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A PROJECT REPORT ON GREAT MATHEMATICIAN

RAMANUJAN
AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO MATHEMATICS

Submitted by:
UMESH BIKRAM SHAH
Grade: ‘XII’
Faculty: Science ‘P2’
Roll: ‘44’
Submitted to:
Department of Mathematics

Triton International SS/College

Subidhanagar, Tinkune, Kathmandu
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Abstract
The great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan has said about the number theory, mathematical
analysis, infinite series and continued fractions including solutions to mathematical problems
then considered unsolvable. A galaxy to mathematician flourished in Indian mathematics
subcontinent during the period from 1887 AD to 1920 AD, who left their indelible mark on the
history of mathematical sciences.

These great scholar of mathematical sciences enriched the knowledge of the decimal number
system, negative number, Arithmetic, Algebra, Astronomy, Geometry (Plane and spherical),
Trigonometry and even differential calculus. The Indian mathematician made early contribution
to the study of the concept of zero as a number theory. During his short life Srinivasa Ramanujan
independently compiled nearly 3900 results (mostly identities and equations). Many were
completely novel, his original and highly unconventional results, such as the Ramanujan prime,
the Ramanujan theta function, partition formulae and Mock theta functions have opened entire
new areas of work and inspired a vast amount of further research. A citation analysis of
Ramanujan’s articles shows the impact of his work on the research and academic community
well into the twenty-first century.

Objective
The main objectives of this project are:

1. To preserve the collected papers and the work contained in Notebook of Ramanujan in
digitized form.
2. To publish journals, proceedings, memoires, translations free of cost and other works as
the society may decide.
3. To increase productivity and motivation.
4. To organize meetings, symposium and discussions on problems concerning
Mathematics and its applications.
5. To promote researches in scientific development concerned with the problem of national
welfare.
6. To precure and manage the funds and endowments for the promotion of Mathematics
and its applications in different fields of science.
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History/Background
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), the man who reshaped twentieth-century mathematics with
his various contributions in several mathematical domains, including mathematical analysis,
infinite series, continued fractions, number theory, and game theory is recognized as one of history's
greatest mathematicians. Leaving this world at the youthful age of 32, Ramanujan made
significant contributions to mathematics that only a few others could match in their lifetime.
Surprisingly, he never received any formal mathematics training. Most of his mathematical
discoveries were based only on intuition and were ultimately proven correct. With its humble
and sometimes difficult start, his life story is just as fascinating as his incredible work. Every
year, Ramanujan’s birth anniversary on December 22 is observed as National Mathematics Day.
Born in Erode, Tamil Nadu, India, Ramanujan demonstrated an exceptional intuitive grasp of
mathematics at a young age. Despite being a mathematical prodigy, Ramanujan's career did not
begin well. He received a college scholarship in 1904, but he quickly lost it by failing in
nonmathematical subjects. Another attempt at college in Madras (now Chennai) ended in failure
when he failed his First Arts exam. It was around this time that he began his famous notebooks.
He drifted through poverty until 1910 when he was interviewed by R. Ramachandra Rao,
secretary of the Indian Mathematical Society. Rao was initially sceptical of Ramanujan, but he
eventually recognised his abilities and supported him financially.
In 1911 Ramanujan published the first of his papers in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical
Society. His genius slowly gained recognition, and in 1913 he began a correspondence with the
British mathematician Godfrey H. Hardy that led to a special scholarship from the University of
Madras and a grant from Trinity College, Cambridge. Overcoming his religious objections,
Ramanujan traveled to England in 1914, where Hardy tutored him and collaborated with him in
some research.
Srinivasa Ramanujan began developing his theories in mathematics and published his first paper
in 1911. He was mentored at Cambridge by GH Hardy, a well-known British mathematician who
encouraged him to publish his findings in a number of papers. In 1918, Ramanujan became the
second Indian to be included as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Ramanujan died in 1920, but he left behind three notebooks and a sheaf of pages (also called the
“lost notebook”) containing many unpublished results that mathematicians continued to verify
long after his death.
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Literature Review
Srinivasa Ramanujan is remembered for his unique mathematical brilliance, which he had
largely developed by himself. In 1920 he died at age 32, generally unknown to the world at large
but recognized by mathematicians as a phenomenal genius, without peer since Leonhard Euler
(1707–83) and Carl Jacobi (1804–51).

Ramanujan’s knowledge of mathematics (most of which he had worked out for himself) was
startling. Although he was almost completely unaware of modern developments in mathematics,
his mastery of continued fractions was unequaled by any living mathematician. He worked out
the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, the functional equations of the
zeta function, and his own theory of divergent series, in which he found a value for the sum of
such series using a technique he invented that came to be called Ramanujan summation. On the
other hand, he knew nothing of doubly periodic functions, the classical theory of quadratic
forms, or Cauchy’s theorem, and he had only the most nebulous idea of what constitutes a
mathematical proof. Though brilliant, many of his theorems on the theory of prime numbers
were wrong.

