Srinivasa Ramanujan Biography, Wiki, Age, Family, & Career 2024

“An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God.” 

This most famous quote is said by a great mathematician of India Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar. Srinivasa Ramanujan is a name that combines brilliance, intelligence, and mystique. This name is celebrated as one of the greatest mathematical geniuses of the 20th century. 

A humble town in colonial India was where Srinivasa Ramanujan was born, although he eventually ended up at Cambridge University in England. His unique intelligence and unwavering commitment to mathematics earned him this honor. The originality and depth of his work have impacted the field, overthrowing conventional limits and introducing new areas for mathematical exploration. In this article, we will be discussing the entire biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan, from his childhood days until he became a world-renowned mathematician. In this article, we will go through Srinivasa Ramanujan biography. 

Early Life and Education

Born on December 22, 1887, in Erode India into a modest Tamil family. Srinivasa Ramanujan’s father, K. Srinivasa Iyengar, was a clerk in a cloth merchant’s shop, and his mother, Komalatammal, was a homemaker. Srinivasa Ramanujan showed his exceptional and brilliant talent in maths at a very young age. Despite having limited education Ramanujan started his journey with maths from the beginning. 

Born	22 December 1887
Place of Birth	Erode, India
Died	26 April 1920 (aged 32)
Place of Death	Kumbakonam, India
Other names	Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar
Education	Governments Art College (no degree),  Pachaiyappa’s College (no degree), Trinity College, Cambridge (Bachelor of Arts by Research)
Known for	Landau–Ramanujan constant, Mock theta functions, Ramanujan conjecture, Ramanujan prime, Ramanujan theta function, Ramanujan’s sum, Rogers–Ramanujan identities, Ramanujan’s master theorem, etc.
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society

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Academic Struggles and Work

Srinivas Ramanaujan’s brilliance in maths was evidence of his intelligence in his early teens. He made some original work in the mathematics world such as contributions to number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. Despite his extraordinary talent. He faced many problems while researching mathematics due to fewer resources in India.  His innovative results were also developed in isolation without any resources or formal training. 

Srinivasa Ramanujan: Marriage 

He married Janakiammal in July 1909. Due to some health issues, Srinivasa Ramanujan went into surgery around 1910. After he recovered he started searching for a job and also tutored students at Presidency College in Madras who were preparing for their Fellow of Arts exam. In 1910. In 1910 he met V. Ramaswamy Aiyer, who later became the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society. He persuaded him and fortune smiled upon them. Consequently, with Aiyer’s assistance, his work was published in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.

Move to Cambridge

In 1913 G.H. Hardy, renowned mathematician at Cambridge University received a letter from Srinivasa Ramanujan containing some of his mathematical finds which he had done. This letter made Hardy invite Ramanujan who was then invited to attend Cambridge University. Upon arrival in England in 1914, Ramanujan started working very well with Hardy thus leading to the growing academic field they were interested in. Ramanujan and Hardy worked on various important theories and theorems during this time.

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Contributions and Achievements

Ramanujan’s contributions to math were deep and diverse at once. Below are a few of his extraordinary accomplishments.

Ramanujan-Hardy Numbers: His study on highly composite numbers and the renowned Ramanujan-Hardy numbers. Ramanujan’s Tau Function: Introduced a range of equations and functions like tau that have since been at the heart of different fields within number theory. Ramanujan’s Infinite Series: He created several infinite sequences for determining pi (π), which continue being utilized up to now.

Although he had a brief academic career, Ramanujan’s work continues to influence contemporary mathematics. New domains for investigation were opened by his intuition and unorthodox techniques; this inspired countless generations of mathematicians.

Health and Return to India

So it was that during his stay in England, Ramanujan’s health suffered due to the cold climate and bad nourishment. Moved back to India in 1919 after being sick several times; however, he got worse until death accorded him peace at thirty-two years old on the twenty-sixth of April, nineteen twenty. While cut short in years yet remarkable for its depth or range are some of his work: mathematical poetry sentences written by a mathematical genius who will remain alive forever.

Legacy

The life and work done by Srinivasa Ramanujan have heavily impacted the field of mathematics. His notebooks contain many mathematical results and conjectures, making them an area for much research. Still, Ramanujan’s name comes up in several mathematics journals including The Ramanujan Journal, as well as at mathematical conferences. He exemplifies the capacity of mathematics to transform absurdities into order by simply thinking about it differently or coming up with a new way to interpret things.

Ramanujan’s life and work have been the subject of numerous books, articles, and even a play, “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” which highlights his extraordinary journey from rural India to the academic heights of Cambridge. His legacy is a reminder of the universal nature of mathematical discovery and the remarkable potential of the human mind.

Unknown Facts About Srinivasa Ramanujan

• Pure and applied mathematics were not his expertise, but Ramanujan made great strides in analytical methods, number theory, and the theory of infinite series even without the formal preparation usually required for such studies. 
• In the year when he turned just 15 years old, he came across George Shoobridge Carr’s Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics. This served as a bible for him that informed much of his mathematical work.
• He produced his theorem and thought. Neglecting all other studies for the sake of mathematics, he secured a scholarship to the University of Madras in 1903 but lost it the next year. 
• In 1911, he released his first paper in a journal for the Indian Mathematical Society. Ultimately, they learned to appreciate his mathematical talent and revealed their undiscovered gift. 
• He collected about 3900 solutions in equations as well as identities. Among many other well-known finds is his infinite series for pi.
• Today’s algorithmic structures are built on it. Ramanujan died when he was 32 due to tuberculosis. He left behind three notebooks including ‘lost notebooks’ with other pages containing many unpublished results verified later by mathematicians after Ramanujan’s demise.

Srinivasa Ramanujan’s Passing

The world of mathematics suffered a devastating loss with the death of Srinivasa Ramanujan on April 26, 1920, at the age of 32. His contribution was impressive and had a great effect on the mathecis world. He is an exceptional genius who has an intuitive understanding of intricate mathematical ideas as well as the capacity to find original results unexpectedly much of the time even without any formal training.

As we have read in Srinivasa Ramanujan biography the theories he proposed are still studied today and they serve as a basis for furthering knowledge with which his name is synonymous. In terms of intricacy that goes beyond era or place, there are few equals among mathematicians like Ramanujan, whose work stands the test of time.

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