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National Mathematics Day:

GS Paper 3:

Topics Covered: Achievements of Indians in science & technology;

 

National Mathematics Day

Context:

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.
  • 2021 marks 134th birth anniversary of Dr Ramanujan.

current affairs

 

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. It is the smallest number which can be expressed as the sum of two different cubes in two different ways.
  • 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.
  • Ramanujan compiled around 3,900 results consisting of equations and identities. One of his most treasured findings was his infinite series for

The Dev Patel-starrer ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ (2015) was a biopic on the mathematician.

 

Insta Curious:

Dr Manmohan Singh, then Prime Minister, declared the December 22 as National Mathematics Day in 2012.

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link and Mains Link:

  • Key achievements and contributions of Sri Ramanujan.
  • National Mathematics Day.

Sources: PIB.