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Srinivasa Ramanujan
- ilkhd2 17y agoRamanujan is well known.
- eric_t 17y agoHe is the most well-known "unknown" mathematician...:)
- adamc 17y agoI think I first read about him in a Martin Gardner book as a kid. So yeah, not that unknown.
- hernan7 17y agoKind of same here -- I think I first read about him on the Argentinian magazine "Humor y Juegos" (Humor and Games) some time in the late 70s/ early 80s. I guess most people with any interest in recreational mathematics/ puzzles will know of Ramanujan.
- Chirag 17y agoRamanujan was also mentioned in "Good Will Hunting". However I do agree that Indians have done a bad in terms of Marketing our selves. Our brand image over some time has been: Some time Back: Snake Charmers and Kings Now: Bangalore(Outsourcing) & Spicy Food
- FraaJad 17y ago"Snake Charmers" is not a brand image "We" wanted nor created. It is the product of ignorant western minds. Compared to other eastern cultures (chinese and japanese at least) India has suffered from mis-understanding and underwhelming understanding for a long time. You only have to read English literature on India from 18 and 19th century to realize the extent of misinformation generated by the British to legitimise their occupation of India. "Victorial Morals" were not helpful either.
- acg 17y agoI doubt you can speak for your forefathers any more than I can, but it does seem that you would like to rewrite history by today's standards. Perhaps your stereotype of the west is just as perverted.
- ideamonk 17y agoOf ignorance - the article mentions "dying of illness, malnutrition and possibly liver infection in 1920 at the age of 32." ... I smell some ignorance on our part - we don't have much goodwill to take care of geniuses. The current state of higher education (with major emphasis on mugging, apart from minute number of good colleges) is killing many more geniuses. I find a 1st year Computer Science student very keen in maths and physics, to the extent that he goes on to prove things that go above our heads. I asked him, "So why didn't you go for a Bsc in Physics/maths?" , his answer - "I need to get a job first, and anyhow I can't go against wills of my father". Now look at that, neither does government not parents do enough to sustain such geniuses in our nation. Another quote from the article - "He received a scholarship to study at Government College in Kumbakonam, but lost it when he failed his non-mathematical coursework." Even this is pretty much observable here, the lack of quality higher education institution does force us to leave our passion and do the way the system dictates us to. There are many geniuses, but if things continue like this, they would never be filtered out and brought to limelight, to places where their genius can be of worth. ... nothing more to say. "It is the product of ignorant western minds." --> That's such a poor generalization. (We+our gov) have been ignorant at many other important things (higher education, infrastructure, ...) than an 'Image' projected on world.
- eru 17y ago> "I need to get a job first, and anyhow I can't go against wills of my father". He's dad should have read more statistics. As far as I know Computer Science does not land you more jobs, or higher paying jobs, than physics or maths. (And it's relatively easy to get a CS job with a degree in math or physics.)
- FraaJad 17y agoIf you read my reply again, you will see that I commented on the pre-independance image of India, that of snake charmers. That image is a product of narrow, west-is-superior-in-everything mindset of the 18 and 19th century europe. I largely agree with your comment on present day situation. We can do lot better in promoting Basic Sciences.
- mahmud 17y agoHowever I do agree that Indians have done a bad in terms of Marketing our selves. What is this "we", and since when are people brands? Bit parochial and jingoist eh? Nations are an illusion, and better image "betterment" can be done by caring for one's immediate neighbor. Don't succumb to regionalist propaganda that serve none other than the ruling classes; all earth is yours, and all (wo)men your kin.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- TheElder 17y agoTell that to the Chinese.
- eru 17y agoOK. Will do. Or at least I can tell that to the one Chinese that I recently shared a flat with.
- neelesh 17y agoI would upvote this a million times if possible
- JoeAltmaier 17y agoOh lighten up. Americans have a lovely variety of stereotypical images - fat McDonalds consumers, Texan bullies, imperialists, the Japanese apparently think we "all smell like butter" or some such. Its kidding, and when done by friends is supposed to be answered good-naturedly.
- mahmud 17y agoI am not objecting to the existence of national stereotypes, I object to the existence of nations.
