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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

#391

Post by theLiminator »

triyambakam wrote: post #369
theLiminator wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imo school grades should be disregarded entirely. We should bring back standardized testing, but make the ceiling much higher. Most people should score fairly low on it. This way, you can really see how good people are. At this point, people just get weeded out in university. This would also help the case of people like Ramanujan, he might score perfectly on the math portion of the standardized tests, and despite poo…

He might also fail the standardized test entirely.

Perhaps, though imo standardized testing is the lesser of two evils.

There's major inequity with the lack of standardized testing.

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

#392

Post by __turbobrew__ »

jjmarr wrote: post #305
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…

In 2024 you are not getting into Waterloo CS with anything less than a 99% in your top6. And that's the entry level. If you really want to get in, you have to grind math competitions, clubs, etc. I go to a mid-tier university (Toronto Metropolitan University) and the admissions average for CS was 97% last year. The admissions process for universities in Ontario is a joke at this point. Imagine if students going to Ha…

Are there not standardized exams in Ontario high school? When I grew up in Alberta standardized exams took up half your grade and those could not be fudged by your teacher.

The exams were made by a small panel of teachers and nobody else knew the exam contents until the day of the exam. Everyone across the province takes the exam on the same day and time. Exams were proctored by people external to the school. Exams are again marked by a panel of teachers outside of your school.

Cheating is nearly impossible outside of someone leaking the exam early.

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

#393

Post by dxbydt »

sourcepluck wrote: post #306

This thread is a good example of one of the perhaps overlooked reasons it can be hard to discuss education in our societies - any attempt at making a general point, or a meta-observation of some kind, quickly gets swallowed in a massive influx of personal anecdotes about things that happened to people during their education. Maybe there are other topics where the same phemonen exists. I'm not sure if off the top of m…

> it can be hard to discuss education in our societies

I found it quite ironical how the whole topic has been hijacked into this side discussion. For the record, Ramanujan is NOT a product of the Indian education system. In fact, that system was quite cruel & off-putting to him. He was a self-taught math prodigy. Apart from the well known 2 big biopics, there are numerous TV soaps telecasted in India in various languages that regularly emphasize this point. He taught himself mostly using Inequalities by GH Hardy, & several other books, all of which are freely available right now at the click of a button. Nobody is stopping anybody from studying math, and education or the lack of it has nothing to do with any of this.

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

#394

Post by xanderlewis »

nasalspirant wrote: post #120
xanderlewis wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed India seems to be full of ring theorists/algebraic geometers. I wonder if that's actually true and, if so, why.

Part of the answer is that research funding in India is predominantly from the public sector, and investments in pure science research have been low for a long time (not that applied sciences are doing much better). Thus many researchers lack the resources for experimental science whereas theoretical study is more accessible.

Ah. I was only comparing with other 'pure' disciplines like analysis and topology/geometry, but I guess these are still more strongly connected to applied things.

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

#395

Post by mangodrunk »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #335
mangodrunk wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ramanujan is obviously very gifted and was able to do exceptionally well given his circumstances, but to put him higher than those that you listed is wrong to me. There are many more mathematicians who solved problems that have more impact and those that started new branches of math. Ramanujan is overrated in my opinion.

I couldn't comment on the impact of his work, which anyways is evidentially still unfolding, but the WAY he seems to have worked is just bizarre - coming up with these deep baffling series formulae offered without proof. His mind seems to have worked in an extraordinary way.

He studied very hard and was exceptionally gifted, it wasn’t a mystery.

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

#396

Post by WgaqPdNr7PGLGVW »

elijaht wrote: post #304
WgaqPdNr7PGLGVW wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Second year college/CS is pretty good but I went to a great high school where there were 50+ kids at that level. That's not enough to stand out in a meaningful way. It is not enough to stand out in the current system . The parent was saying selecting the 50 kids who can handle it is a much better approach than just taking the highest overall grades. The average A's across the board high school student can't handle…

> It is not enough to stand out in the current system. What I'm saying is in some hypothetical system which places a great emphasis on specialization, people who are a few years ahead of curriculum are a dime a dozen and will not stand out. There were 50 kids in my high school, so how many is that nationwide? Particularly in math, it is straightforward for an exceptional talent to stand out. Competitive math is a cle…

> people who are a few years ahead of curriculum are a dime a dozen and will not stand out.

I'm not sure what you mean.

High school has a much lower, but broader, bar.

The number who can handle second year college math are a small fraction of those who can get straight A's at high school.

> There are plenty of software devs who are not getting hired to the potential of their raw development skills because they cannot communicate or collaborate productively.

These are behavioural issues and not knowledge issues. We do not address these kinds of issues at high school at all.

Getting an A in English doesn't prepare you in any way to be a team player.

In my ~15 year career the only people I've seen not hired because of a knowledge gap in this space have been non-native speakers.

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

#397

Post by devvvvvvv »

datavirtue wrote: post #2

Why aren't we working on drugs to make people smart?

Positive eugenics would result in more smart people with zero drugs or genetic engineering involved. And it requires zero oppression or violence. Just pay couples with high IQs to have babies.

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

#399

Post by cscurmudgeon »

gen_greyface wrote: post #352
btree_001 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[dead]

The cited book has no information on how the surveys themselves were conducted. The book is an overall romanticization of pre-colonial india, and frequently indulges in nostalgia. The following books have a good overview of education&caste in india. A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India Gail Omvedt, Understanding Caste

Do these books fix the day issue? How do they do it?

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

#400

Post by chucknthem »

dharma1 wrote: post #398

I often think about Ramanujan in the context of AI, if reasoning is type 2 thinking how did he (apparently) come across a lot of his ideas as intuitions

I wonder if you can train a neuronetwork to have the kind of intuition Ramanujan had. How incredible would it be for math discoveries. Then separate AIs to try and prove or disprove the insights.
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