Solved Questions of Ramanujan
Answer the following questions
1. What did the manuscript contain?
Ans. The manuscripts contained theorems. Most of them were wild or fantastic looking, one or two were already well known and laid out as if they were original.
2. What did the two English Mathematicians realise by midnight?
Ans. The two English mathematician realized by mid night that the manuscripts were written by a natural mathematical genius.
3. What were the two drawbacks in Ramanjun’s career?
Ans. There were defects in his education and he had come on the scene too late in the line of mathematical history, to make a contribution on the same scale. These were the two drawbacks in Ramanujan’s career.
4. What superstition did Ramanujan’s mother believe in?
Ans. Ramanujan’s mother was usually strict of her religious observance. She did not allow Ramanujan to travel across oceans or seas. His mother had the highest respect for the Goddess of Namakkal. One night she dreamt that her son was seated in a big hall among a group of Europeans and the Goddess of Namakkal had commanded her not to stand in the way of her son fulfilling his life’s purpose. So she allowed her son to travel abroad. These were the superstitions believed by Ramanujan.
6. What did Hardy have to teach Ramanujan?
Ans. Hardy had to teach Ramanujan some formal mathematics.
7. Why does he call it an unusual experience?
Ans. Ramanujan was self-taught. He was an untrained genius. Ramanujan had not been able to enter Madras (Chennai) University because he could not matriculate in English. He had not got formal education. He did not know about theorems, proofs and reasons for mathematical problems though Ramanujan was a mathematical genius and he had a deep insight in the subject. Hardy found it an unusual experience teaching mathematics to someone who had the deepest insight in the subject but who had literally never heard most of it. This was an unusual and singular experience for him.
8. Name all the famous mathematicians mentioned in this write-up.
Ans. Hardy, Ramanujan, Gauss, Euler and Kapitsa are all the famous mathematicians mentioned in this write ups.
9. What wrote the manuscripts?
Ans. Ramanujan wrote the manuscripts.
10. What did Ramanujan work as?
Ans. Ramanujan worked as a poor clerk.
11. What was Ramanujan’s annual income?
Ans. Ramanujan’s annual income was twenty pounds.
12. Which goddess did Ramanujan’s mother believe in?
Ans. Ramanujan’s mother believed in goddess of Namakkal.
13. What did Royal Society elect Ramanujan at the age of thirty?
Ans. Ramanujan was elected ‘a Fellow’ by the Royal society at the age of thirty.
14. What was the taxi-cab number?
Ans. The taxi cab number was 1729.
15. Where did Ramanujan lay dying?
Ans. Ramanujan laid dying in hospital at Putney.
16. How did Ramanujan die?
Ans. Ramanujan died of tuberculosis.
