Giants in History: Srinivasa Ramanujan

The mathematical genius with no formal training 

Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 - 26 April 1920)

India

Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was a math prodigy and widely considered one of India’s greatest mathematicians. Despite having almost no formal training in mathematics, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions. His most famous achievements include the Ramanujan Conjecture, a mathematical statement that has not been fully proven, and the Hardy-Ramanujan number 1729, the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. In his short life, Ramanujan recorded thousands of results in three notebooks and a sheaf of papers (the fourth lost notebook). His notebooks, known as Ramanujan notebooks, still inspire mathematical works decades later. 

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