Srinivasa Ramanuja

Why in news?

• The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for 2022 will be awarded to Yunqing Tang, Assistant Professor with the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.

About Srinivasa Ramanuja (1887-1920):

• In 1911 Ramanujan published the first of his papers in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
• In 1913 he began a correspondence with the British mathematician Godfrey H. Hardy which led to a special scholarship from the University of Madras and a grant from Trinity College, Cambridge.
• Ramanujan was one of the youngest members of Britain's Royal Society and the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University.

Contributions to Mathematics:

• Formulas and Equations:
  • Ramanujan compiled around 3,900 results consisting of equations and identities.
  • One of his most treasured findings was his infinite series for Pi.
  • He gave several formulas to calculate the digits of Pi in many unconventional ways.
• Game Theory:
  • He discovered a long list of new ideas to solve many challenging mathematical problems, which gave a significant impetus to the development of game theory.
  • His contribution to game theory is purely based on intuition and natural talent and remains unrivalled to this day.
• Ramanujan’s Book:
  • One of Ramanujan’s notebooks was discovered by George Andrews in 1976 in the library at Trinity College.
  • Later the contents of this notebook were published as a book.
• Ramanujan number:
  • 1729 is known as the Ramanujan number.
  • It is the smallest number which can be expressed as the sum of two different cubes in two different ways.
    • 1729 is the sum of the cubes of 10 and 9 - cube of 10 is 1000 and cube of 9 is 729 adding the two numbers results in 1729.
    • 1729 is also the sum of the cubes of 12 and 1, cube of 12 is 1728 and cube of 1 is 1 adding the two results in 1729.

Other Contributions:

• Ramanujan’s other notable contributions include hypergeometric series, the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, mock theta function, the theory of divergent series, and the functional equations of the zeta function.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following:

1. Formulas to calculate the digits of Pi

2. Discovery of Raman scattering

3. Development of gene editing technology

Which of the above is/are the contributions of Srinivasa Ramanuja?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer