Srinivasa Ramanujan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

by vinutheraj • 17 years ago

77 48 17 years ago

en.wikipedia.org

ilkhd2• 17 years ago

Ramanujan is well known.

eric_t• 17 years ago

He is the most well-known "unknown" mathematician...:)

adamc• 17 years ago

I think I first read about him in a Martin Gardner book as a kid. So yeah, not that unknown.

hernan7• 17 years ago

Kind of same here -- I think I first read about him on the Argentinian magazine "Humor y Juegos" (Humor and Games) some time in the late 70s/ early 80s. I guess most people with any interest in recreational mathematics/ puzzles will know of Ramanujan.

Chirag• 17 years ago

Ramanujan was also mentioned in "Good Will Hunting". However I do agree that Indians have done a bad in terms of Marketing our selves.

Our brand image over some time has been: Some time Back: Snake Charmers and Kings Now: Bangalore(Outsourcing) & Spicy Food

FraaJad2• 17 years ago

"Snake Charmers" is not a brand image "We" wanted nor created. It is the product of ignorant western minds.

Compared to other eastern cultures (chinese and japanese at least) India has suffered from mis-understanding and underwhelming understanding for a long time.

You only have to read English literature on India from 18 and 19th century to realize the extent of misinformation generated by the British to legitimise their occupation of India. "Victorial Morals" were not helpful either.

acg• 17 years ago

I doubt you can speak for your forefathers any more than I can, but it does seem that you would like to rewrite history by today's standards. Perhaps your stereotype of the west is just as perverted.

ideamonk3• 17 years ago

Of ignorance - the article mentions "dying of illness, malnutrition and possibly liver infection in 1920 at the age of 32." ...

I smell some ignorance on our part - we don't have much goodwill to take care of geniuses. The current state of higher education (with major emphasis on mugging, apart from minute number of good colleges) is killing many more geniuses.

I find a 1st year Computer Science student very keen in maths and physics, to the extent that he goes on to prove things that go above our heads. I asked him, "So why didn't you go for a Bsc in Physics/maths?" , his answer - "I need to get a job first, and anyhow I can't go against wills of my father".

Now look at that, neither does government not parents do enough to sustain such geniuses in our nation. Another quote from the article - "He received a scholarship to study at Government College in Kumbakonam, but lost it when he failed his non-mathematical coursework." Even this is pretty much observable here, the lack of quality higher education institution does force us to leave our passion and do the way the system dictates us to.

There are many geniuses, but if things continue like this, they would never be filtered out and brought to limelight, to places where their genius can be of worth. ... nothing more to say.

"It is the product of ignorant western minds." --> That's such a poor generalization. (We+our gov) have been ignorant at many other important things (higher education, infrastructure, ...) than an 'Image' projected on world.

teeja• 17 years ago

The British saw what they were prepared to see. What they missed falls on them. Just below the superficial, India is one of the great nations of history.

(The same applies to what new arrivals in the Americas were not prepared to see in the 'Indians' of the Americas. Before knowledge we can only see with the eyes our culture gives us.)

mahmud3• 17 years ago

However I do agree that Indians have done a bad in terms of Marketing our selves.

What is this "we", and since when are people brands?

Bit parochial and jingoist eh? Nations are an illusion, and better image "betterment" can be done by caring for one's immediate neighbor.

Don't succumb to regionalist propaganda that serve none other than the ruling classes; all earth is yours, and all (wo)men your kin.

TheElder2• 17 years ago

Tell that to the Chinese.

neelesh• 17 years ago

I would upvote this a million times if possible

JoeAltmaier• 17 years ago

Oh lighten up. Americans have a lovely variety of stereotypical images - fat McDonalds consumers, Texan bullies, imperialists, the Japanese apparently think we "all smell like butter" or some such. Its kidding, and when done by friends is supposed to be answered good-naturedly.

travisjeffery2• 17 years ago

If you count him as unknown then you might as well count just about every other Mathematician other than Newton as an unknown as well.

yummyfajitas• 17 years ago

I've discovered that John Nash ("that beautiful mind guy") is probably about as well known as Newton. So is "that Numbers guy" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numb3rs).

