Mathematics Year 2012
2012-The Year of Mathematics
P.Bhattacharyya
[pic] [pic]
(GH Hardy , Ramanujan and Littlewood)
The great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on the 22nd of December 1887 in Erode, Tamilnadu.
In a function held in the Centenary Hall of Madras University on the 26th of December 2011 marking the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh proclaimed:
“Our government has decided to declare his birthday, that is December 22nd, as the National Mathematics Day and the year 2012 as a whole as the National Mathematics Year”.
He said that India has a long and glorious tradition of mathematics that we need to encourage and nurture. “I hope these steps will help in providing additional impetus to the study of mathematics in our country and make our people more aware of the work of Ramanujan”.
The last part of the Prime Minister’s statement: “... to make our people aware of the work of Ramanujan” is very significant. The actual work of Ramanujan and its significance is known only to a handful of very high level mathematicians. However, one need not be surprised at this owing to the very nature of the subject of mathematics itself.
In a survey conducted amongst educated Indians in 1987, the centenary year of Ramanujan’s birth, the celebrated statistician, Prof. C. R. Rao, found that in several states of northern India, most college mathematics teachers had not heard of Ramanujan. Further, in Tamilnadu arguably the most mathematically advanced state of India - none except a negligible few of the college mathematics teachers knew anything about Ramanujan's work in mathematics. There is nothing wrong in it. To understand the work of Ramanujan one has to have specialized training much above the usual college level mathematics. As an aside, it is of interest to know how many physics teachers in England actually know the work
P.Bhattacharyya
[pic] [pic]
(GH Hardy , Ramanujan and Littlewood)
The great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on the 22nd of December 1887 in Erode, Tamilnadu.
In a function held in the Centenary Hall of Madras University on the 26th of December 2011 marking the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh proclaimed:
“Our government has decided to declare his birthday, that is December 22nd, as the National Mathematics Day and the year 2012 as a whole as the National Mathematics Year”.
He said that India has a long and glorious tradition of mathematics that we need to encourage and nurture. “I hope these steps will help in providing additional impetus to the study of mathematics in our country and make our people more aware of the work of Ramanujan”.
The last part of the Prime Minister’s statement: “... to make our people aware of the work of Ramanujan” is very significant. The actual work of Ramanujan and its significance is known only to a handful of very high level mathematicians. However, one need not be surprised at this owing to the very nature of the subject of mathematics itself.
In a survey conducted amongst educated Indians in 1987, the centenary year of Ramanujan’s birth, the celebrated statistician, Prof. C. R. Rao, found that in several states of northern India, most college mathematics teachers had not heard of Ramanujan. Further, in Tamilnadu arguably the most mathematically advanced state of India - none except a negligible few of the college mathematics teachers knew anything about Ramanujan's work in mathematics. There is nothing wrong in it. To understand the work of Ramanujan one has to have specialized training much above the usual college level mathematics. As an aside, it is of interest to know how many physics teachers in England actually know the work