National Mathematics Day is celebrated on 22 December every year to celebrate the life and achievements of famous mathematician Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan on his birth anniversary. There is no surprise that math is one of the basic subjects in school and its knowledge is essential for every human being.
We can say that after a person learns to speak, and write, they are taught to add and subtract. We can say that mathematics is the cradle of all creation, without which the world cannot move.
Shakuntala Devi once said, "What is mathematics? It is only a systematic effort of solving puzzles posed by nature." Thus, it is true that be it a cook or a farmer, a carpenter or a mechanic, a shopkeeper or a doctor, an engineer or a scientist, a musician or a magician, you need the knowledge of mathematics in your day-to-day life and in every profession.
National Mathematics day is also celebrated to raise awareness among people about the importance of mathematics.
Have a look at the interesting facts of Srinivasa Ramanujan and famous quotes on Mathematics.
National Mathematics Day 2022: Famous Quotes
"Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It's about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life." -Shakuntala Devi
"Without mathematics, there's nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers." - Shakuntala Devi
"Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding." -William Paul Thurston
"Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore." -Albert Einstein
"Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper." -David Hilbert
"If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of ten it will." -Paul Harvey
National Mathematics Day 2022: Facts About Srinivasa Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 in Tamil Nadu’s Erode in a Brahmin family. He enjoyed studying Mathematics and mastered trigonometry at 12. He also received a scholarship at the Government Arts College in Kumbakonam.
He studied at the Government College in Kumbakonam in 1903. He had enrolled in Madras’ Pachaiyappa College at the age of 14.
In 1912, Ramanujan began to work as a clerk in the Madras Port Trust and it was there that some of his colleagues recognized his mathematical skills and one of them referred him to Professor GH Hardy of Trinity College, Cambridge University. He met Hardy in 1913, after which he went to Trinity College.
In 1916, Ramanujan received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. He then published several papers on his subject under Hardy’s guidance and later the two of them even came together for joint projects.
Ramanujan was elected to the London Mathematical Society in 1917. The very next year, he was elected to the prestigious Royal Society for his research on Elliptic Functions and theory of numbers. He was also the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College.
Ramanujan made impactful contribution to Mathematics in his short life and his work includes infinite series, continued fractions, number theory and mathematical analysis.
In 1919, Ramanujan returned to India, and the very next year on 26 April, he took his last breaths. His biography ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ by Robert Kanigel depicts his life and journey to fame. A film of the same name was released in 2015 in which actor Dev Patel played Ramanujan.
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