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Introduction: The Best & Great Indian Mathematician and His Achievement?
1. Parents and Upbringing:The Best & Great Indian Mathematician and His Achievement?

Dr. Sushil Rudra

India

Introduction: The Best & Great Indian Mathematician and His Achievement?

It was in the year of 1897. Krishnaswami Ayer, Head Master of Town High School was taking classes of the students of junior section. Ramanujan was a student of this class. Krishnaswami was a grave-natured man. Students used to fear him very much. The HM looked around the class and asked the students, ‘ Do you know if you divide a number by the same number, the quotient will be”1″?

Ramanujan/image: https://kalpatarurudra.org

He noticed that the students couldn’t understand his question. So again he asked the same question with an instance.

” Suppose you have five mangoes and you have to distribute it to your five friends equally. So they will get 1 mango each. If you divide 5 mangoes by 5 ( friends ), then the result will be 1? Isn’t it?

Again The HM follow the faces of the students. Mr. Krishnaswami now felt relax and delight thinking that the students now understood the mathematics.

Meanwhile, a student from the back bench lift his hands up to ask something. The HM became astonished. Generally students don’t ask him about any questions.

” What do you want to say, boy “? The HM Krishnaswami asked the boy.

The boy hesitatingly replied: ” Sir, can I ask a question?

” Yes,” The HM told.

“Sir, if zero is divided by zero, the quotient will be 1 or not?

Having heard this question the HM became stunned. He couldn’t believe that a question might come from a student. So he thought – what a difficult question it’s!

For that moment, HM told him to sit down. But marked the face of the student. He had no answer that very moment. Ultimately, he became defeated by a little boy.

From then Mr. Krishnaswami tried to search for his whereabouts. Gradually he came to know all about him ( the boy ) and his family.

Parents and Upbringing:The Best & Great Indian Mathematician and His Achievement?

His father was a Brahmin by caste and he was very poor. His son’s name is Ramanujan. This poor Brahmin was an accountant in a clothing shop. His mother ‘s name is Kamalatamman who earned very little by singing at the temple.

Ramanujan was a born- talented. Although he couldn’t complete his institutional education. So he had failed to secure FA degree of the college due to his only interest in Mathematics. He was not interested in other subjects and that’s why he failed to secure pass marks in other subjects. His only interest was in mathematics.

However, he admitted to two different colleges. After passing articulation he got admission in Government Kumbakonam college. He got stipend from this college.

Achievement Of Ramanujan : The Best & Great Indian Mathematician and His Achievement?

Ramanujan compiled around 3,900 results consisting of equations and identities. One of his most treasured findings was his infinite series for pi. So this series forms the basis of many algorithms we use today. Moreover, he gave several fascinating formulas to calculate the digits of pi in many unconventional ways.

In addition, he discovered a long list of new ideas to solve many challenging mathematical problems. Ultimately , it gave a significant impetus to the development of game theory. He contributed to game theory which is purely based on intuition and natural talent and remains unrivalled to this day.

However, he elaborately described the mock theta function. It is a concept in the realm of modular form in mathematics. Considered an enigma till sometime back, it is now recognized as holomorphic parts of mass forms.

Publication of Ramanujan’s Notebook

From the beginning, Ramanujan wrote down all his research results in a notebook. However, he did not write the evidence. As a result, the idea arose that Ramanujan could not prove his theory.

Mathematician Bruce Benditt, in his discussion of Ramanujan and his notebooks, says that while Ramanujan was able to prove his theorem, he somehow failed to formalize it.

Ramanujan was not doing well financially and the price of paper was high at the time. Therefore, Ramanujan proved his theory simply by writing it on a blackboard and recording the results in a notebook.

Ramanujan’s first notebook had 351 pages. It is divided into 16 parts and has separate pages. His second notebook had 256 pages, with 21 chapters and his 100th pages unlined. The third notebook also had 33 such chaotic pages.

These notebooks he later made had a great influence on the work of mathematicians. Hardy himself discovered many theories from these notebooks.

B M Wilson, G N Watson and Bruce Benditt edited these Ramanujan’s notes later. Another Ramanujan notebook known as the “Lost Notebook” was discovered in 1976.

This notebooks was discovered by George Andrews in 1976 in the library at Trinity College. Later the contents of this notebook were published as a book.

1729 is known as the Ramanujan number. It is the sum of the cubes of two numbers 10 and 9. For instance, 1729 results from adding 1000 (the cube of 10) and 729 (the cube of 9).

Therefore, this is the smallest number that can be expressed in two different ways as it is the sum of these two cubes. Interestingly, 1729 is a natural number following 1728 and preceding 1730.

The Bottom Line: The Best & Great Indian Mathematician and His Achievement,?

Therefore, Ramanujan’s contributions stretch across mathematics fields, including complex analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.

Besides, Ramanujan’s other notable contributions include hypergeometric series, the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, the theory of divergent series, and the functional equations of the zeta function.

While asleep, I had an unusual experience. There was a red screen formed by flowing blood, as it were. I was observing it. Suddenly a hand began to write on the screen. I became all attention. That hand wrote a number of elliptic integrals. They stuck to my mind. As soon as I woke up, I committed them to writing.

—Srinivasa Ramanujan

The Best & Great Indian Mathematician and His Achievement?