GS Paper 3:
Topics Covered: Achievements of Indians in science & technology;
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.
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.
