New Delhi: Mathematics is present in every sphere of our life. It plays an active role in our daily journey from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. It is a fact universally acknowledged that it is almost impossible to function everyday without mathematics. Hence, it is our duty to respect it and also those who has worked for the advancement of the subject.
Every year on December 22, National Mathematics Day is observed in India. The day commemorates the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the great Indian mathematician. In this article, we will learn more about the day and the legendary mathematician whose legacy has attained immortality.
How did National Mathematics Day begin?
In 2012, the central government led by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh designated December 22 as the National Mathematics Day. On that occasion, it was also announced that 2012 would be celebrated as National Mathematics Year. Since then, the day has been celebrated annually.
Who was Srinivasa Ramanujan?
The full name of Srinivasa Ramanujan was Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar and he is often considered as
one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. It is bewildering to think that Ramanujan had almost no formal training in pure mathematics and yet he immensely contributed to number theory, mathematical analysis, continued fractions, and infinite series. He solved mathematical problems which were considered unsolvable back then, shocking and surprising the world.
Born on December 22, 1887, in Tamil Nadu’s Erode, Ramanujan gained knowledge in Trignometry when he was just 12 years old. He obtained a copy of George Shoobridge Carr’s Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics when he was just 15 years old. In 1911, Ramanujan published his first paper in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
Ramanujan’s childhood was riddled with extreme poverty and he had to borrow books from his friends in school to need. He worked as a clerk to support his family, but all these did not deter him from unveiling new horizons in the ocean of mathematics. Ramanujan independently compiled nearly 3,900 results, with most of them being identities and equations. He made immense contributions in the areas of hypergeometric series, Riemann series, elliptic integrals, functional equations of the zeta function and continued fractions. Even though he passed away on April 26, 1920, when he was just 32 years old, the volume of work of Ramanujan is so massive and so influential that researchers are still trying to decipher the full extent of his contributions to mathematics.
What is the significance of National Mathematics Day?
National Mathematics Day makes people aware about the importance of mathematics particularly in our daily life and the contributions of Srinivasa Ramanujan in the field of mathematics. On this day, several educational events held at schools and universities throughout the country. Students are encouraged to look beyond textbooks and engage in critical thinking and logical reasoning. India has witnessed great mathematicians since the ancient times including Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II. On National Mathematics Day, everyone is reminded about the mathematical heritage of India and the crucial role mathematics plays in our life.
What is the theme of the National Mathematics Day?
This year, the theme of the National Mathematics Day is “Mathematics: The Bridge to Innovation and Progress”. It highlights the role of mathematics in providing scientific breakthroughs leading to innovation and building a future of progress.
National Mathematics Day, celebrated annually on December 22 in India, commemorates the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan. Despite limited formal training, Ramanujan made extraordinary contributions to number theory and other fields. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
