Celebrating the Birth Anniversary of One of the Greatest Mathematicians of India, Sri S. Srinivasa Ramanujan
Early life
Ramanujan was born on 22nd December 1887 into a Tamilian Brahmin Family in Erode, present-day Tamil Nadu. His father, Kuppuswamy Srinivasa, was a clerk in a saree shop and his mother, Komalatammal, was a housewife and sang at the local temple. They lived in a small traditional home on Sarangapani Sannidhi Street in the town of Kumbakonam.
Education
One day in his primary school, the teacher was explaining mathematical division and said, “If a number is divided by the same, then the remainder will be one” Ramanujan was brilliant enough to question that “Is it the same in the case of zero!”. However, he could not pursue his higher education because he was solving maths most of the time and was failing in all the other subjects. Finally, realizing his ability to solve maths, he was offered the job of an accountant in the Madras Port of Trust for Rs.30 per month.
People suggested he approach foreign universities to showcase his talent in the right place. So, he wrote a letter to three universities with more than 100 theorems that he solved himself. Finally, the University of Cambridge’s principal, G. H. Hardy, selected him for his Infinite series theorem.
Major Works
Ramanujan gave some of the significant discoveries in the field of Mathematics, including Number Theory, Complex analysis, Infinite series and continued fractions.
(1) Infinite series for π: In 1914, Ramanujan discovered a formula for infinite series for pi, forming the basis of many algorithms today. Finding an accurate approximation of π (pi) has been one of the most critical challenges in the history of mathematics.
(2) Game theory: Ramanujan discovered a long list of new ideas for solving many challenging mathematical problems that have given great impetus to the development of game theory. His contribution to game theory is purely based on intuition and natural talent and is unmatched today.
(3) Ramanujan number: 1729 is known as the Ramanujan number, which is the sum of the cubes of two numbers, 10 and 9.
(4) Circle method: Ramanujan, along with his mentor Prof. GH Hardy, invented the circle method, which gave the first approximations of the partition of numbers beyond 200. This method contributed significantly to solving the notorious complex problems of the 20th century, such as Waring’s conjecture and other additional questions.
Other notable contributions by Ramanujan include the hypergeometric series, the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, the theory of divergent series, the functional equations of the zeta function, the theta function and the mock theta function.
Honours and Achievements
He was also honored as “Fellow of the Royal Society, which is given by the Royal Society of London” for his contribution to improving Natural Knowledge. Because of all of his discovery in mathematics, he was given title “The man who knew infinity”.
“An Equation means nothing to me, unless it express a thought of God”
Sri S. Srinivas Ramanujan
Illness and Death
Even though his tuberculosis caused him a world of pain at an early age, he kept solving math till his death. Unfortunately, we lost him on 26th April 1920 at the Young age of 32, and sadly, the world recognized the importance of his math Equations after his death.
