Thomas Caleb Uptergrove

5/1/2017
History of Mathematics
D.R. Kaprekar and Chen Jingrun

For sake of clarity, the first half of this paper will cover D.R. Kaprekar (because he was

born first) and the latter half will cover Chen Jingrun.

Born on January 19, 1907, Dattatreya Ramachandra Kaprekar’s parents were a woman

who died while he was very young and a clerk who loved astrology. Kaprekar did not inherit

much from his father, but one thing he did inherit was a love of calculations, something that

would come to define him. Despite his humble beginnings, Kaprekar went on to go to high

school in the suburbs where his mathematical skills thrived, eventually landing him a place in

Fergusson College, where his original mathematical work would far outshine that of his peers in

the form of number theory questions.

After obtaining his bachelor of science in mathematics, Kaprekar became a teacher at the

age of 24 in a town about 100 kilometers from his hometown. Kaprekar’s career as a teacher

would prove extensive, and he would continue to teach for 34 years until he retired at the age of

58. His career proved as successful as it was extensive, with his uncanny ability to inspire a love

of numbers within his students easily motivated them to work and learn with a constant desire to

learn more math. When his colleagues asked him how he was able to do such a thing, his

response was, “A drunkard wants to go on drinking wine to remain in that pleasurable state. The

same is the case with me in so far as numbers are concerned.” Spoken like a true mathematician.

Regardless of his status as a full-time teacher, Kaprekar continued his work on numbers,

creating work that was debated amongst mathematicians. While there were those who considered

Kaprekar’s work to be trivial and unimportant, a good deal of private publishers took notice of

his theoretical work and found it too fascinating to ignore.

 Thomas Caleb Uptergrove
5/1/2017
History of Mathematics
One such concept was Kaprekar’s Constant, the number 6174, which has a very curious

property. If one were to select a four-digit number such that the digits were all different numbers

(3963, for instance) and arrange them all in descending order (9633), then subtract those same

digits in ascending order (3369), and repeat the process over and over, one would eventually find

the number 6174, no matter what number they started with. So long as all the digits are not the

same, this will always hold true.

(Process worked using 3963 as the starting number):

9633−3369=6264

6642−2466=4176

7641−1467=6174 And so, the number 6174 was named in honor of the mathematician who

discovered its very unique property. Another concept that Kaprekar discovered are Kaprekar

numbers, which Kaprekar himself referred to as ‘Splendid Numbers’. The definition of a

Kaprekar number is a number n such that the left half of the digits of n2 added to the right half of

the digits add up to the original number. For instance, 9,99,703, and 999 are all Kaprekar

numbers.

Proof:

92 =81; 8+1=9

992 =9801; 98+01=99

7032=494209 ; 494+ 209=703

9 992 =998001; 998+001=999

 Thomas Caleb Uptergrove
5/1/2017
History of Mathematics
And since these numbers are provably infinite (9, 99, 999, 9999, 99999…, with other

numbers scattered between adding another nine in place of a multiple of ten), of course,

mathematicians began studying these numbers to find other properties that they had and then the

question of ‘are these numbers only viable in base ten or would their values in other bases

change?’ happened and mathematicians have been thanking Kaprekar for his discover ever since,

as they’ve found more and more ways to enjoy these Splendid Numbers that Kaprekar

discovered.

However, during the majority of Kaprekar’s life, he was unable to find the recognition or

thanks that would later be bestowed to his name. After retiring from teaching, Kaprekar’s life

took a hard turn when his wife died in 1966 and he soon discovered that his pension could not

support him for very long. These two events shook Kaprekar, as he had devoted much of his life

to living as cheaply as possible, supporting his wife, his love of number study, and nothing else.

Later on, Kaprekar was forced to give private tuition in order to get by, but not everything was

bad for Kaprekar in his later years.

