LADC GROUP ACTIVITY

MATHEMATICIAN : SRINIVASA RAMANUJAN

PRESENTED BY :

116054 – Moksh Oswal

116046 – Hrishikesh Lokhande
116047 – Omkar Mahabdi
116048 – Shashank Mahale
116012 – Vedang Atgur
116060 – Aditya Parulekar
116013 – Aditya Bandgar
 EARLY LIFE

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887, in Erode, Madras Presidency,

British India, to K. Srinivasa Iyengar and his wife Komalatammal. His family was a
humble one and his father worked as a clerk in a sari shop. His mother gave birth to
several children after Ramanujan, but none survived infancy. He started his
schooling in 1892. Initially, he did not like school. However, he soon started
exceling in academics, especially mathematics. After passing out of ‘Kangayan
Primary School,’ he enrolled at ‘Town Higher Secondary School’ in 1897. He soon
discovered a book on advanced trigonometry, written by S. L. Loney, which he
mastered by the time he was 13. He proved to be a brilliant student and won several
merit certificates and academic awards.
He went to the ‘Government Arts College,’ Kumbakonam, on scholarship. However,
he was so preoccupied with mathematics that he could not focus on any other
subject, and failed in most of them. Due to this, his scholarship was revoked. He
later enrolled at ‘Pachaiyappa's College’ in Madras where he exceled in
mathematics, but performed poorly in other subjects. He failed to clear his Fellow of
Arts exam in December 1906. He then left college without a degree and continued
to pursue independent research in mathematics.
 RESEARCH AREA

Ramanujan compiled around 3,900 results consisting of equations and identities. One
of his most treasured findings was his infinite series for pi. This series forms the
basis of many algorithms we use today. He gave several fascinating formulas to
calculate the digits of pi in many unconventional ways. He elaborately described the
mock theta function, which is a concept in the realm of modular form in mathematics.
Considered an enigma till sometime back, it is now recognized as holomorphic parts
of mass forms. 1729 is known as the Ramanujan number. It is the sum of the cubes of
two numbers 10 and 9. For instance, 1729 results from adding 1000 (the cube of 10)
and 729 (the cube of 9). This is the smallest number that can be expressed in two
different ways as it is the sum of these two cubes. Interestingly, 1729 is a natural
number following 1728 and preceding 1730. Ramanujan’s other notable
contributions include hypergeometric series, the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals,
the theory of divergent series, and the functional equations of the zeta function.
  Ramanujan, Indian mathematician whose contributions to the theory of numbers include
pioneering discoveries of the properties of the partition function.
 He also discovered the properties of the partition function
CONTRIBUTIONS/
 Though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial contributions
RELEVENCE IN
to mathematical analysis, number thery, infinite series, and continued fractions, including
ENGINEERING FIELD solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable.
 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 led to a special scholarship from the University of Madras and
a grant from Trinity College, Cambridge.
 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
 In 1918 Ramanujan became one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society of London and
only the second Indian member, and the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge. 
 During his short life, Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3,900 results (mostly identities
and equations). 
 In 1919, due to hepatic amoebiasis (a complication from episodes of dysentery many years
previously) compelled Ramanujan’s return to India, where he died in 1920 at the age of 32
 His “lost notebook”, containing discoveries from the last year of his life, caused great excitement
among mathematicians when it was rediscovered in 1976.
 RECENT DEVELOPMENT IN THAT AREAS

• Infinite series of Pi :

π, the all-pervading mathematical constant, has always fascinated

mathematicians. Srinivasa Ramanujan was no exception. In 1914, he derived a
set of infinite series that seemed to be the fastest way to approximate π. However,
these series were never employed for this purpose until 1985, when it was used to
compute 17 million terms of the continued fraction of π. And in the years
preceding this computing feat, there were breakthroughs in understanding why
Ramanujan’s series approximated π so well. This article explores this recently
gained understanding of Ramanujan’s series, while also discussing alternative
approaches to approximate π.
 • Mock Theta Function :

In , a mock modular form is the holomorphic part of a harmonic weak Maass form, and a mock theta function is
essentially a mock modular form of weight 1/2. The first examples of mock theta functions were described by Srinivasa
Ramanujan in his last 1920 letter to G. H. Hardy and in his lost notebook. Sander Zwegers discovered that adding certain
non-holomorphic functions to them turns them into harmonic weak Maass forms.

Ramanujan's 12 January 1920 letter to Hardy listed 17 examples of functions that he called mock theta functions, and
his lost notebook contained several more examples. (Ramanujan used the term "theta function" for what today would be
called a modular form.) Ramanujan pointed out that they have an asymptotic expansion at the cusps, similar to that of
modular forms of weight 1/2, possibly with poles at cusps, but cannot be expressed in terms of "ordinary" theta functions.
He called functions with similar properties "mock theta functions". Zwegers later discovered the connection of the mock
theta function with weak Maass forms.
Ramanujan associated an order to his mock theta functions, which was not clearly defined. Before the work of Zwegers,
the orders of known mock theta functions included
3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10.
Ramanujan's notion of order later turned out to correspond to the conductor of the Nebentypus character of the
weight 1/2 harmonic Maass forms which admit Ramanujan's mock theta functions as their holomorphic projections.
 AWARDS/REWARDS

Srinivasa Ramanujan Birth Centenary Award :

To commemorate the Birth Centenary of the great Indian

mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan the Association instituted
this annual award in 1989 to honour a distinguished Scientist of the
country.

The award carries a Gold Medal and Certificate. The awardee is

entitled to T.A. (Air Fare-economy class - within the country) as per
ISCA rules for attending the Annual session of the Science Congress
in which he/she will receive the award.

1. Copley Medal 1. Order of Canada

2. Royal Medal 2. Gold Medal of the
3. Padma Vibhushan Royal Astronomical Society
4. Nobel Prize 3. King Faisal Prize
THANK YOU