National Mathematics Day is celebrated throughout the country to raise awareness about the importance of Mathematics in daily lives, and how Mathematics plays a major role not only as a subject but as a development factor in an individual’s daily life.
So here we come with some interesting facts you need to know about this day.
Why do we celebrate National Mathematics Day?
National Mathematics Day is celebrated across the country to celebrate the birth anniversary of the great mathematical genius of our country Shri Srinivasa Ramanujan. It is celebrated on December 22 every year, since the year 2012.
On 26 February, in the year 2012, during his visit to Madras University, the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh announced that 22 December will be celebrated as National Mathematics Day, to pay tribute to the achievement of mathematical genius Srinivas Ramanujan.
Dr. Manmohan Singh also declared the year 2012 as the National Mathematics Year.
Who was Srinivasa Ramanujan?
Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician who was born on December 18, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu. That time under British rule Tamil Nadu was called the Madras Presidency. He was born in a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family to K. Srinivasa Iyengar and Komalatammal.
Srinivasa Ramanujan Early Life
In the year 1992, he was enrolled in local school. He didn’t like to go school and used to avoid attending the classes. He never got any formal training in Mathematics, despite this, at the age of 12, he had mastered trigonometry without any assistance. He was a self-taught mathematician.
Due to his mastery and brilliance in Mathematics, in the year 1903, Ramanujan was awarded the scholarship to study at Government Art College, Kumbakonam. But later lost the scholarship due to his bad performance in other subjects.
In 1912, he started his job as a clerk in the Madras Trust Port. There, he met one of his colleagues Ramaswamy Iyer. Ramaswamy was also a mathematician and he recognized the brilliance of Ramanujan in the field of Mathematics.
With the help of Ramaswamy Iyer, Ramanujan’s work reached out to a British Mathematician GH Hardy, who was a Professor in Trinity College, Cambridge University, London. Impressed by Ramanujan’s genius, he wrote back to Ramanujan and Invited him to London.
Hardy took him to Trinity College, and the journey of the great mathematician began from that day, and the rest is history.
Ramanujan’s Contribution to Mathematics
Ramanujan gave an outstanding contribution in the field of Mathematics. He was also called the Mathematics Wizard for his natural mathematical brilliance in the Subject. He did mastery in Number Theories, Infinite Series, and Continued Fractions.
He generalized the form of the Jacobi Theta Functions while capturing their general properties. The generalized form of the Jacobi Theta Function was named after him as Ramanujan Theta Functions.
In 1916, Ramanujan received his Bachelor’s degree in Science. He was a member of the London Mathematical Society in 1917. In 1919 he returned back to India. He died at the age of 32 in the year 1920 due to the long-suffering of Tuberculosis.
@GUJCOST pays tribute the great #mathematical genius #SrinivasaRamanujan on his birth anniversary. His contributions to mathematical concepts such as number theory, infinite series & continued fractions has inspired generations of mathematicians. #NationalMathematicsDay2022 pic.twitter.com/Ts8u3ESaaR
— Gujarat Council on Science & Technology 🇮🇳 (@InfoGujcost) December 21, 2022
Government of India posted on the day:
On this #NationalMathematicsDay, @moesgoi pays humble tributes to the mathematical genius #SrinivasaRamanujan. His ground breaking contributions into mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, etc. are an inspiration for the entire world.@DrJitendraSingh pic.twitter.com/miSb9oQ5cf
— MoES GoI (@moesgoi) December 22, 2021
