers in his head, during special education essential geometry when the class was studying the Pythagorean theorem.

“I asked the students to square the numbers,” said Patrick Doran, a first-year math teacher at EPCHS. “The second day, Chaz came back and said he could square all the numbers up to 100.”

Two weeks later, the sophomore told his teacher he could multiply all the numbers, and they didn’t have to be square anymore.

“I was shocked,” Doran said. “He can do it about as quickly as I can do it on a calculator.”

During a recent geometry class, Doran had Barnes demonstrate his rare gift, that few professional mathematicians can do. With each problem, Barnes blurted out the answer faster than his teacher’s fingers could punch in the numbers on a calculator.

“What’s 29 square?” Doran asked.

“841,” Barnes replied.

“What’s 64 square?”

“4,096.”

“73 X 60?”

“4,380.”

“He’s never wrong,” Doran said. “I don’t even use a calculator anymore. I just ask Chaz.”

Since a video of Barnes doing math problems in his head emerged on the EPCHS Facebook page, his eighth grade math teacher at Central Middle School told Doran that she could never get Barnes to do math for her.

“I just asked a few questions,” Doran said, “but the credit goes to Chaz.”

Barnes’ mother said her son always showed a fascination with numbers when he was little.
“He used to walk up to people and ask when their birthday was,” Candace Barnes said. “He’d accurately tell them how old they were. It was cute.”

A month before he started squaring numbers, Barnes told his mother he didn’t think he was good at math.

“He has a working memory. He’s always been a quick learner,” Candace said of the sudden attention her son has received. “Before he went to kindergarten, he learned numbers and letters really quickly. Now he knows he’s smart.”

Barnes shows a proclivity for the numbers 73 and 12, which he attempted to explain how he uses them to multiply and square numbers in his head.

Asked what he plans to do with his talent after high school, Barnes said he wants to be a YouTuber. He’s lined up newspaper and TV interviews, including Fox32’s “Good Day Chicago” morning news show this Friday.

“He’s really special,” Doran said, who nominated Barnes for the EPCHS 2021-2022 Student of the Quarter. “You won’t be able to find anyone else in the building who can do this.”

Watch Chaz Barnes square numbers and multiply double-digit numbers in his head faster than a calculator.