National Mathematics Day 2023: Date, History & Ramanujan

Utkarsh Classes Last Updated 22-12-2023

National Mathematics Day 2023: Date, History & Ramanujan

Important Day 3 min read

Every year, 22 December is celebrated as National Mathematics Day (NMD). National Mathematics Day is celebrated in memory of the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan.

History of National Mathematics Day (NMD):

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh started the celebration of NMD on 22 December 2012 on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivas Ramanujan.
Former PM Manmohan Singh announced this while paying tribute to Ramanujan at an event organised in Chennai.
On this occasion, the year “2012” was declared the National Mathematics Year.

Brief biography of Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan:

Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode (Madras Presidency), Tamil Nadu.
Ramanujan received a scholarship to Madras University in 1903. But in the next year 1904, this scholarship was withdrawn from him. Because Ramanujan was not paying attention to subjects other than mathematics.
Ramanujan published his first article in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society in 1911.
Ramanujan went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1913 after corresponding with the British mathematician Godfrey H. Hardy.
In 1918, Ramanujan was selected for the Royal Society of London. In this way, Ramanujan became the youngest member of the Royal Society of Britain.
Ramanujan was the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University.

Ramanujan's contribution to mathematics:

Ramanujan has compiled about 3,900 results (equations and identities) in his short life of 32 years.
Ramanujan's main works included the infinite series of Pi. Ramanujan provided several formulas for calculating the digits of pi that differed from traditional methods.
He introduced innovative ideas to solve many challenging mathematical problems, which played a key role in the development of game theory.
George Andrews discovered one of Ramanujan's notebooks in the library of Trinity College in 1976. Later, this notebook was published as a book.
Ramanujan contributed to many other notable areas related to mathematics. These areas mainly include the following:
- Hyper Geometric Series
- Rieman Series
- Elliptic Integral
- Mock Theta Function
- Theory of divergent series
Ramanujan, at the age of only 32, died on April 26, 1920, after returning to India after a long illness.