NATIONAL MATHEMATICS DAY: IN REMEMBRANCE OF SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN
December 22-National Mathematics Day,the life and works of genius Srinivasa Ramanujan.
(The Quiver) National Mathematics Day is observed on December 22 every year to celebrate the life and works of genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. On this day, in 1887, the great mathematician was born. Unfortunately we lost this jewel very early. He died in 1920 at the age of 32 . To mark the 125th birth anniversary of Ramanujan, in 2012, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that the day will be celebrated as the National Mathematics Day and the year as the National Mathematics Year.
Today we can see flooding tributes for him in social media platforms by many common people, eminent personalities and politicians who twitted on him. Have a look on them.
“My humble tributes to the legendary mathematician, Shri Srinivasa Ramanujan on his birth anniversary, which is also celebrated as National Mathematics Day,” tweeted Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
Karnataka’s Minister of Health Keshava Reddy Sudhakar also tweeted, “Remembering Srinivasa Ramanujan on Mathematics Day. His contributions to the field of numbers are being studied, analyzed and applied even to this day.”
Renowned Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan symbolises the talent of people of India, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, emphasising that the two countries believe in the partnership of talent.
A common man Shivanand Pattanashetti also expressed his love for Mathematics through his twitter post –“Simplification is not valid in Mathematics but also teaches how to simplify the complexities in life”.
Lets know about this genius mathematician in detail.
Who was Srinivasa Ramanujan?
Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December, 1887, in a Tamil Brahmin family in the city of Erode. He was known as ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ because of his infinite love for and contribution to mathematics.
This mathematical genius could easily solve problems on algebra and trigonometry which his fellow mates found difficult to crack. Ramanujan won a scholarship to study at Kumbakonam’s Government Arts College at the age of 17. He, however, failed in some of the other subjects and lost the scholarship. The math wizard did not lose hope and tutored students while also contributing to the Journal of Indian Mathematical Society.
In 1991, Robert Kanigel wrote the biography ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan’. The book gives a detailed account of his upbringing in India, his mathematical achievements and his mathematical collaboration with mathematician GH Hardy.
In 1918, he was elected as the youngest Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society in London for his research on Elliptic Functions and theory of numbers. In the same year the mathematician went on to become the first Indian to be elected a Fellow at Trinity College.
Having compiled more than 3,000 mathematical results and equations, the mathematician returned to India in 1919 and passed away due to tuberculosis the next year. His works helped us a lot to develop a deeper knowledge in Mathematics. This jewel will be remembered for ages.
A feature film of the same title and based on the book was directed by Matt Brown using his own script. Srinivasa Ramanujan is played by Dev Patel, GH Hardy by Jeremy Irons, and Devika Bhise plays Janaki, Ramanujan’s wife.
India celebrates National Mathematics Day to honour the mathematical assertions made by Ramanujan, which opened new arenas of mathematical research. In the year 2019, the Royal Society also remembered Ramanujan’s contribution by tweeting a special message for him. The path-breaking work of Ramanujan remains an inspiration for future generations.
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