Mathematics

Maths in IR

Recent
Anna Kiesenhofer, Mathematics PhD, won gold in cycling, Tokyo 2020

Millennium prize problems: 7 problems solving any of which would be rewarded with
$1M by Clay Institute

eg: P vs NP

Mathematicians
Ancient
Baudhayana: design of ceremonial altars using geometry (Sulva Sutra)

Aryabhatt: contributed 0 in decimal system, calculated pi to many decimal places

etc (Aryabhattiya)

Varahamihir: Brihat Samhita (treatise in multiple areas including Maths)

Bhaskara I: sine approximation

Brahmagupta: Brahmasputasiddhantika

Sreedhar Acharya (9th C): solutions to quadratic equation

Bhaskara: 12th century mathematician in Bijapur (Bijaganit; Siddhanta Shiromani:

Lilavati)

Modern
Newton

Gauss

Riemann

Lebnitz

Cauchy

Mathematics 1
 Lagrange

Dirac

Terrence Tao: one of the greatest living mathematicians, authored/co-authored 300+

papers

fields: PDE, numerical analysis, probability theory

numerous awards including field's medal

Ramanujan: no formal education, contributed substantially to number theory etc

birthday, 22Dec, celebrated as Mathematics Day in India

said to intuitively come up with theorems; would work on proofs later

Ramanujan numbers: can be expressed as sum of cubes of two integers non-

uniquely (like 1729)

mock theta functions: used extensively in string theory

infinite series, continued fractions, hypergeometric series, Riemann series etc

book The Man Who Knew Infinity, and homonymous movie

Paul Erdos: known for most publications; Erdos number constituted as tribute to his
collaboration efforts

Today
Anand Kumar: researched number theory, educator behind super 30

Vidyanandji Mahan Maharaj: RK mission monk who received Shanti Swaroop

Bhatnagar award for work in geometry and hyperspaces

Neena Gupta: SSB, 70y old Zariski cancelation problem,

Dr Kumar Eswaran: 161y old Rieman hypothesis on how primes are distributed?;
millennium problem by Clay Institute, Oxford,

N D Baruah

Srinivas Vardhan: American-Indian to win Abel’s prize for work in probability theory

Awards

Mathematics 2
 Abel prize: instituted by Norwegian king as Maths’ Nobel prize (since there was
none)

American-Indian Srinivas Vardhan awarded for work in probability theory (2007)

an American woman became first woman recipient in 2019

Fields medal: awarded to mathematicians under 40

named after Charles Fields for establishing award, designing medal, funding it
(Canadian)

notable awardees: Akshay Venkatesh and Manjul Bhargava (Indian origin), an

Iranian woman (first woman)

Breakthroughs
Andrew Wiles’ proof of Fermat’s last theorem (300y)

Neena Gupta: solved Zariski cancelation problem (70y); youngest recipient of SSB

algebraic geometry

Maths in real life

empower small farmers, industrial workers, household workers: money matters, not
be exploited

good Maths foundation → spillover into other areas, revitalize education in

backward regions

knack for problem solving

thinking in abstractions

Maths in governance
thinking in abstractions (problem formulation/simplification)

develop knack for problem solving

critical thinking, resource management, predictive modeling, anomaly detection

A51A: develop scientific temper

specific applications: randomising EVM allocation to election workers

Mathematics 3
 COVID-19 modeling

traffic management algorithms: road crossings, air traffic control etc

statistics, data science for extracting trends out of data, budgeting etc

anomaly detection algorithms: fraud transactions etc

Game theory
determine penalty for rule violations (too high and bribery will flourish, too low and
violations will continue)

MVA penalties

determine price for auctions (too high and few takers, too low and revenue loss)

divestments, auctions like telecom spectrum

determine subsidies for vulnerable sections (too high and laziness, too low and
ineffective)

UBI subsidies

usage of public commons, resources etc

Philosophy linkage
logic

zero ie shunya

Maths education in schools

challenges:

atmosphere of fear around the subject

focus on rote learning of concepts and even solutions to problems

exams asking questions from a limited pool

limited appreciation of the concept and intuition

solutions:

teacher training (eg: IITG CCL)

Mathematics 4
 diversification of problems: change numbers, variety of concepts etc; HOTS

participation in olympiads and competitions to encourage genuine interest;

teachers to mentor bright minds

more practicals: vegetable stalls to sell things to public; vocational education

Bihar Mathematical Societies: teacher training, olympiads to identify talent,

talent nurture programmes

Vedic Mathematics
book authored in 1965 with concepts and methods, claiming to be originated from
Vedas themselves

claims have been questioned by scientific community, although tricks are often used
by students

Mathematics 5
Mathematics 6
Mathematics 7