e dismisses
d ridicules him
When Hardy went through Ramanujan's letter and mathematical papers
e had doubts about the validity of Ramanujan's work
was ashamed of his own mathematical skills
was quite excited by Ramanujan's genius
Think and discuss with your partner. Share your answers in dass
is letter to Ramanujan. Han
it makes promises.
a convers praise
d compared it with another mathematician's work
He did not offer any proof for his theorems perhaps because he saw
Which theorems are referred to here? Did Ramanujan not see any ne
the conclusions were obvious to him or because he did not know the
you will not be able to follow my methods... I don't mean tha
be buried with me
What methods is Ramanujan speaking of? Who would not be able
Vere his methods confusing?
Work in groups of four and discuss.
you agree with the title of the passage? Why or why not? W
Ramanujan and Hardy had to correspond now, what do you
rite the answers.
w does Hardy express his reservations about Ramanujan's
hat do Ramanujan's and Hardy's letters tell us about their o
did Hardy help discover and nurture Ramanujan's genius
Answers
Answer:
Throughout the history of mathematics, there has been no one remotely like Srinivasa Ramanujan. There is no doubt that he was a great mathematician, but had he had simply a good university education and been taught by a good professor in his field, we wouldn’t have a film about him.
As the years pass, I admire more and more the astonishing body of work Ramanujan produced in India before he made contact with any top mathematicians. Not because the results he got at the time changed the face of mathematics, far from it, but because, working by himself, he fearlessly attacked many important and some not so important problems in analysis and, especially, number theory – simply for the love of mathematics.
It cannot be understated, however, the role played by Ramanujan’s tutor Godfrey Harold Hardy in his life story. The Cambridge mathematician worked tirelessly with the Indian genius, to tame his creativity within the then current understanding of the field. It was only with Hardy’s care and mentoring that Ramanujan became the scholar we know him as today.
Srinivasa Ramanujan. Wikimedia
Determined and obsessed
In December 1903, at the age of 16, Ramanujan passed the matriculation exam for the University of Madras. But as he concentrated on mathematics to the exclusion of all other subjects, he did not progress beyond the second year. In 1909 he married a nine-year-old girl, but failed to secure any steady income until the beginning of 1912, when he became a clerk in the Madras Port Trust office on a meagre salary.
All this time, Ramanujan remained obsessed with mathematics and kept working on continued fractions, divergent series, elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series and the distribution of primes. By 1911, Ramanujan was desperate to gain recognition from leading mathematicians, especially those in England. So, at the beginning of 1913, when he was just past 25, he dispatched a letter to Hardy in Cambridge with a long list of his discoveries –- a letter which changed both their lives.
Although only 36 when he received Ramanujan’s letter, Hardy was already the leading mathematician in England. The mathematical scene in England in the first half of the 20th century was dominated by Hardy and another titan of Trinity College, J.E. Littlewood. The two formed a legendary partnership, unique to this day, writing an astounding 100 joint papers. They were instrumental in turning England into a superpower in mathematics, especially in number theory and analysis.
Hardy was not the first mathematician to whom Ramanujan had sent his results, however the first two to whom he had written judged him to be a crank. But Hardy was not only an outstanding mathematician, he was also a wonderful teacher, eager to nurture talent.
Genius unknown
After dinner in Trinity one evening, some of the fellows adjourned to the combination room. Over their claret and port Hardy mentioned to Littlewood some of the claims he had received in the mail from an unknown Indian. Some assertions they knew well, others they could prove, others they could disprove, but many they found not only fascinating and unusual but also impossible to resolve.
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