6-2024 The Olympics of mathematics !

It’s Olympics time ! A six-member team of Indian students represented India at the International Mathematics Olympiad 2024. The team clocked four gold and one silver medal at the event which was held in Bath, United Kingdom between July 11 and July 22. The tally of the top 20 countries is given here. The highlight is a fairytale 4th Place for India. The Indian team consisted of : Aditya Mangudy Venkat Ganesh (Pune), Siddharth Chopra (Pune), Arjun Gupta (Delhi), Kanav Talwar (Greater Noida), Rushil Mathur (Mumbai), and Anando Bhaduri (Guwahati).

3-2024 How superstition wins over science

Recently, I came across a shameful example of how religion-based superstition, played a dirty game with one of the greatest mathematicians who was born (and died) in India. On the death of Ramanujan, there were less than a handful of people in his cremation, to bid him farewell. Their common excuse/alibi was that Ramanujan had crossed the oceans and on his return, he never performed the obligatory purification rituals. So they all thought that a curse would befall on all who participate in his cremation. Even the priest who was to perform the funeral rites, absconded from the scene. Ramanujan’s own wife/widow was absent because, according to Hindu custom, ladies cannot enter a cremation ground.

See:: Glimpses of Ramanujan

21-2021 Casting pearls again in 2021 …..

I cast the same pearls again, in 2021. And I discovered some more swines to add to my list:

  1. St. Andrews School, Bowenpally
  2. NSKK High School, Ferozeguda
  3. Kendriya Vidyalaya, Airforce Station, Begumpet. No website found for this school. It is unbelievable that such schools exist even today.
  4. Pallavi Model School, Bowenpally

These schools were chosen due to their proximity from where I live. The announcement and reminders were sent about two weeks ago. My sympathies and apologies to students who missed an opportunity to discover the joy of mathematics and an inspiring intellectual giant.

They say, 2 can take the horse to the water, but ….. In fact, even 200 cannot take the animal to the water, if it is a stubborn and unwilling swine. I am happy that I tried. Never mind, I failed once again. I will try again next year, Insha-Allah. I do not give up so easily. I owe this experience to the great Ramanujan and to the mathematics he gave us.

Amen.

QUOTE
Sirs,

You have not yet reacted or responded to an important announcement I made about the forthcoming National Mathematics Day (quoted below). I infer that you are either not interested or deserve this opportunity. Ignoring communications from a well-intentioned and senior person, of international repute, is a rude,
uncivilised and impolite act. I take this a personal insult. Your behaviour reminds me of an old saying about “Casting pearls before …”. See:
https://drpartha.org.in/wp/2018/12/20/6-2018-casting-pearls-before-swines/ ,
to understand what I mean.

This conversation is closed now.

partha

UNQUOTE

See : Casting pearls before swines

15-2021 What a coincidence !

Thursday They say, the great Hindu guru Ramanujacharya was born on a Thursday. The famous Indian mathematican
Ramanujan was named so, because he too was born on a Thursday. I discovered that my day of birth
happens to be a — you guessed it : Thursday ! That’s a coincidence which makes me legitimately proud.

And, there are other discoveries I made recently about this date. Watch this space, or take a look here.

Want to know more about Ramanujan ?

Now, you know why I admire Ramanujan so much.

PS: Like Ramanujan, my father’s name was Srinivasan. He was also an Iyengar, like Ramanujan’s father. I was born in the same neighbourhood where Ramanujan once lived. But no one thought about giving me an inspiring name. Who should I blame ?

Also see: What a coincidence — Part #2 !

And also see : Recognise a mathematician vagabond

13-2021 Flavours of mathematicians

Recently, I posted an article about mathematicians. We spoke about the kind of things mathematicians do, I call each type of mathematician as a “flavour”. I did not know where I stood in this classification, since I was clearly a misfit in any of the “flavours” I had mentioned. So, I added one more flavour to suit me — mathematics missionary. This is the type who pretends to know mathematics, just waves his hands and talks endlessly whenever he sermonises on mathematics. You can also call him a mathematics vagabond

To borrow a religious metaphor, he is an evangelist who implores all to follow his GOD, mathematics. Whether you care for what he says, or disagree with him, he does not mind either way.

07-2021 Alan Turing is mine !

But who was Alan Turing ? Why is he so famous ?

If you are not too much into computer science, AI and stuff like that, you may as well assume that Alan Turing is the God of computer science. The proof, if required, comes from the fact that the world’s biggest prize/award in Computer Science is named after him, and also the fact that the fundamental (smallest) model of a computer was developed by Alan Turing ! He gave the real meaning of “computation”, at a time when there were no computers around !

To know more about this genius, see :: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

But his life had a pitiable end. See : the man who knew too much .

How did I get to own Alan Turing ? I simply managed to get a 50 GBP note issued by the bank of England on 23 July 2021. Details are here :: the new 50GBP note .

I thank my dear friend Christian CHEVALIER who procured this treasure and mailed it to me promptly. Mille merci, cher ami.

I can now claim proudly, Alan Turing is mine !

55-2019 How a chance discovery saved a precious mathematical legacy.

