Religion

rug

(82,333 posts) Thu Apr 21, 2016, 07:35 PM Apr 2016

To infinity and beyond

A Sydney academic’s fascination with India’s mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, the subject of a new film starring Dev Patel

April 21, 2016 / by Usha Ramanujam Arvind

To infinity and beyond, that is the journey of impoverished Iyengar prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920).

His inspirational but heartbreaking tale began at a humble agraharam (Brahmin enclave) adjoining the Saarangapani temple in colonial Kumbakonam, where parents Komalatammal, a music teacher and father Srinivasa Iyengar, a clerk with modest means and limited ambition, nurtured similar intentions for his young lad – the path to self-sufficiency.

Little did they realise that the intuitive mathematician was ordained for greatness, albeit posthumously. Exceptionally advanced in thinking for his background, maths consumed his very existence, as he travelled from Kumbakonam to Cambridge in search of his destiny.

Ramanujan went on to become the first Indian Fellow of both Trinity College and Royal Academy in the early twentieth century, when World War One unleashed its horrors on society.

http://www.indianlink.com.au/to-infinity-and-beyond/

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To infinity and beyond (Original Post) rug Apr 2016 OP

Hardy's reaction to Ramanujan's formulae is striking: struggle4progress Apr 2016 #1

struggle4progress

(118,290 posts)

1. Hardy's reaction to Ramanujan's formulae is striking:

Reply to rug (Original post)

Fri Apr 22, 2016, 02:27 PM

Apr 2016

"I had never seen anything in the least like them before. A single look at them is enough to show that they could only be written by a mathematician of the highest class. They must be true because, if they were not true, no one would have the imagination to invent them"

Hardy himself was a rather good mathematician, and his judgment of Ramanujan's work was, overall, correct

Ramanujan did make a mistake here and there, and perhaps he never really mastered some tools for proof. His story is strange: he seems to have taken the view that a Hindu goddess Namagiri revealed the theorems to him. Early twentieth century England was not an ideal environment for a strict Indian vegetarian, and it has been suggested that severe malnutrition contributed to his decline and death

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