SRINIVASA

RAMANUJAN
 S RINIVASA I YENGAR R AMANUJAN

Born - 22 December 1887

Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency
British India
Died - 26 April 1920
Chetput, Madras, British India
College - Government Arts College
Pachaiyappa’s College
Cambridge University
Academic Advisors - G.H.Hardy
J.E.Littlewood
R AMAJUNA – T HE M ATHEMATICIAN

 No formal training in Mathematics

 Made extraordinary contributions to

Mathematical Analysis, Number Theory, Infinite
Series and Continued Fractions.

 Expert in Trigonometry at age 12

 Discovered theorems of his own

 Fellow of the Royal Society and Trinity College,

Cambridge
 E ARLY L IFE

 Born in Erode to K. Srinivasa Iyengar and

Komalatmmal

 Lived in Sarangapani Street in Kumbakonam

 Went school first on 1.10.1892.

 Had to switch primary school 3 times due to

circumstances.

 Completed Math exam in half the allotted time.

 A synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and

Applied Mathematics. Book acknowledged in
awakening the genius of Ramanujan.

 Left college without a degree and pursued

research in Mathematics.
A DULTHOOD I N I NDIA

 Married to a 9 year old bride Janaki Ammal

on 14 July 1909
 Went door to door for job
 Tutored college students
 ATTENTION F ROM M ATHEMATICIANS

 Met V. Ramaswamy Aiyer, founder of

Indian Mathematical Society
 I was struck by the extraordinary
mathematical results contained in it [the
notebooks]. I had no mind to smother his
genius by an appointment in the lowest
rungs of the revenue department
 Introduced to R. Ramachandra Rao,
secretary of the Indian Mathematical
Society R.Ramachandra Rao

 Impressed by Ramanujan but doubted his

integrity.
 Continued Mathematical Research with
Rao’s financial help
 Published his work in Journal of Indian Mathematical Society
 First problem which he posed

 He then formulated an equation to solve the infinitely nested

radicals problem.

 Wrote his 1st formal paper for the journal on the properties
of Bernoulli Numbers
 In early 1912 he got a job in the Madras Accountant
Generals office with a salary of Rs 20 per month.
 Later he applied for a position under the Chief
Accountant of the Madras Port Trust
 Accepted as a Class III, Grade IV accounting clerk
making 30 rupees per month
 Spent spare time doing Mathematical Research
 C ONTACTING E NGLISH
M ATHEMATICIANS

 M. J. M. Hill of University College London argued

that though Ramanujan had taste for Mathematics
he lacked the proper educational background and
foundation

 He refused to take Ramanujan as student

 But gave him professional advice on his work

 I NTRODUCTION WITH
G.H.H ARDY
 G.H. Hardy was an academician at Cambridge University

 He was a prominent English mathematician, known for his

achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis.

 Later on Ramanujan wrote to G.H.Hardy

 Hardy recognised some of his formulae but other “seemed

scarcely possible to believe”. Some of them were –

Relating to infinite series -





 L IFE I N E NGLAND

 Ramanujan boarded the S.S.Nevasa on 17 March 1914

and arrived in London on 14th April

 Ramanujan began working with Hardy and Littlewood

 Hardy received 120 theorems from him in 1st 2 letters

but there were many more results in his notebook

 After working with Ramanujan Littlewood

commented, "I can believe that he's at least a Jacobi”

 Hardy said he "can compare him only with [Leonhard]

Euler or Jacobi”

 Ramanujan spent nearly 5 years in Cambridge

 R AMANUJAN ’ S H ONOURS

 Awarded BA degree by research

(later called PhD) in March 1916

 6.12.1917 – Elected to London

Mathematical Society

 Became a ‘Fellow of The Royal

Society’ in 1918

 Became the first Indian to be elected

a Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge
I LLNESS & R ETURN TO I NDIA

 Ramanujan's health worsened in England

 Diagnosed with Tuberculosis and Vitamin

deficiency

 Returned to Kumbakonam in 1919 and died soon

thereafter at the age of 32

 In 1994 Dr. D.A.B. Young analysed his records and

concluded he had hepatic amoebiasis
P ERSONALITY A ND S PIRITUAL L IFE

 A person with a somewhat shy and quiet disposition

 A dignified man with pleasant manners

 Ramanujan credited his success to his family Goddess,

Namagiri of Namakkal

 He claimed to receive visions of scrolls of complex

mathematical content unfolding before his eyes

 "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it

represents a thought of God.”
 R AMANUJAN ’ S N OTEBOOKS

 Recorded his work in 4 notebooks of loose

leaf paper
 Results were written without derivation
 Mathematician Bruce C. Berndt says that
Ramanujan was able to make the proofs
but chose not to.
 Might have worked on slate
 Or may be influenced by G.S Carr’s book
which stated results without proofs
 Mathematicians such as Hardy, G.N.
Watson, B.M. Wilson and Bruce Berndt
created papers from his work
R AMANUJAN - H ARDY N UMBER
1729

 Hardy arrived in a cab numbered 1729

 He commented that the number was

uninteresting

 Instantly Ramanujan claimed that it was the

smallest natural number which can be written as
sum of cubes in 2 ways
O THER M ATHEMATICIANS ’ V IEWS
O F R AMANUJAN

 J.H. Hardy was highly impressed by Ramanujan

 Hardy said that the solutions were "arrived at by
a process of mingled argument, intuition, and
induction, of which he was entirely unable to
give any coherent account”
 On the basis of pure talent Hardy rated himself a
score of 25 out of 100, J.E. Littlewood 30, David
Hilbert 80 and Ramanujan 100 !
 Physicist Jayant Narlikar appreciated
Ramanujan’s discoveries
 R ECOGNITION

 Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December as ‘State IT Day’

 Stamp released by the Govt. in 1962

 22nd December celebrated as Ramanujan Day in Govt

Arts College, Kumbakonam

 National Symposium On Mathematical Methods and

Applications (NSMMA)
 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize
 I N P OPULAR C ULTURE

 A play ‘First Class Man’ is centered around Ramanujan

 Book by Robert Kanigel titled ‘The Man Who Knew

Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan’ is his
biography

 In the famous film ‘Good Will Hunting’ the main

character is compared to Ramanujan

 ‘A Disappearing Number’, a show by British Stage

Production is about Ramanujan and Hardy

 Character Amita Ramanujan in the show Numb3rs is

named after him

 Roger Spottiswoode is working on a movie on

mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan starring Rang
 R AMANUJAN – R ARE
M ATHEMATICAL GENIUS