National Mathematics Day – 22 December – Remembering – The greatest Mathematician – Srinivasa Ramanujan

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Knowledge Junction wishes you all – Happy National Mathematics Day

Today we are celebrating National Mathematics Day. Every year, we celebrate National Mathematics Day on December 22 in honor of the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan.

The beauty of mathematics lies in its simplicity and complexity at the same time – Srinivasa Ramanujan

Numbers are like friends; they reveal their secrets to those who are willing to listen – Srinivasa Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan

1. Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician.
3. He is often regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Remarkably, he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics.
4. Largely self-taught, he mastered advanced math by age 11, studying G.S. Carr’s Synopsis of Elementary Results and developing his own theorems.
5. He failed non-mathematical subjects in college, losing scholarships, but excelled at math, sometimes finishing exams in half the time.
6. Due to poverty, he often did complex calculations on slate before transferring them, and his peers rarely understood him. 
7. On 16 March 1916 Ramanujan graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts by Research (the degree was called a PH.D. from 1920).
8. He had been allowed to enroll in June 1914 despite not having the proper qualifications.
9. Ramanujan initially developed his mathematical research in isolation.
11. Seeking mathematicians who better understand his work, in 1913 he began a mail correspondence with the English mathematician G. H. Hardy at the University of Cambridge, England.
12. His mentor G.H. Hardy noted 1729 as the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways, a fact Ramanujan already knew.
13. Recognizing Ramanujan’s work as extraordinary, Hardy arranged for him to travel to Cambridge.
14. In his notes, Hardy commented that Ramanujan had produced groundbreaking new theorems, including some that “defeated me completely; I had never seen anything in the least like them before”, and some recently proven but highly advanced results.
15. He discovered formulas for infinite series, including some used for calculating pi, a major challenge in mathematics.
16. During his short life, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3,900 results (mostly identities and equations).
17. He became one of the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society and the first Indian to be elected as a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

What led to early death ?

In 1919, ill health—now believed to have been hepatic amoebiasis (a type of gastro, that is a cause of diarrhea among travelers to developing countries) compelled Ramanujan’s return to India, where he died in 1920 at the age of 32.

His last letters to Hardy, written in January 1920, show that he was continuing to produce new mathematical ideas and theorems.

His “lost notebook“, containing discoveries from the last year of his life, caused great excitement among mathematicians when it was rediscovered in 1976.

An equation for me has no meaning, unless it expresses a thought of God – Srinivasa Ramanujan

Contributions of Srinivasa Ramanujan

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 a 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 the 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.

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”

Thank You 🙂

Have a great time ahead 🙂Happy National Mathematics Day 🙂🙂