NATIONAL MATHEMATICS DAY

Subject : Current Events

Context : National Mathematics Day is celebrated every year on December 22, honouring the birth anniversary of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Concept  :

• National Mathematics Day is celebrated every year on December 22.
• It is observed to honor the birth anniversary of the famous mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who greatly contributed towards mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.
• In 2012, the Indian Government declared that 22 December will be celebrated every year as National Mathematics Day.

Contribution of Srinivasa Ramanujan :

• In 1911, Ramanujan published the first of his papers in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
• Ramanujan traveled to England in 1914, where Hardy tutored him and collaborated with him in some research.
• 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.
• The number 1729 is known as the Hardy-Ramanujan number after a famous visit by Hardy to see Ramanujan at a hospital.
• Hardy observed Ramanujan’s work primarily involved fields less known even amongst other pure mathematicians.
• Ramanujan’s home state of Tamil Nadu celebrates 22 December as ‘State IT Day’, memorializing both the man and his achievements, as a native of Tamil Nadu.
• The Dev Patel-starrer ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ (2015) was a biopic on the mathematician.