National Mathematics Day: Celebrating Srinivasa Ramanujan's Amazing Contributions
Ramanujan over his brief career discovered his own theorems and independently compiled over 3900 results.
December 22 is celebrated every year as National Mathematics Day, commemorating the life and contributions of Srinivasa Ramanujan, one of India¡¯s most remarkable mathematicians.
Wikipedia
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Early life
Born on this day in the year 1887, at Erode, in Tamil Nadu to a Tamil Brahmin Iyengar family. His father, Kuppuswamy Srinivasa Iyengar worked as a clerk at a saree shop whereas his mother, Komalatammal was a housewife who often performed music at a local temple.
He shifted through various schools in his early years but performed the best at the Kangayan Primary School in Kumbakonam. Just before the age of 10, in November 1897, he scored the highest marks in arithmetic, geography, English and Tamil, across the entire district.
Child prodigy
Later he schooled at the Town Higher Secondary School where he came across formal mathematics for the first time and by the age of 11, he was a child prodigy. In fact, he had completely exhausted the mathematical knowledge he used to lodge at his home.
He later mastered advanced trigonometry at the age of 13, from a book written by S.L. Loney, that was lent to him.
He would finish mathematics exams in half the time it took others, and by the age of 15, he even created his own method to solve quartics.
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Further academics in England
He eventually went to study at the Government College, where he failed his exams as he would ignore subjects other than mathematics. Soon after he started working as a clerk at the Madras Port Trust, where one of his colleagues -- also a mathematician -- referred him to Profesor G.H. Hardy of Trinity College at Cambridge. He later joined the institution and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1916.
Wikipedia
Ramanujan over his brief career discovered his own theorems and independently compiled over 3900 results. He was also elected to the Royal Society and the London Mathematical Society. He was also made a fellow of the Trinity College -- the first Indian ever to be elected.
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Death
Ramanujan experienced health problems throughout his life, but his problems worsened whilst in England, where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He returned to India in 1919 to Kumbakonam and died in 1920 at the age of just 32.
Later analysis of his medical records by Dr D.A.B. Young revealed that his symptoms hinted towards hepatic amoebiasis -- a disease very common in Madras during those times.
He experienced two episodes of dysentery before leaving for England. If left untreated properly it can lead to amoebiasis dysentery that can lie hidden for years, before turning into hepatic amoebiasis.
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