Speech on--Srinivasa Ramanujan
It was the year 1898. A teacher was teaching arithmetic
in the Town higher Secondary School in Kumbakonam. The teacher asked the students, “We have three
bananas and three boys. How many bananas will each boy get?” A boy replied,
“Each will get one.”
“Right,” the teacher said. “Now, If 1,000 bananas are distributed among
1,000 boys each will again get one. Isn’t that so?”
“Sir,” another boy asked, “if no banana is distributed among no one,
will everyone still get one banana?” All
the students laughed at him but the teacher was astonished and appreciated the
boy because he asked the question logically that if zero divided by zero is zero. The boy who
asked the intriguing question was none other than the greatest Indian
mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan whose birth anniversary is celebrated as National
Mathematics Day every year on 22nd December. On this great occasion, I ……………..
of class ………….. would like to speak a few words about the wizard of mathematics
Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan was born in 1887 at Erode in Tamilnadu to
extremely poor parents. He always passed his examinations with high marks.
Despite the fact that he had no University education he applied for the post of
clerk in Madras port trust. He married Janaki Ammal in 1909. Ramanujan made
incredible contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite
series and continued fractions. His contribution to the theory of numbers brought
him worldwide acclamation. Prof. Julian Huxley called Ramanujan “The greatest Mathematician of the
century.” E.TBell, the renewed historian of mathematics described him as a
“Gift from heaven.” Prof.G.H Hardy,
a mathematician and a close associate of Ramanujan has compared him with Euler and Jacobi. One of his striking
discoveries was concerning partitions of the natural numbers. Ramanujan number
is a curious number. The number is 1729.
In the short span of 33 years, Ramanujan brought pride to India. The
government of India issued a stamp in honour of this mathematical genius.
Indian National Science Academy and many other scientific institutions
in India have established various medals and awards in the memory of this great
personality. He was elected for fellow of the Royal Society in 1918 and the
same year he was elected as the Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. A movie, 'The Man Who Knew Infinity', starring
actor Dev Patel was filmed on his life.
In conclusion Ramanujan has
been compared to significant names including some of the masters of mathematics
such as Newton and Einstein. His
intelligence led him to move away from a poor town in India into Cambridge. One
of his great stories that is shared with us took place while he had a
conversation with a friend named Sandow. Sandow got curious and so asked why Ramanujan had ‘rough and black’ elbows.
Ramanujan replied “My elbow has become rough and black in making a genius of
me! Night and day I do my calculations on slate. It is too slow to look for a
rag to wipe it with. I wipe the slate almost every few minutes with my elbow”.
Sandow was amazed but still questioned why he wouldn’t use paper instead,
Ramanujan answered “When food itself is
a problem, how can I find money for paper? I may require four reams of paper
every month”. Ramanujan revealed the true definition of ‘passion’ and
proved a great theory that no obstacles
can stand in the way of our dream.
Ramanujan has been an inspiration for generations and
his work is carried on until this moment throughout several technologies, most
importantly, computers. Ramanujan left this materialistic world at the young
age of 37 leaving us a great history in mathematics. He was indeed a
mathematical phenomenon of the twentieth century.
This legendary genius of India shines forever in the galaxy of Mathematical
universe. Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity and wish you all
once again Happy Mathematics Day
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