- travisjeffery 17y agoIf you count him as unknown then you might as well count just about every other Mathematician other than Newton as an unknown as well.
- yummyfajitas 17y agoI've discovered that John Nash ("that beautiful mind guy") is probably about as well known as Newton. So is "that Numbers guy" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numb3rs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numb3rs).
- travisjeffery 17y agoNo. People don't call Newton: "That gravity guy", people know Newton's name. Every time I go to talk to a non-Mathematician about John Nash and say his name they go: "Who?", me: "The Mathematician from A Beautiful Mind." them: "Oh." Newton is Newton and in terms of popularity, John Nash; "The Beautiful Mind guy" isn't even in his league.
- eru 17y agoAnd some of the Greeks.
- numbchuckskills 17y agoagreed..I recall first studying his work in highschool math. and that was in Canada.
- ciupicri 17y agoNot really. Most people know Newton as a physicist, but any pupil knows about Pythagoras. Also, any high school pupil that studies science (not human arts) knows about (Joseph Louis) Lagrange.
- ypavan 17y agoI loved reading Robert Kanigel's biography - "The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan." Recommended for people who want to know more about the genius mathematician.
- zaph0d 17y ago[...]Hardy contacted the Indian Office to plan for Ramanujan's trip to Cambridge. Secretary Arthur Davies of the Advisory Committee for Indian Students met with Ramanujan to discuss the overseas trip. In accordance with his Brahmin upbringing, Ramanujan refused to leave his country to "go to a foreign land." So much for being a Math genius. Disclaimer: I am an Indian.
- gsk 17y agoBeing a Genius in Mathematics does not necessarily mean being a genius in everything else (including bringing an exciting future forward in time). Galois, another mathematical genius from France (1800s), died at twenty because he fought a duel and got killed. It may be tempting to call him 'stupid'. He may be somewhat irrational in his love affair but that does not make his mathematical genius any lesser.
- andrew1 17y agoWhat does your disclaimer mean? Ramanujan was a tremendously talented mathematician. Just because you come from the same country as him or find his religious beliefs archaic and/or irrational doesn't mean you can just dismiss his achievements.
- muon 17y agoMaths and Culture are not related in any way.
- zzkt 17y agoneither are algebra and calculus ;)
- keeptrying 17y agoNewton was supposed to have been an absolute coward. As a member of parliament the only thing he mentioned, during any session, was a request to open the window. Feynman was a womanizer who was known to sleep with wives of colleagues. His biography "Genius" is a pretty good read by the way. Genius doesnt mean "adventurous" or "virtuous" or "worldly". Its just one facet of a human.
- sanitybit 17y agoBut does he have his MCSE?
- capablanca 17y agoWell known. Now, do you know Slava Pestov?
- ivenkys 17y agoWhy is this article at the top of the page ? As so many people have pointed out - he is neither an unknown nor has there been any recent incident/discovery which would require a re-iteration of his "geniusness".
- ramanujan 17y agoI probably should pipe up on this thread :) The most amazing thing about Ramanujan is that there are literally multiple Springer Volumes devoted solely to the task of proving the results in his notebooks. See for example: http://bit.ly/iWIQP http://bit.ly/iWIQP
- pchristensen 17y agoLong url: http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=D2T&q=ramanujan%27s+notebooks&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=J4LpSrrDJab4tgOk6pwI&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CCEQrQQwBA http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&client=firefox-a...
- wglb 17y agoHow can you say that the inventor of taxicab numbers is unknown? Most people I know know who he is.
- coliveira 17y agoThis guy was huge, and he is very well known.
- chubbard 17y agoOne of my coworkers used to talk about Ramanujan. He remarked Ramanujan called every prime number a close personal friend. He sort of had this deep relationship with numbers. Then I saw a documentary on people who could do complex math without the aide of a calculator (e.g. given any large number and tell if it was prime in their head). I thought there might be a parallel between people like this and Ramanujan. The documentary focused on a couple of people who were not savants, but by all accounts normal people. They followed a young British kid. He described how he saw and felt about numbers, and each number had a distinct personality. I found it remarkably similar to the description about how Ramanujan felt about numbers.