11-12-2024
07:31 AM
Prelims: General Science
Mains: Achievements of Indians in science and technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan was India’s greatest mathematical genius. He was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode, Tamil Nadu. He studied in Kumbakonam and proved himself to be an able all-rounder. His love for mathematics from an early age was unusual. He was introduced to the world of mathematics by a book by G. S. Carr titled “Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure Mathematics”. He developed his own ideas and methods and put them up in sometimes called Ramanujan’s Frayed Notebooks, which he studied and edited a number of times by other great mathematicians. His formal introduction to the world was facilitated by Prof. G. H. Hardy (Trinity College, Cambridge), who considered Ramanujan the greatest mathematician on the basis of pure talent.
Despite his short life span and lack of formal university education, Ramanujan has left behind around 4000 original theorems, which has placed him amongst world greats like Euler, Jacobi, Gauss, etc.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was unable to finish college because he continued to develop his theories and began posing and answering puzzles in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. He published in that journal an extraordinary research paper on Bernoulli numbers in 1911. He was recognized for this research paper and became a mathematical genius in the Madras circle.
When Ramanujan started teaching himself mathematics at the age of 12, he began to exhibit early signs of his brilliance. He had mastered differential calculus by the age of 16, and he had also become very interested in continued fractions.
A branch of mathematics, Ramanujan theory deals with the study of integers and their properties.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was the first Indian to be chosen as a Fellow of Trinity College. For his contributions to the theory of numbers and complex numbers, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1918.
Ramanujan had an intimate familiarity with numbers. He suffered a serious illness in 1917, but the numbers stood by him even as his body turned against him. He returned to India in 1919 "with a scientific standing and reputation," but sadly, his health deteriorated. In 1920, Ramanujan died prematurely at the age of 32 from tuberculosis; however, his legacy continues to live on through modern mathematicians who continue to be inspired by his work.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of the greatest mathematical minds from India. In addition to working on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series, he significantly contributed to the analytical theory of numbers.
Srinivasa Ramanujan made significant contributions to infinite series, mathematical analysis, number theory, continued fractions, and the theory of partitions, and he is particularly known for his work on modular forms and hypergeometric series.
Ramanujan was well known for having a fear of infinity despite having exceptional mathematical skills. He was afraid because he thought infinity was an unreachable and incomprehensible concept.
The smallest taxicab number, 1729, is also referred to as Ramanujan's number or the Ramanujan-Hardy number, after an incident involving British mathematician G. H. Hardy and Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan that occurred when Hardy visited Ramanujan in the hospital.
The fact that his love for mathematics knew no bounds earned him the nickname "the man who knew infinity." He added a new dimension to the field of mathematics as a whole and left behind valuable insights that serve as the foundation for current research.
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