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Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

quantamagazine.org

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Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#211

Post by [deleted] »

paulpauper wrote: post #92
IAmGraydon wrote: post #75

The stories of mathematicians like Srinivasa Ramanujan, who claimed to have derived complex partitions and identities in dreams, have always captivated me. It's as if their minds were tapping into some hidden reservoir of knowledge. I'm curious what drives these intuitive leaps. Was Ramanujan's brain quietly processing patterns during sleep, leveraging its default mode network in ways we're still struggling to unders…

As the article mentions ,we was familiar with the literature. He communicated with other mathematicians, read papers, and submitted in journals while in India. he was not some hermit in a cave or something. I think this claim that he just dreamed the results part of mythology that has been built around him. From what I read, he he did a lot of the grunt work deriving these formulas but only published the final result…

[deleted]

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#212

Post by pezezin »

atoav wrote: post #176
seiferteric wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exposure is good, but success in school requires you to be successful in these subjects as well. I have had similar thoughts recently as OP thinking about what I want for my young kids and what my experiences in school were. Being _really_ good in one thing should allow you to make up for being subpar in other areas, but it doesn't. You can only get an A (or A+) in math for example, even if your a genius. But maybe y…

A few points on this: - How and when would you know a subject doesn't click? In my case German (my first language) and English sucked for roughly 8 years. I ended school with A in both and was the only student in my school without a single mistake in my exam. - School gives you good grades if you managed to learn the topics at hand. Being able to learn what is needed or what you are bad at — not what you want and are…

In my very limited experience as an educator (I worked as a teacher for two years at the trade school level), I completely agree with your excellent comment.

I would argue that sometimes students are right when they complaint about a subject being useless or obsolete (e.g. our network professor told us everything about the OSI protocol stack in great detail, and barely touched TCP/IP), but most of the time they don't know what will be useful later in life.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#213

Post by vishnugupta »

seiferteric wrote: post #24
nordsieck wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, you're thinking about this backwards. It's good that public school exposes children to many subjects - hopefully most of them. So that they can discover if they click with one of them. The real danger is that someone never gets exposed to a subject at all. College is the place to specialize in a subject.

Exposure is good, but success in school requires you to be successful in these subjects as well. I have had similar thoughts recently as OP thinking about what I want for my young kids and what my experiences in school were. Being _really_ good in one thing should allow you to make up for being subpar in other areas, but it doesn't. You can only get an A (or A+) in math for example, even if your a genius. But maybe y…

> maybe you should be able to get an A++++

What does an A++++ mean? I guess it's equivalent of publishing a novel result/idea, solving a long standing conjecture sort of ability? If yes then I'd say the system does accommodate them. Terrance Tao for example was fast tracked and didn't get lost in the system.

Though it probably requires some effort from parents to figure out the right path for their prodigies.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#214

Post by aguaviva »

ImHereToVote wrote: post #201
aguaviva wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unsuprisingly, avowed Nazis like this ... like in Ukraine are great friends of the Western establishment. Who are you referring to, specifically?

https://www.defenddemocracy.press/ukraines-nazis-who-are-the...

Except the groups the article refers to are quite marginal, have no influence in government, are a certainly not "great friends of the Western establishment".

Basically a propaganda piece, designed to push your buttons. And not surprisingly, published originally in RT.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#215

Post by the-mitr »

dyauspitr wrote: post #7

Ramanujan’s story is very interesting but I would love more Indian mathematicians and scientists to become household names. Mathematicians like Harish Chandra, C. R. Rao, Manjul Bhargava, Narendra Karmakar etc. Physicists like C. V. Raman, Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha. Others like Har Gobind Khorana and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan too.

Universities press in India had bought out a series of books by G Venkataraman called Vignettes in Physics it also had books on Saha, Bhabha, Bose, Chandra and Raman. https://universitiespress.com/books?id=0&sid=161

National Book Trust also has several books on Indian scientists.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#216

Post by jb1991 »

barcode_feeder wrote: post #108

"The statements had been proved 20 years earlier by a little-known English mathematician named L.J. Rogers... Rogers was content to do his research in relative obscurity, play piano, garden and apply his spare time to a variety of other pursuits" divinely inspiring

Indeed. Also is the retirement dream for many working software engineers.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#218

Post by dagw »

graemep wrote: post #210
seiferteric wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exposure is good, but success in school requires you to be successful in these subjects as well. I have had similar thoughts recently as OP thinking about what I want for my young kids and what my experiences in school were. Being _really_ good in one thing should allow you to make up for being subpar in other areas, but it doesn't. You can only get an A (or A+) in math for example, even if your a genius. But maybe y…

That is an advantage of the British system. You have a wide education until 16 and sit a broad range of exams at that age (GCSEs) and then specialise in a few (most often three) subjects from 16 to 18. You usually need to pass English and maths GCSEs, but universities mostly care about the subjects you do in the last two years (except for very competitive courses). This can be a problem for those who want to keep opt…

As someone who did my GCSE's but then moved abroad before my A Levels and ended up taking the International Baccalaureate, I'm in hindsight really glad I didn't do A Levels. Had I stayed in England I would have studied just maths, physics and chemistry. Being forced by the IB program to also study english, philosophy and economics really expanded my horizons and has been huge boon to me in my life and I'm really happy I was afforded the opportunity to do so.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#219

Post by kitchi »

thwori23423423 wrote: post #186
uptownfunk wrote: post #152

Ramanujan responsible for inspiring generations of mathematicians throughout the world. His life was a beautiful tragedy. One that leaves me in awe and also great inner sadness. If you come from a hardcore traditional br*hmin family, just to cross over the ocean by boat would risk you getting excommunicated. The culture which he came from makes the entire story all the more legendary. Just cutting off your topknot an…

[flagged]

Let's not be so aggressive.

Comments on HN are meant to be for civil discussion, even on contentious topics.

Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan

#220

Post by ykonstant »

chongli wrote: post #68
jyunwai wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The admissions process to universities in the province of Ontario in Canada has a direct solution for this, which applies to well-known universities in the global technology industry, such as the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo. Most of these universities look at an applicant's grades for just six courses. After looking at the courses required for certain programs (such as calculus and physics fo…

To add to this I feel the need to point out that the writing skill demonstrated by the average mid-length Hacker News comment is above the level you’d need to pass grade 12 English in Ontario. It’s an extremely low bar! Of course, if English is not your first language then you’re not required to take this course. You have an alternate path which may be a lot more work for an English-language-learner but it doesn’t de…

I don't know how things work across the ocean, but here in Greece essay grading is a veritable mystery. The highest grade I ever got in a school essay was 16/20 and I had thought that was my masterpiece. Feedback always seemed cryptic (your essay contains platitudes, you are not developing your point enough etc.) and when I tried asking for specifics I got shrugs and you-still-don't-get-it groans. There are people who get 20/20 on essays consistently, so there must be some method to the grading madness; but I could not crack that method in my school years :(
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