THE LOST NOTEBOOK OF RAMANUJAN

Ramanujan’s last major contribution “mock theta functions” were almost lost forever, but for a fortunate discovery made years later. The story of the lost note book goes like this ::

Ramanujan’s lost notebook is the manuscript in which the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan recorded the mathematical discoveries of the last year (1919 — 1920) of his life. Its whereabouts were unknown to all but a few mathematicians until it was rediscovered by George Andrews in 1976, in a box of effects of G. N. Watson stored at the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge and were due to be incinerated in a few days. The “notebook” is not a book, but consists of loose and unordered sheets of paper — “more than one hundred pages written on 138 sides in Ramanujan’s distinctive handwriting. The sheets contained over six hundred mathematical formulas listed consecutively without proofs.The manuscript contains no introduction or covering letter. In fact, there are hardly any words in the manuscript. There are a few marks evidently made by a cataloguer, and there are a few remarks in the handwriting of G. H. Hardy.

After Ramanujan died on April 26, 1920, at the age of 32, his wife Janaki had given his notebooks to the University of Madras. On August 30, 1923, the registrar Francis Drewsbury sent much of this material to G. H. Hardy, Ramanujan’s mentor at Trinity College, where he probably received the manuscripts of the lost notebook.

Almost surely, this manuscript, or at least most of it, was written during the last year of Ramanujan’s life, after his return to India from England. Undoubtedly, the most famous objects examined in the lost notebook are the mock theta functions.

Some time between 1934 and 1947 Hardy probably passed the notebook on to G. N. Watson, who with B. M. Wilson started on the project of editing Ramanujan’s notebooks. However, Wilson died in 1935 and Watson seems to have lost interest in the project in the late 1930s. After Watson’s death in 1965, J. M. Whittaker examined Watson’s papers (which were a complete mess, due to be incinerated in a few days) and found Ramanujan’s notebook, which he and R. A. Rankin sent to Trinity College Wren library on December 26, 1968. The lost notebook George Andrews, following a suggestion by Lucy Slater, found the lost notebook in the spring of 1976 while on a visit to Trinity College. George Andrews and Bruce C. Berndt have published several books in which they give proofs for Ramanujan’s formulas included in the notebook. Bruce C Berndt says of the notebook’s discovery: “The discovery of this ‘Lost Notebook’ caused roughly as much stir in the mathematical world as the discovery of Beethoven’s tenth symphony would cause in the musical world.”

The “lost notebook” was published on December 22, 1987, by Narosa publishing house, India, 67 years after Ramanujan died !

Also see :: Remembering Ramanujan

****

54-2019 When a mother almost killed her own son ………

When a mother almost killed her own son …….

It is not known to many that the legendary Indian mathematician Ramanujan attempted suicide in 1918, by jumping before a train. Ramanujan was under mental depression, brought about by the harsh weather he was not accustomed to, strict and inappropriate dietary habits, very demanding and stressful research activity, poor health conditions, war related miseries, and above all, separation from his newly married wife Janaki. Luckily, he was saved just in time, because the driver slammed the brakes in time.

There is a saas-bahu twist to Ramanujan’s tale. When he returned to India in 1919, he was miffed at Janaki, his wife. Ramanujan rebuked her, “I wrote so many letters, at times once every week, but you chose not to reply even once”. Mystified, sobbing Janaki told him that she was writing letters frequently even when none were received from Ramanujan. She was handing over letters to her mother-in-law for posting, as she had no money for even postage. Both of them then realised the dirty game played by the mother-in-law in hiding letters from each other. Many years later, Dr S Chandrasekar recounted his conversation with Janaki Ammal, who apprehended that longing for loving words from his wife perhaps was one of the contributory factors for Ramanujan’s depression, which led to him to the attempted suicide. The selfish mother never thought of the consequences of her foolish and cruel act.

This episode has a sad and cruel climax. Just a few months later, the mother had to see with her own eyes, the painful death of her own son. The mother could not even repent the injustice she had done to her own son, and ask his forgiveness.

See Remembering Ramanujan

27-2019 Vedic maths as a business model ? Why not try witchcraft ?

Vedic maths as a business model ? Why not try witchcraft ?

vedicmathmeet
I received today an invitation for a weird event to discuss ways of making money using Vedic mathematics.

children

To make their point more tempting and attractive, they have also added a suggestive picture in the invite. The point is, many gullible and greedy people, particularly parents, are expected to bite this bait and fall into this trap.

“Look before you leap”, is a very popular idiom. I must add — “Look, before you make your children leap”. Before you sink your money and drown your children, look at some sane advise from a mature teacher of mathematics:
https://drpartha.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/15-2013-and-you-still-believe-vedic-maths-is-good-for-your-children/

If making money is your aim, why not try witchcraft ? It can fetch you much more money than mathematics and make you rich, faster.

Use your commonsense, and you be the judge.

Who says maths is boring ?

22-2019 It is not the fault of the swines ……..

It is not the fault of the swines. Why blame the swines ?

swines
Casting pearls before …..
Almost two months after I launched this campaign, and after trying my best, and contacting many learned people personally, I find that no one recognises the pearls lying before them. No one has cared to take notice, no one has cared to react or respond. It happened to Ramanujan, it happened to many other people like him, they were all guilty of casting pearls before animals who cannot recognise the pearls. Let us not blame the swines. The indifference continues.

In the meantime, 26 April 2020 is getting closer, relentlessly.

See: Casting-pearls-before-swines

Wake up, at least now, and show that sometimes, even swines can recognise pearls.