National Mathematics Day

National mathematics day: India remembers Srinivasa Ramanujan

Updated: Dec 22, 2017 | 17:30 IST | Times Now Digital

Srinivas Ramanujan  

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New Delhi: On the 130th birth anniversary of famed mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, India celebrates December 22 as National Mathematics Day. His contributions to number theory, infinite series, mathematical analysis and continued fractions have found itself as the basis for future research.

Born in a Tamil Brahmin family in Tamil Nadu on December 22, 1887, Ramanujan grew up to excel in the field without any formal training in pure Mathematics. 

Ramanujan's genius came to light in 1913 when English mathematician GH Hardy at the University of Cambridge in England recognised the samples sent to him to via post as 'extraordinary'. Hardy later arranged for Ramanujan's travel to Cambridge.

Comparing Ramanujan's excellence with the likes of Euler and Jacobi, Hardy stated that a 'single look' was sufficient to establish his work of the highest calibre.

Apart from being the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Ramanujan put together nearly 4,000 results such as identities and equations. His notable works include Ramanujan conjecture, Landau-Ramanujam constant, Mock theta functions, Ramanujan Prime, Ramanujan-Soldner constant, Ramanujan's sum, Ramanujan's master theorem among others.

Nearly all his propositions and claims with respect to the field of mathematics have been proven accurate, and his formulas and theories have inspired further research.

Being a Tamil Iyengar, Ramanujan was a pure vegetarian and religious. 'An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God,' he had once said. Married at the early age of 12, Ramanujan's child bride Janaki was only about 10. He died at a very young age of 32 in 1920 owing to hepatic amoebiasis, according to reports