National Mathematics Day 2018

Topics covered:

1. Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

National Mathematics Day 2018

What to study?

For Prelims and Mains: National Mathematics Day- facts and significance.

Context: National Mathematics Day is celebrated every year on December 22.

• It is observed to honor the birth anniversary of the famous mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who greatly contributed towards mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.

National Mathematics Day:

In 2011, on the 125th anniversary of his birth, the Indian Government declared that 22 December will be celebrated every year as National Mathematics Day.

Highlights of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s life:

• In 1911, Ramanujan published the first of his papers in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
• Ramanujan traveled to England in 1914, where Hardy tutored him and collaborated with him in some research.
• He worked out the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, the functional equations of the zeta function, and his own theory of divergent series.
• The number 1729 is known as the Hardy-Ramanujan number after a famous visit by Hardy to see Ramanujan at a hospital.
• Hardy observed Ramanujan’s work primarily involved fields less known even amongst other pure mathematicians.
• Ramanujan’s home state of Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December as ‘State IT Day’, memorialising both the man and his achievements, as a native of Tamil Nadu.

Sources: the hindu.