Srinivasa Ramanujan

Mathematician
Srinivasa Ramanujan FRS was an Indian mathematician and autodidact who, with alm
ost no formal training in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to
mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.
Wikipedia
Born: December 22, 1887, Erode
Died: April 26, 1920, Chetput, Chennai
Spouse: Janakiammal (m. 1909)
Education: Trinity College, Cambridge (1919 1920), more
Books: The Lost Notebook and Other Unpublished Papers: Mathematical Works of Sri
nivasa Ramanujan, more
Parents: Komalatammal, K. Srinivasa Iyengar
Early Life and Education:
Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar was an Indian Mathematician who was born in Erode,
India in 1887 on December 22.
He was born into a family that was not very well to do. He went to school at th
e nearby place, Kumbakonam.
Ramanujan is very well known for his efforts on continued fractions and series o
f hypergeometry.
When Ramanujan was thirteen, he could work out Loney s Trigonometry exercises with
out any help.
At the of fourteen, he was able to acquire the theorems of cosine and sine given
by L. Euler.
Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics by George Shoobri
dge Carr was reached by him in 1903.
The book helped him a lot and opened new dimensions to him were opened
which helped him introduce about 6,165 theorems for himself.
As he had no proper and good books in his reach, he had to figure out on his own
the solutions for all the questions.
It was in this quest that he discovered many tremendous methods and new algebra
ic series.
In 1904, he received a merit scholarship in a local college and became more indu
lgent into mathematics. He lost his interest in all other subjects due to which
he lost his scholarship.
Even after two attempts, he did not succeed to get a first degree in the field
of arts.
In 1909, he got married and continued his clerical work and, side by side, his i
nvestigations of mathematics.
Finally in 1911, he published some of his results.
It was in January 1913 that he sent his work to a Cambridge Professor named G. H
. Hardy but he did
not appreciate Ramanujan s work much as he had not really done reached the standar
d of the mathematicians of the west.
But he was given a scholarship in May by the University of Madras.
Contributions and Achievements:
Ramanujan went to Cambridge in 1914 and it helped him a lot but by that time his
mind worked on the patterns on which
it had worked before and he seldom adopted new ways. By then, it was more about
intuition than argument.
Hardy said Ramanujan could have become an outstanding mathematician if his skill
s had been recognized earlier.
It was said about his talents of continued fractions and
hypergeometric series that, he was unquestionably one of the great masters.
It was due to his sharp memory, calculative mind, patience and insight that he

was a great formalist of his days.

But it was due to his some methods of working in the work analysis and theories
of numbers that did not
let him excel that much.
He got elected as the fellow in 1918 at the Trinity College at Cambridge and the
Royal Society.
He departed from this world on April 26, 1920.