In England Ramanujan made further advances, especially in the partition of numbers (the
number of ways that a positive integer can be expressed as the sum of positive integers; e.g., 4
can be expressed as 4, 3 + 1, 2 + 2, 2 + 1 + 1, and 1 + 1 + 1 + 1). His papers were published in
English and European journals, and in 1918 he was elected to the Royal Society of London. In
1917 Ramanujan had contracted tuberculosis, but his condition improved sufficiently for him to
return to India in 1919. He died the following year, generally unknown to the world at large but
recognized by mathematicians as a phenomenal genius, without peer since Leonhard Euler
(1707–83) and Carl Jacobi (1804–51).
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Ramanujan’s Contributions towards mathematics

Ramanujan's contribution extends to mathematical fields such as complex analysis, number
theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.

Infinite series for pi: In 1914, Ramanujan found a formula for infinite series for pi, which
forms the basis of many algorithms used today. Finding an accurate approximation of π (pi) has
been one of the most important challenges in the history of mathematics.

Ramanujan came up with something much more elaborate that got to 1/pi faster: 1/pi =
(sqrt(8)/9801) * (1103 + 659832/24591257856 + …). This series gets you to 3.141592 after the
first term and adds 8 correct digits per term thereafter.

Game theory: Ramanujan discovered a long list of new ideas for solving many challenging
mathematical problems that have given great impetus to the development of game theory. His
contribution to game theory is purely based on intuition and natural talent and is unmatched to
this day.

Mock theta function: He elaborated on the mock theta function, a concept in the field of
modular forms of mathematics.

Ramanujan number: 1729 is known as the Ramanujan number which is the sum of the
cubes of two numbers 10 and 9 or 12 and 1.

Circle Method: Ramanujan, along with GH Hardy, invented the circle method which gave
the first approximations of the partition of numbers beyond 200. This method contributed
significantly to solving the notorious complex problems of the 20th century, such as Waring's
conjecture and other additional questions.

Theta Function: Theta function is a special function of several complex variables. German

mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi invented several closely related theta functions known
as Jacobi theta functions. Theta function was studied by extensively Ramanujan who came up
with the Ramanujan theta function, that generalizes the form of Jacobi theta functions and also
captures general properties. Ramanujan theta function is used to determine the critical
dimensions in Bosonic string theory, superstring theory, and M-theory.
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Ramanujan summation: Ramanujan summation is a technique invented by the

mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan for assigning a value to divergent infinite series. Although
the Ramanujan summation of a divergent series is not a sum in the traditional sense, it has
properties that make it mathematically useful in the study of divergent infinite series, for which
conventional summation is undefined.

One of the first problems he posed in the journal of the Indian Mathematical Society is as follow:
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Application
Game theorem which is one of the theorem by ramanujan which is a tool to analyze economic
competition, economic phenomena such as bargaining, mechanism design, auctions etc. Game
theorem is applied for determining different strategies in the business world.

Ramanujan’s mathematics,done over a hundred years ago,finds applications today in areas other
than pure mathematics, which were not even established during his time. Two among these are
signal processing and Black Hole physics. He also formed the formula given below:

The formula is:

P(n)∼14n3–√exp(π2n3−−−√)

As n→∞

This formula was remarkably accurate.

Conclusion
Here we see that it is a well established fact that knowledge of mathematical sciences including
the concept of number theory, decimal number system, negative number, algebra, mathematical
analysis, infinite series and continued fractions were marvelous. Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of
India’s greatest mathematical geniuses. He made substantial contributions to the analytical
theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions convergent series for infinite series and theta
function. Ramanujan continued to develop his mathematical ideas and began to pose problems
and solve problems in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. Ramanujan had no formal
education in mathematics.

Acknowledgments
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my mathematics teacher Mr. AJAY
KUMAR CHAUDHARY for his wonderful guidance throughout this project.

I am also grateful to my parents for their continuous support to me throughout this project, to my
friends for their help ,and to all those who contributed directly or indirectly towards this project.

During this project, I acquired many valuable skills, and I hope that in the years to come, those
skills will be put to good use.
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Reference

 Ramanujan, Srinivasa (1919). "Some definite integrals". The Journal of the Indian

Mathematical Society. 11 (2): 81–88
 Berndt, B. (1985). Ramanujan's Notebooks, Part I. New York: Springer-Verlag.
 Berndt, Bruce C : Ramanujan’s Notebooks, Part – 5 : Springer Science & Business, 12
Dec 1997, Page No – 4.
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