SrinivasaRamanujanBiography

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a striking personality with an extraordinary talent inmathematics.Readmore to findoutabouthisprofile,childhood,lifeandtimeline.

QuickFacts

Famousas Mathematician

Nationality Indian

Bornon 22December1887AD

ZodiacSign Sagittarius

Bornin Erode

Diedon 26April1920AD

Placeofdeath

Chetput

Father K.SrinivasaIyengar

Mother KomalatAmmal

Siblings Sadagopan

Spouse: JanakiAmmal

Education

TrinityCollege,Cambridge(1919–1920),UniversityofCambridge(1914–1919),UniversityofCambridge(1916),GovernmentArtsCollege,Kumbakonam(1904–1906),TownHigherSecondarySchool(1904),Pachaiyappa'sCollege,Universityof

Works&Achievements

Ramanujanconstant,Ramanujanprime,Ramanujanthetafunction,Ramanujan’smastertheorem,Mockthetafunctions,Ramanujanconjecture,Ramanujan-Soldnerconstant,Ramanujan’ssum.

QuickFacts

Rightly regarded as ‘natural genius’ by the Englishmathematician G.H. Hardy, Srinivasa Ramanujan displayed anamazing talent inmathematics, even though he did not receiveformal training in that subject. He contributed to several areasof mathematics such as the number theory, mathematicalanalysis, infinite series and continued fractions. This greatmathematician of the 20th century added much to the field ofadvance mathematics with his fascinating theories and proofs,which are in use even today. Also, in 1997, ‘The RamanujanJournal’waspublishedbyanAmericanmathematicianBruce.C.Berndt, which showed Ramanujan’s areas of study. Heformulated many formulas to solve problems, but his untimelydeath put an end to his great exploration to the unseen beautyand enormity of this subject. Within a short-life, heindependently compiled about 3900 results involving identitiesandequations.Ramanujanused to jotdownsomeof theproofsand theorems in his notebooks that had been studied bymanymathematicians, after his death. Scroll further and read moreabout the profile, life, career and timeline of SrinivasaRamanujan.

Early LifeSrinivasa Ramanujan was born at his grandmother ’s house inErode, a small town located about 400 km towards southwestMadras.HisfatherwasaclerkinatextileshopinKumbakonam.Young Ramanujan contracted small pox in 1889 December.However, unlike many other people in that town, Ramanujanovercame the epidemic invasion even thoughhis family hisfather ’s income was barely sufficient to meet extra medicalexpenses.Whenhewasfive,hewassenttoaprimaryschoolinKumbakonam. Before he entered the Town High school inKumbakonam in1898 January, hewent to several other privateschools.Whileinschool,heexcelledinallthesubjectsandwasconsidered as an all-rounder. Towards 1900, he began to worktowards developing his mathematical ability, dealing withgeometricsandarithmeticseries.His talentwasexposed to theworld very early in 1902, when he showed how to solve cubicequations and also sought a method to solve quartic. While inTown High School, he read a book ‘Synopsis of elementaryresults in mathematics’, which was very concise that he couldteach himself without taking help from any tutor. In this book,various theorems were mentioned in the book, along withshortcuts and formulas to solve them. During this time,Ramanujan engaged himself in deep research in 1904 andduring this time he investigated the series ‘sigma 1/n’ and alsoextendedEuler ’s constant to 15 decimal points.Because of hisgreat work in school studies, he was awarded a scholarship toattendGovernmentCollegeinKumbakonam,in1904.Duetohislack of interest in other subjects, he could not utilize thisopportunity properly. He kept up his mathematical works andstudied in depth about hyper geometric series and therelationshipbetweenseriesandintegrals.

CareerRamanujan was focused to pass the First Arts examination,whichwouldbehistickettotheUniversityofMadras.Hence,hewenttoPachaiyappa’sCollegeinMadrasin1906andputallhis

efforts in studying and attended all the lectures. Unfortunately,after three months of his dedicated study, he became ill. Heappeared for the Fine Arts examination and cleared inmathematics, but failed in all the other subjects. This stoppedhim from pursuing his dream of getting into the University ofMadras. He left college without a degree and pursuedindependent research in Mathematics. In 1908, he studiedfractions and divergent series. His health deteriorated and thistime, it became worse and he had to undergo an operation in1909. It took considerable time for him to recover. Ramanujanspentmoretimeandeffortindevelopinghismathematicalabilityand solved problems in the Journal of the ‘IndianMathematicalSociety’, developing relations between elliptic modularequations. His brilliant work on the Bernoulli numbers in 1911,in the Journal of the Indian mathematical society, grabbed therecognition for all his hardwork over the years. Though he didnot have a University qualification, he became quite famous inMadrasasamathematicalgenius.Herequiredmeansof incomeand so, he approached the founder of the Indian MathematicalSociety in 1911. Hence, he was appointed in a temporary postat the accountant’s General Office in Madras. Afterwards, healsoapproachedRamachandraRao,theCollectoratNellore,fora job. In 1912, Ramanujan applied at theMadras Port Trust inthe section of accounts for the clerical post. Recommendationsfrom the university mathematicians helped him to get throughthe selection process. Hence, he joined the office on 1 March1912. In the office, he was surrounded with greatmathematicians who enhanced Ramanujan’s knowledge in thesubject.

Life inEnglandAndReturntoIndiaRamanujan sent a copy of his works to some of the greatestmathematiciansofthistime,butthatdidn’thelphimfindhiswayfurther. After having read ‘Orders of infinity’ by G.H. Hardy in1913, he also wrote to him. Hardy, along with Littlewood, wentthroughhisworksand toRamanujan’s delight,Hardy replied tohim. In May 1913, ‘The Board of Studies in Mathematics

bestowedRamanujanwithascholarshipofRs.75permonth forhis two-year study in University of Madras. The following yearRamanujanwent toTrinityCollege,Cambridge,with thehelpofHardy. This gave way to extra ordinary collaboration.Ramanujan left India on 17 March 1914 and arrived in Londonon 14 April 1914. Along with hardy, Ramanujan was able toprove some important results. Ramanujan had some healthissues in theearlywinterseason inMarch1915,whichstoppedhim from publishing anything for five months. Hence, on 16March 1916, he graduated from Cambridge and acquired a‘Bachelor of Science degree byResearch. It is during this timethat his health deteriorated and doctors were not confident. In1919, 27 February, he went back to India and by this time hishealth was completely destroyed. With regard to his greatrecognition, he received a generous scholarship from theMadrasUniversity and every possiblemeasureswere arrangedforhisfurtherresearchinthefieldofMathematics.

Ramanujan-HardyNumber(1729)When Ramanujan fell ill, Hardy came to his residence to visitRamanujan in a cabwith a number 1729. That day, hemade acomment toRamanujan saying that the number appeared to beverydullnumber.Ramanujancorrectedhiminstantlysayingthatis an interesting number and explained that it is the smallestnatural number that could be expressed as the sum of twopositive cubes, in two different ways (i.e., 1 + 12 and 9 +10 .)

PersonalLife andDeathIn July, 14, 1909, Ramanujan married a ten year old girl, S.JanakiAmmal. However, he did not live with her until she wastwelve years old. He succumbed to tuberculosis (T.B) in 1920andwaseventuallyadmitted in thehospital.All theeffortswentinvainandhepassedawayattheageof32,on26April1920.

Recognitions

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FellowoftheCambridgePhilosophicalSociety,1918.FellowoftheRoyalsocietyofLondon,1918.FellowofTrinityCollegeCambridge