By Fresenbet G.
Srinivasa Ramanujan: Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in India, inside the house of his maternal grandparents. As soon as Ramanujan attended school, his genius was instantly recognized, especially in mathematics. By the age of eleven, he had exhausted the knowledge of two college students he knew, and later on, when he discovered a trigonometry book written by T.S Loney, he mastered the book at the age of thirteen and even discovered complicated theorems by his own. When attending tests, Ramanujan was known to finish his exams in half the allotted time, and showed natural talent when it came to geometry and infinite series. But it was in 1903, when a friend loaned Ramanujan a book by G.S Carr, titled “A synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics” that everything changed for the better. The book is held by many as being the key factor in awakening the genius of Ramanujan. He conducted research on many mathematical topics, and gained appreciation from different mathematicians around India. But it was Ramanujan drafting letters to prominent mathematicians at Cambridge that paved the way for his worldwide success. Other mathematicians ignored Ramanujan’s letters, except one mathematician named G.H Hardy, who doubted that Ramanujan was a fraud. Hardy wrote a letter to Ramanujan and their correspondence continued. Later on, Ramanujan travelled to Cambridge and spent five years with Littlewood and Hardy. Ramanujan made significant contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, continued fractions and infinite series. The Ramanujan sum, Ramanujan theta functions, Ramanujan Prime, and mock theta functions remain amongst his great works. Ramanujan died in India, at the young age of 32, due to tuberculosis. |