Besides remembering him, the day also reflects on the significance of the subject in our daily lives. The inception of mathematics has not only brought about advancements in accounting and finance but also made equal contributions to technological advancements, scientific discoveries, and economics.
Born in 1887 to a Tamil Brahmin family in Erode, Tamil Nadu, Srinivasa Ramanujan was fondly recognised as the man who knew ‘infinity.’
Some of his major contributions include a diverse theory of numbers and mathematical functions, conceiving the divergent series, the Riemann series, the hypergeometric series, and even the functional equations of the zeta function.
National Mathematics Day: Significance
National Mathematics Day not only honours Ramanujan but also celebrates the illustrious contributions of many other Indian-origin mathematicians to the field. Some other names include the likes of Aryabhata, Mahavira, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II.
Srinivas Ramanujan who had spent his childhood days in extreme poverty and difficulty, developed an interest in mathematics from a young age. Despite the hardships, he gained knowledge in the subject and also obtained a copy of George Shoobridge Carr’s Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics from a very young age. In 1911, he got his first paper published in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society followed by a BA degree at Cambridge Cambridge University in 1916.
Over the years, Ramanujan published several papers on the subject and even was elected to the prestigious Royal Society for his research on Elliptic Functions and the theory of numbers.
Srinivas Ramanujan passed away on April 26, 1920, at the age of 32.
Ramanujan’s impactful contribution to the subject remains memorable to date, influencing various fields largely. He is said to have discovered his own theorem and independently compiled nearly 4,000 results.
On National Mathematics Day, children are encouraged to go beyond textbooks and get themselves engaged in critical thinking and reasoning. Schools also organise competitions and educational events to promote the practice of mathematics among students. The principal purpose is to bring light among individuals about the meaning of maths and inspire young people to learn more about the subject.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
