National Mathematics Day 22nd December 2022

Every December 22 is celebrated as National Mathematics day to mark the birth anniversary of great Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. The day was declared was Indian Government, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Madras University on 26 February 2012, during the opening ceremony of the 125th anniversary celebration of the birth of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Indian mathematical genius (22 Dec 1887- 26 Apr 1920).

Ramanujan was born into an Iyengar Brahmin family in Erode, Tamil Nadu (then Madras Presidency) in 1887. He had excelled in trigonometry at age 12, despite lacking a formal education, and had developed many theorems by himself. Ramanujan became eligible for a scholarship to study at the Government Arts College, Kumbakonam, after completing secondary school in 1904, but was unable to secure the same because in other subjects he did not do well.

Srinivasa Ramanujan, the legendary mathematician, made outstanding contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and constant fractions.

Goal of National Mathematics Day

The main objective to celebrate National Mathematics Day is to provide students a platform for natural curiosity, promote interest in mathematics among students, build the tradition and skills for using mathematics to explain the universe, eradicate mathematical phobia from the minds of students and strengthen mathematics teachers in schools’ teaching methodology.

Some Major Contributions and Achievements of Srinivasa Ramanujan

• Made a world record of  fastest algorithm for the CALCULATION OF PI  on its own.
• He developed his own theory of divergent series, the Riemann series and the elliptical integrals, the hypergeometric series, the functional zeta functional equations.
• 1729 Is Named Hardy–Ramanujan Number, he expressed this number in two different ways “as the sum of two cubes of the smallest numbers in two different ways : 1729 = 1³ + 12³= 9³ + 10^3.
• Further advances were made by Ramanujan, particularly in the division of numbers (the number of ways a positive integer can be expressed as the sum of positive integers).

Swikriti Dandotia