Srinivasa Ramanujan, the greatest mathematician of his time was born on 22 December 1887, in Erode, Tamil Nadu. His beginning of life came with challenges, but later on with his humble nature, he conquered his life. In India, National Mathematics Day is organized on 22 December every year to mark the contributions of the greatest mathematician, Ramanujan. The Prime Minister of India, in the year 2012, announced this day to be the national event in India. This article will uncover 10 major facts about Ramanujan.
About Ramanujan
Table of Contents
The following table gives an insight into the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Field | Theorems/Results |
Mathematical Analysis | – Theory of divergent series- Integral calculus and its applications to number theory- Contributions to the theory of elliptic functions |
Number Theory | – Partition of numbers, with his discovery of the famous Ramanujan’s partition formula- Properties of prime numbers- Mock theta functions |
Infinite Series | – Highly advanced results on infinite series, many of which were later proven by other mathematicians |
Continued Fractions | – Work on continued fractions, including novel discoveries |
Other Contributions | – Modular forms and their properties- Hypergeometric series and their properties- Approximations of pi and other constants- Highly composite numbers and their properties |
Facts about Ramanujan
- The interest of Srinivasa Ramanujan in Mathematics started by reading a book. The book is titled “A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics,” written by George Shoobridge Carr, in 1886. Can you believe this fact about Ramanujan that he created history only by reading a book?
- Like the story of every student who has ever failed, Ramanujan was no different from you. He failed in college despite getting a scholarship to college. Moreover, all these subjects were non-mathematical.
- In 1912, he was first appointed as the clerk in the Madras Post Trust Office, when his friend recommended him to reach out to G. H. Hardy, a famous mathematician in Cambridge School.
Also Read- National Mathematics Day: History, Theme, Significance
- You all now might know the fact about Ramanujan that he found the infinite series of pi, but do you know he compiled 3900 results of equations and identities?
- When Ramanujan visited England, his works were not only printed in English but in all the European languages as well.
- He was the second Indian of the Royal Society of England in 1918.
- At the mere age of Thirteen, Ramanujan was able to work all alone on Looney’s Trigonometry exercises.
- Ramanujan was married to a 9-year-old girl on March 21, 1899.
- He was not well off since childhood so he would often have his mathematical problems in a slate because papers were expensive back then.
- When Ramanujan died in 1920, at just the age of 32, he left behind a book which was titled “The Lost Notebook.” To date, mathematicians are inspired to work on the thousands of results mentioned in this book.
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