While much of his work was unrecognized and unpublished, Kaprekar’s work gained

international fame when it was published, of all places, in a mathematics puzzle section of

Scientist American, where mathematicians around the world took note of the work of Kaprekar

and came to embrace it. While this occurred after Kaprekar had turned 62, it’s a comforting

thought to know that a passionate mathematician received recognition while he was still alive, as

so many mathematicians do not live to see the fruits of their work.

On that note, we will now switch to Chen Jingrun.

 Thomas Caleb Uptergrove
5/1/2017
History of Mathematics
Similarly to Kaprekar, Chen’s start in life was not spectacular. Chen was born to a very

poor family and found a way out of his hard spot in life through his mathematical skills and

became a teacher at the young age of 20. Unlike Kaprekar, Chen did not enjoy teaching and

quickly found that it was ‘not for him’, quitting at the end of his first year of teaching.

Shortly following this, Chen began working and writing theories for number theory.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t until people couldn’t understand his work that he got noticed. One of his

papers was notoriously elaborate, to the point where number theory specialists had to be

consulted just for his paper to be read. He was then welcomed to join them as a specialist in the

field, where his work in number theory is still recognized today.

For instance, Chen primes are named after him, as he did a lot of work using them. A

Chen prime is defined as a prime that exists such that if two is added to that prime, it results in

another prime or a number only divisible by prime numbers (and one). For instance,

3,5,7,9,11,13,17,19, and 21 are all Chen primes. While they seem common at first, they become

less common as the prime numbers increase in value. What’s more is that Chen also proved that

there were infinitely many of these prime numbers, creating a way to generate infinitely many

prime numbers.

Interestingly, as he was working on this, he was collaborating with a Russian

mathematician on these ideas, he found out that his Russian colleague had gotten his face onto a

postage stamp. Chen then took it upon himself to put a silhouette of his own face onto a Chinese

postage stamp, along with a constant that he was famous for developing. Chen’s greatest pride

was in his mathematical accomplishments, so it is fitting that he would leave a part of his legacy

in the form of a constant he discovered on a postage stamp.

 Thomas Caleb Uptergrove
5/1/2017
History of Mathematics
Chen’s devotion to his work defined him for a staggering thirty years until an unfortunate

cycling accident left him with a traumatic injury. This, coupled with the diagnosis of Parkinson’s

that he received almost immediately after being rushed to the hospital, left many believing that

Chen would never walk or speak ever again, let alone complete any work in the field of

mathematics. While many were distraught by the tragic loss of his work on solving Golbach’s

conjecture (in which he was making tremendous progress), the people around him were far too

impressed with his determination to regain the use of his vocal chords and legs to be concerned

with his lost work.

Chen’s determination eventually gained him back the ability to use his legs and voice.

Additionally, many of his former students were so inspired by his perseverance that they decided

to pick up his work where he had left off, and many of them subsequently became contributors to

number theory in their own ways. Another of the lucky mathematicians who got to see his work

be recognized, Chen Jingrun not only got to see his students take on his work, but also became a

symbol of academic rigor and success through relentless effort throughout China within his

lifetime. Fittingly enough, there is a statue placed next to his tombstone (upon which he had his

favorite proof engraved in both English and Mandarin).

 Thomas Caleb Uptergrove
5/1/2017
History of Mathematics
Works Cited

 "Dattatreya Ramachandra Kaprekar." Kaprekar biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May

2017. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Kaprekar.html.

 Lei, T., E. Belykh, A. B. Dru, K. Yagmurlu, A. M. Elhadi, P. Nakaji, and M. C. Preul.

"Chen Jingrun, China's famous mathematician: devastated by brain injuries on the

doorstep to solving a fundamental mathematical puzzle." Neurosurgical focus. U.S.

National Library of Medicine, July 2016. Web. 02 May 2017.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27364253.

 "Role Models >> Chen Jingrun." Chen Jingrun. China, n.d. Web. 02 May 2017.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/60th_anniversary_people/2009-

09/17/content_18547276.htm.