Coming from a humble Tamil Brahmin Iyengar family and without any formal training in pure mathematics, Srinivasa Ramanujan grew up to become a mathematics genius from India. Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in present-day Tamil Nadu.
Ramanujan lived a life that was devoted to mathematics in all its passion. At a fledgling age of 11, Ramanujan began to show signs of an unfolding genius. From compiling over 3900 mathematical results and equations to getting discoveries named after him, his numerous assertions in mathematics opened up new vistas of mathematical research.
Famed Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s birth anniversary on December 22 is celebrated as National Mathematics Day.
Here are few facts which you probably didn’t know about the Mozart of Mathematics.
- During his childhood, he was persistent about not attending the school
- Just like his mother, he followed strict vegetarian diet, learned about traditions, puranas and attended pujas in temples
- In 1987, before turning 10, he scored best marks in whole of district
- At the age of 13, he had mastered trigonometry, had enough knowledge to discover sophisticated theorems all on his own.
- He always took only half of the alloted time to complete his exams
- Upon excelling in all maths exams, his teachers often said “he deserves more marks than the maximum allotted.”
- Ramanujan was so deeply focused on mathematics that he failed in almost all other subjects.
- Because paper was expensive, poor Ramanujan often used to derive his results on a ‘slate’ to jot down results of his derivations.
- Made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis and number theory
- 22nd December is called National Mathematics Day in India because of Ramanujan’s birth-anniversary!
