National Mathematics Day: Tribute to S. Ramanujan

National Mathematics Day: Tribute to S. Ramanujan

Part of: GS Prelims

In News

• December 22, the birth anniversary of India’s famed mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, is celebrated as National Mathematics Day.
• Ramanujan was born in 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu (then Madras Presidency) in an Iyengar Brahmin family. 
• At age 12, despite lacking a formal education, he had excelled at trigonometry and developed many theorems by himself. 
• Living in dire poverty, Ramanujan then pursued independent research in mathematics.
• In 1914, Ramanujan arrived in Britain who worked with GH Hardy and in 1917, Ramanujan was elected to be a member of the London Mathematical Society. 
• His work in the number theory is especially regarded. He was recognised for his mastery of continued fractions, and had worked out the Riemann series, elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, and the functional equations of the zeta function
• Ramanujan could not get accustomed to the England’s diet, and returned to India in 1919. Ramanujan’s health continued to deteriorate, and he died in 1920 at the age of 32.
• The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015) was a biopic on the mathematician.