National Mathematics Day : Discovering Infinity with Srinivasa Ramanujan

Hi all,

Today we are celebrating National Mathematics Day. Every year on 22 December we celebrate National Mathematics Day to mark the birth anniversary of one of world’s greatest mathematician “Srinivasa Ramanujan”

So let us explore about the life of a legendary mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of God.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

About Srinivasa Ramanujan

1. Born on December 22, 1887, in Erode, India.
2. Self-taught mathematician with limited formal education
3. His father, Kuppuswamy Srinivasa Iyengar worked as a clerk in a saree shop and his mother, Komalatamma was a housewife. 
4. Since a very early age, he had a keen interest in mathematics and had already become a child prodigy
5. He attained his early education and schooling from Madras, where he was enrolled in a local school.
6. He was a promising student and had won many academic prizes in high school.
7. He borrowed a copy of Loney’s book on Plane Trigonometry from a friend when he was 12 years old, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 1894.
8. Ramanujan likes to jot down his thoughts on a notepad using green ink. 
9. Made significant contributions to number theory and infinite series.
10. Collaborated with G. H. Hardy (One of the most famous mathematician at that time) at the University of Cambridge.
11. Hardy along with another mathematician at Cambridge, J.E.Littlewood analyzed his work and concluded it to be a work of true genius
12. Suffered health issues, possibly tuberculosis.
13. Returned to India due to declining health.
14. Passed away on April 26, 1920, at the age of 32.
15. A posthumously discovered notebook revealed unpublished results.

Ramanujan’s last 5 pages Handwritten letter to G.H Hardy. 📸Trinity college library

It all started with a book

At the age of 16, Ramanujan received a copy of a mathematics book by G. S. Carr titled A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics from a friend. The book was written for helping students get into colleges like Cambridge, to help them with mathematics exams. It contains 5000 mathematical theorems, many presented without proofs, and those with proofs only have the briefest and Ramanujan spent a great deal of time studying every single one of them in great detail. He found all the proofs and got more interested in pure mathematics.

Note : If you want to read or study this book, at the end of this article you could download it.

Interesting facts about Srinivasa Ramanujan

• Ramanujan compiled around 3,900 results consisting of equations and identities. One of his most treasured findings was his infinite series for pi. This series forms the basis of many algorithms we use today. He gave several fascinating formulas to calculate the digits of pi in many unconventional ways.
• On 6 December 1917, Ramanujan was elected to the London Mathematical Society. On 2 May 1918, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the second Indian admitted, after Ardaseer Cursetjee in 1841. At age 31, Ramanujan was one of the youngest Fellows in the Royal Society’s history.
• Ramanujan made mathematical theories for black holes, string theory when their was no concept of black holes. The Science always progresses like this : first the concept, then the theory and then the mathematics. But he made the mathematics first before their was a concept before their was a theory.
• Hardy came up with a scale of mathematical ability that went from 0 to 100. He put himself at 25. David Hilbert, the great German mathematician, was at 80. Ramanujan was 100. When he died in 1920 at the age of 32, Ramanujan left behind three notebooks and a sheaf of papers (the “lost notebook”). These notebooks contained thousands of results that are still inspiring mathematical work decades later.
• He kept on pouring mathematics, filling notebooks and notebooks on his deathbed
• When people asked him from where is this mathematics coming from he said from his goddess Namagiri Thayar.

Taxicab Number

In a famous anecdote, Hardy took a cab to visit ill Ramanujan. When he got there, he told Ramanujan that the cab’s number, 1729, was “rather a dull one.” Ramanujan said, “No, it is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways. That is, 1729 = 1^3 + 12^3 = 9^3 + 10^3. This number is now called the Hardy-Ramanujan number, and the smallest numbers that can be expressed as the sum of two cubes in n different ways have been dubbed taxicab numbers.

Ramanujan Magic Square

Ramanujan’s work on recreational mathematics and magic squares can be found in his early notebooks. A magic square is an matrix in which every row, column, and diagonal sums up to the same number. The sum is called the magic constant or magic sum of the magic square. Ramanujan created the following birthday magic square from his date of birth (in DD MM YYYY format) where all four rows, four columns, four squares in middle, four corners and two diagonals sum up to 139 which is unique.

We can also make our own magic square by using the formula given by the Ramanujan. Where a, b, c, d are the four numbers which you can choose

House of a Srinivasa Ramanujan

This is the house of Shri Ramanujan, the man who knew infinity. Kumbakonam is Ramanujan’s hometown. It is the place where he spent a considerable number of years. The small house on Sarangapani Sannidi Street is now an international monument — thanks to the former president of India, APJ Abdul Kalam.

Hollywood had also made a very interesting movie on Srinivasa Ramanujan about his life. Everyone should watch this movie once. Movie : “The Man Who Knew Infinity”

As their are lot of things to write about the worlds most legendry mathematician “Srinivasa Ramanujan” but we could not conclude in one article. We would continue to explore more about him in further articles. About his most unique and surprising discoveries in further articles, till then stay tuned.

Book: A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics

Happy National Mathematics Day!! to all

Thank you

Have a nice day🙂🙂