The intelligence quotient (IQ) is used to determine a person’s cognitive level. Participants obtain scores by undertaking standardized tests that assess abilities in puzzle-solving, memory, and more.
Your IQ value is relative to the intelligence of the general population, which has a median score that is typically around 100. Below 85 is considered a weak score, while 130 and above indicates intelligence (among the top 2% of the population).
It is difficult to accurately assess intellect, and IQ scores should always be taken with a grain of salt due to cultural differences and other variables. According to a study published in Frontiers In Systems Neuroscience, “intelligence test scores are frequently misinterpreted and can be abused.”
A further consideration is that an IQ score is not a unit of measurement. For instance, a person with an IQ of 130 is not 30% more intelligent than a person with an IQ of 100. Given the evolution of testing over the decades, it is also difficult to compare scores from different eras.
Theoretically, IQ ratings have no upper limit. 200 is often considered the theoretical maximum total, but some players have surpassed it.
Who Has the World’s Greatest IQ?
Terence Tao, pictured above, is said to have the highest IQ score in the globe, with an impressive score between 225 and 230. If the Chinese-American mathematician received a score of 230, he is unquestionably in the lead.
Marilyn Vos Savant is, however, effectively tied for the title. Her IQ was 228 in the 1986-1989 editions of the Guinness World Records before the record was discontinued in 1990 because IQ scores were deemed too unreliable to document.
Christopher Hirata has the second-highest confirmed IQ with a score of 225, which is astounding. There have been a few others with equal or greater scores. IQ scores should be taken with a grain of salt, particularly for individuals who lived before the invention of the IQ test.
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What Has Ever Had the Greatest IQ?
It is difficult to determine who has ever had the highest IQ. The IQ test merely did not exist during the lifetimes of many brilliant individuals. As it is difficult to locate official records, the validity of other alleged intelligence test takers is also questionable.
Despite this, some humans have been declared to have the highest IQ ever recorded.
Henry James Sidis
William James Sidis, reputed to be the smartest individual to have ever lived, is the standard for child prodigies. Reportedly able to read the newspaper at the age of 18 months, he entered Harvard University at the age of 11 and graduated at the age of 16.
The Animate And The Inanimate (which covered cosmology and the reversibility of the second law of thermodynamics and predicted the black hole) and The Book Of Vendergoord (in which he created a constructed language at age 8) are among his many works.
In Psychology For The Millions, Abraham Sperling describes how Helena Sidis (William’s sister) informed him that “a few years before his death, her brother Bill took an intelligence test with a psychologist.”
Sperling explains that William Sidis obtained the highest score ever recorded. The psychologist estimated that the patient’s IQ would fall between 250 and 300.”
In the years since, however, the IQ score of Sidis has been extensively contested.
Dame Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace, the first computer scientist, is frequently mentioned among the most intelligent individuals who have ever lived. Through her work on the Analytical Engine, she effectively created the world’s first computer program.
Michael Christopher Langan
Christopher Michael Langan, who reportedly has an IQ of 195, is frequently regarded as one of the smartest persons alive. The controversial figure has frequently supported conspiracy theories and asserts that God’s existence can be demonstrated mathematically.
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Alfred Einstein
Despite his reputation as one of the smartest individuals who ever lived, Einstein’s IQ was reportedly lower than you might expect. Given that the test did not exist during Einstein’s lifetime, it is impossible to determine the actual intelligence of this famous scientist.
The Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was a mathematician, engineer, botanist, cartographer, and much more, so it is difficult to single out one of his accomplishments. He is often regarded as one of the world’s brightest individuals.
The Sho Yano
Sho Yano entered college at the age of nine and became a physician at the age of 21. According to the Chicago Tribune, this made him “the youngest student in the history of the University of Chicago to receive a medical degree.”
Katherine Johnson
If you’ve seen the Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures, you will have encountered mathematician Katherine Johnson. Her contributions were crucial to early NASA space missions and were instrumental in launching John Glenn and Alan Shepard into space. Even Apollo missions made use of Johnson’s orbital calculations.
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Professor Stephen Hawking
What else is there to say about Stephen Hawking? The Simpsons character is one of the most renowned theoretical physicists and cosmologists in history. Hawking radiation became a key cosmological theory after he demonstrated that black holes radiate energy, contract slowly, and erupt in a burst of gamma rays.