Number 5. Kim Ung-Yong. Kim Ung-Yong is a South Korean civil engineer and former child
prodigy whose IQ was recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records at 210. He started speaking
at 6 months and was able to read Japanese, Korean, German, English and many other languages
by his third birthday. By the age of 4, he had scored more than 200 on an IQ test normally
given to 7 year olds. As of 2007 Kim Ung-Yong currently works as an adjunct professor at
Chungbuk National University. Number 4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe was a German writer
and Statesman who is believed to have had an IQ of 220. His body of work consists of
epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of styles and his most notable works include,
‘Faust’, ‘The Sorrows of Young Werhter’ and ‘Elective Affinities’. Although his
literary work attracted great interest, Goethe was also actively involved in the studies
of natural science writing several works on morphology and colour theory. Number 3. Christopher
Hirata. Hirata is a child prodigy turned astrophysicist with an IQ of 225 by the age of 16. He is
best known for his human chemical thermodynamics and human physics based, ‘The Physics of
Relationships’. At the age of 3, Hirata entertained himself at the supermarket by
calculating the total bill of his parent’s shopping cart, item-by-item, by weight, quantity,
discounts and sale taxes. That is pretty impressive for a 3 year old. By 12, he was taking college-level
courses in Physics and multivariable calculus. However, perhaps most famously Hirata became
the youngest competitor ever to win a gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad
at 13 years old. If you are still not impressed, by 16 he was working with NASA on projects
dealing with colonizing Mars and he earned his PhD in astrophysics from Princeton University at 22.
Number 2. Terence Tao. Tao is an Australian-American mathematician working on harmonic analysis,
partial differential equations, additive combinatorics, ergodic Ramsey theory, random matrix theory,
and analytic number theory. No wonder he has an IQ of 230, I was wondering whether the
list was ever going to end. From an early age, Tao exhibited extraordinary mathematical
capabilities by attending calculus courses at the age of 7 and the following year he
even began to teach high school calculus at Garfield High School just at the age of 8.
His mathematical abilities do not end there! Tao and Lenhard Ng are the only two children
in the history of the Johns Hopkins' Study of Exceptional Talent program to have achieved
a score of 700 or greater on the SAT math section while just nine years old. Tao scored
760. Tao also remains the youngest winner of each of the three medals in the International
Mathematical Olympiad, winning a bronze in 1986 at 10, a silver in 1987 at 11 and finally
a gold in 1988 at the age of 12. Number 1. William James Sidis. Just when you thought
that someone couldn’t have a higher IQ, well someone just did! William James Sidis
was an American child prodigy with exceptional mathematical abilities and a claimed mastery
of many languages. Although not confirmed, he is believed to have had an IQ of 275, the
highest IQ ever in the history of our planet. He attended Harvard University at age 11,
as an ‘adult’, and was claimed to be conversant in over 40 languages and dialects. Sidis could
read the New York Times at 18 months and had reportedly taught himself 8 languages (Latin,
Greek, French, Russian, Hebrew, German, Turkish and Armenian) only at 8 years old. Also by
the age of 8 he invented his own language called, ‘Vendergood’.