SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN

FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:

 

 

 SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN

(22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920)

  

Indian magical math legendary SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN was born in Erode, Tamil Nadu, (South India), on 22.12.1887.

 

His heart and mind were always inclined towards Mathematics only. Even though he once had a scholarship from the University of Madras as he was a bright student, it was subsequently withdrawn because he loved and gave too much attention and concentration to Mathematics only to the exclusion of other subjects. Such was his passion and penchant for Mathematics.

 

In fact, Ramanujan had almost no formal training in pure mathematics. However, he was a child math prodigy. With mathematics naturally ingrained in him, he developed it and made substantial contributions to mathematical analyses - number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions besides solutions to mathematical problems thitherto considered unsolvable. According to Hans Eysenck, Ramanujan initially developed his own mathematical research in isolation. In other words, he made significant contributions, on his own, to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on Elliptic Functions, Continued Fractions, and Infinite series.

 

His contributions related to Ramanujan’s Sum, Landau-Ramanujan Constant, Mock Theta Functions, Ramanujan Conjecture, Ramanujan Prime, Ramanujan-Soldner Constant, Ramanujan Theta Function, Rogers-Ramanujan Identities, Ramanujan’s master theorem, and Hardy-Ramanujan Asymptotic Formula, and Ramanujan-Sato Series, among others.

 

Associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, U.K., he discovered the ‘Highly Composite Numbers’ in 1916. 

 

Ramanujan’s was a humble beginning. In 1903, when he was just 16, he obtained from a friend a library copy of ‘A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics, GS Carr’s Collection of 5000 theorems’ and studied its contents in detail that evoked and generated great interest in mathematics in Ramanujan. That book was acknowledged as a key element in awakening and bringing to the fore his genius. The next year, he independently developed and investigated the Bernoulli Numbers and calculated the Euler-Mascheroni constant up to 15 decimal places. His peers at the time said, “we rarely understood him”, and “stood in respectful awe” of him. Thus started his tryst with the magic of mathematical numbers and discoveries of theorems.

 

His achievements, inter alia, included:

 

He was the second Indian to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

 

The fastest Algorithms for the calculation of PI are based on his series.

 

The Ramanujan Conjecture played a key role in the famous LANGLANDS PROGRAM.

 

Developed the Influential Circle Method in Partition Number Theory.

 

Discovered the Three Ramanujan’s Congruences.

 

Number 1729 named ‘HARDY-RAMANUJAN NUMBER’.

 

He did groundbreaking research related to Fermat’s Last Theorem.

 

Ramanujan was the first to discover K3 Surfaces in the 1910s.

 

His Theta Function lies at the Heart of String Theory in Physics.

 

His Mock Modular Forms may unlock the Secret of Black Holes.

 

The NATIONAL MATHEMATICS DAY was observed for the first time on December 22, 2012, which was the 125^th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan. Thereafter, Indian Government declared December 22 as NATIONAL MATHEMATICS DAY, marking the birth anniversary of Indian mathematics legendary. A number of events are organized on this occasion in schools and colleges across the country, ranging from workshops and quizzes to lectures, and even book launches.

 

Needless to say, the work of the math genius is inspiring research even today. Ramanujan had a sort of child-like simplicity, humble, modest, and unassuming thoughts, precious and pristine perseverance, unflagging enthusiasm in his work, indefatigable and live volcano zeal to find what he wanted in mathematics, perennial resourcefulness in undertaking research in the subject(s) he dealt with, indomitable ways to accomplish even what others would have been hesitant to venture into considering them as 'well-nigh impossible' and if at all they undertook the plunge, would have left it midway. Clothed with his flair, fervour, and fervidness in exploring mathematics and the wonderland of numbers, he always had his deep quest and craving satiated by unlocking the hidden mathematical secrets and stunning the world.  

 

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a seer in mathematics clothed as he was with his penetrative intuition. Except for the classical number theory, there was hardly any field in Maths that the genius didn't add on to.

In Mathematics, a Ramanujan Prime is a Prime Number that satisfies a result proven by Srinivasa Ramanujan relating to the prime-counting function.

Ramanujan primes are 11, 29, 59, 67, 101, 149, 157, 163, 191, 227, 269, 271, 307, 379, 383, 419, 431, 433, 443, 457, 563, 593, 601, 641, 643, 673, 701, 709, 733, 827, 829, 907, 937, 947, 971, 1019.

His findings during those past years are now used in fundamental problems and challenges of science that the world is presently facing - even in things/fields that he could not have known about - in particular, the computer science algorithms, the "superstring theory" of cosmology, and the much-complicated molecular systems in statistical machines - to name a few.

 

 

It is truly not often when you find such a simple mannered, unassuming man who broke all stereotypes despite little formal education and no exposure to advanced mathematics. Here is where Srinivasa Ramanujan gets his due credit for what he was - the greatest mathematician in the world of his time.

Ramanujan frequently said, "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God." And, of course, he wasn't kidding. Like ancient Indian mathematicians, Ramanujan only noted the results and summaries of his works; no proof was worked out for the formulae he came up with. He straightaway credited his work to the Divine providence of Sri Mahalakshmi of Namakkal, a family Goddess whom he looked to for inspiration. The mathematician said that he dreamed of the Goddess' male consort Sri Narasimha, who is denoted by droplets of blood, after which, scrolls of complex mathematical work unfolded in front of his eyes. Incredible indeed!

 

Some Key Facts About Ramanujan Prize are:

Since 2005, the Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from developing countries has been awarded every year. 

 

The award is administered by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) jointly with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and the International Mathematical Union (IMU).

 

The Prize is given annually to an eminent Mathematician below age 45 on December 31. He or she must have conducted outstanding research in developing countries through the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste. It is sponsored by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India.

 

In 1964, the ICTP was established by the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam.

 

 

IMU is an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organization with an aim of promoting international cooperation in mathematics. And, the organization is a member of the International Science Council (ISC).

 

DST agreed to fund the Prize which started from 2014. DST supports it in memory of Srinivasa Ramanujan. 

(R.SAMPATH)

25/2/2022