December 22 is birthday of Legendary Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar. The day is celebrated as National Mathematics Day to mark his exceptional contributions in the field of mathematics.
Ramanujan was a man who had the ability to master trigonometry without no formal training. Some of his greatest contributions to mathematics are Number Theory, Infinite Series and Continued Fractions.
History
In 2012, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared December 22 as National Mathematics Day, while visiting Chennai.
Since then, December 22 is celebrated as National Mathematics Day across India.
Early Life
Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu. Kuppuswamy Srinivasa, his father was a clerk in a sarree shop and mother Komalatammal was a housewife.
He studied at Kangayan Primary School where he performed well. Ramanujan encountered formal mathematics at Town Higher Secondary School. He mastered a book on Advanced Trignometry by S.L. Loney at an age of 13 on his own.
He received merit certificates and academic awards during his time at school. Upon his graduation at Town Higher Secondary School his school principle awarded him K Ranganatha Rao prize.
He joined Government Arts College, Kumbakonam but failed due to lack of focus on subjects other than mathematics.
Later, he enrolled at Pachaiyappas College in Madras where he met the same fate.
Career
In 1912, Ramanujan started working as a clerk in Madras Port Trust. There he met a colleague who was also a mathematician and believed him for his great mind. He referred Ramanujan to Professor GH Hardy of Trinity College.
He joined Trinity College in 1913 and 3 years later in 1916 he received his degree in Bachelor of Science.
In 1917, Ramanujan became member of London Mathematical Society.
He became member of Royal Society for his research work on Theory of Numbers and Elliptic Functions in 1918.
Ramanujan came back to India in 1918 where he died at an early age of 32 due to poor health.
Ramanujan Number
Professor G.H. Hardy once went to visit Ramanujan at the hospital. Hardy told Ramanujan that he came in taxi with an ordinary number ‘1729’. To which Ramanujan said, “It is the smallest number which can be expressed as the sum of two different cubes in two different ways.”
Since then 1729 became Hardy-Ramanujan number.