travisjeffery2• 17 years ago

No. People don't call Newton: "That gravity guy", people know Newton's name. Every time I go to talk to a non-Mathematician about John Nash and say his name they go: "Who?", me: "The Mathematician from A Beautiful Mind." them: "Oh." Newton is Newton and in terms of popularity, John Nash; "The Beautiful Mind guy" isn't even in his league.

eru4• 17 years ago

And some of the Greeks.

numbchuckskills• 17 years ago

agreed..I recall first studying his work in highschool math. and that was in Canada.

ciupicri• 17 years ago

Not really. Most people know Newton as a physicist, but any pupil knows about Pythagoras. Also, any high school pupil that studies science (not human arts) knows about (Joseph Louis) Lagrange.

ypavan• 17 years ago

I loved reading Robert Kanigel's biography - "The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan." Recommended for people who want to know more about the genius mathematician.

mwerty• 17 years ago

My intro to him was http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1051838/

God bless the bbc.

recurser• 17 years ago

Seconded, a great read.

muon2• 17 years ago

The Music of Primes by Marcus Du Sautoy also has an excellent chapter on Ramanujam.

zaph0d• 17 years ago

[...]Hardy contacted the Indian Office to plan for Ramanujan's trip to Cambridge. Secretary Arthur Davies of the Advisory Committee for Indian Students met with Ramanujan to discuss the overseas trip. In accordance with his Brahmin upbringing, Ramanujan refused to leave his country to "go to a foreign land."

So much for being a Math genius.

Disclaimer: I am an Indian.

gsk• 17 years ago

Being a Genius in Mathematics does not necessarily mean being a genius in everything else (including bringing an exciting future forward in time). Galois, another mathematical genius from France (1800s), died at twenty because he fought a duel and got killed. It may be tempting to call him 'stupid'. He may be somewhat irrational in his love affair but that does not make his mathematical genius any lesser.

andrew1• 17 years ago

What does your disclaimer mean?

Ramanujan was a tremendously talented mathematician. Just because you come from the same country as him or find his religious beliefs archaic and/or irrational doesn't mean you can just dismiss his achievements.

muon2• 17 years ago

Maths and Culture are not related in any way.

zzkt• 17 years ago

neither are algebra and calculus ;)

keeptrying• 17 years ago

Newton was supposed to have been an absolute coward.

As a member of parliament the only thing he mentioned, during any session, was a request to open the window.

Feynman was a womanizer who was known to sleep with wives of colleagues. His biography "Genius" is a pretty good read by the way.

Genius doesnt mean "adventurous" or "virtuous" or "worldly". Its just one facet of a human.

eru4• 17 years ago

And Newton was also heavy into alchemy and astrology. (Leibniz seemed much saner. But he was probably closer to Feynman in his worldly orientation.)

sanitybit• 17 years ago

But does he have his MCSE?

capablanca• 17 years ago

Well known. Now, do you know Slava Pestov?

ivenkys• 17 years ago

Why is this article at the top of the page ? As so many people have pointed out - he is neither an unknown nor has there been any recent incident/discovery which would require a re-iteration of his "geniusness".

TheElder2• 17 years ago

White guilt.

lucifer• 17 years ago

For what? For recognizing his genius and rescuing him from the squalor of his native condition and landing him in the heart of the empire?

ramanujan• 17 years ago

I probably should pipe up on this thread :)

The most amazing thing about Ramanujan is that there are literally multiple Springer Volumes devoted solely to the task of proving the results in his notebooks.

See for example:

http://bit.ly/iWIQP

pchristensen• 17 years ago

Long url: http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&client=firefox-a...

wglb• 17 years ago

How can you say that the inventor of taxicab numbers is unknown? Most people I know know who he is.

coliveira• 17 years ago

This guy was huge, and he is very well known.

chubbard• 17 years ago

One of my coworkers used to talk about Ramanujan. He remarked Ramanujan called every prime number a close personal friend. He sort of had this deep relationship with numbers.

Then I saw a documentary on people who could do complex math without the aide of a calculator (e.g. given any large number and tell if it was prime in their head). I thought there might be a parallel between people like this and Ramanujan. The documentary focused on a couple of people who were not savants, but by all accounts normal people. They followed a young British kid. He described how he saw and felt about numbers, and each number had a distinct personality. I found it remarkably similar to the description about how Ramanujan felt about numbers.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

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