Language Lab, Science Faculty, University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) - Part I

Before you read the following article about the famous Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, take this short quiz to review the vocabulary that you will see in the text. When you are finished with the quiz, read the text and then answer the questions below .

It is one of the most romantic stories in the history of mathematics: in 1913, the English mathematician G. H. Hardy received a strange letter from an unknown man in Madras, India. The ten-page letter contained about 120 statements of theorems on infinite series, improper integrals, continued fractions, and number theory.

Every prominent mathematician gets letters from cranks, and at first Hardy probably thought this was another one. But something about the formulas made him look again, and he showed it to his colleague J. E. Littlewood. After a few hours, they concluded that the results "must be true because, if they were not true, no one would have had the imagination to invent them".

Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan was born in a small town in South India on December 22, 1887. Throughout his life, Ramanujan was fascinated with numbers. There are many stories of his ability to amaze his teachers with mathematical feats, such as multiplying large numbers in his head. He would sometimes stay up all night tackling difficult mathematical problems, refusing to sleep until he had solved them.

When he was 16 Ramanujan found a book called A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics. The book was simply a collection of mathematical results, mostly without any indication of proof. It was written for English mathematics students who had to take a very difficult examination that involved a lot of memorization. But in Ramanujan it inspired a burst of feverish mathematical activity. Unfortunately, Ramanujan's total immersion in mathematics was terrible for his academic career. He ignored his other subjects, and failed his college exams.

 

1. Based on the text, what do you think a crank might be?
a genius
an eccentric
a colleague
a mathematician

 

2. What does the word "this" refer to in the first sentence of the second paragraph?
The letter Hardy received.
A story about the history of mathematics
A letter from a crank
A prominent mathematician

 

3. What did Hardy and Littlewood decide about the letter Hardy had received?
It was nonsense.
It wasn't really written by Ramanujan.
It was from a crank.
It was brilliant.

 

4. Why might have Ramanujan been tired a lot?
Because he was always amazing his teachers.
Because he would sometimes work on math problems at night.
Because he was constantly studying math and his other subjects at school.
All of the above answers are correct.

 

5. Why was Ramanujan's reaction to the book he found so extraordinary?
Because it made Ramanujan physically ill by giving him a fever.
Because he had never before shown much interest in mathematics.
Because Ramanujan usually wasn't very good at memorization.
Because the book was not intended to stimulate thought, but was just supposed to be memorized.

When you are finished answering the questions, go on to part II of the exercise.

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