Is there a movie about it ?
Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
411–420 of 447 posts
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#412Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Also, I would group kids by subject, and not by age. I would be cautious with this, they may have the same academic ability but a large gap in social skills.
Why is that worse than having large gaps in academic ability and social skills?
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Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it should always be included as one of the important courses in Canada. If you can't communicate your thoughts clearly then your thoughts never really translate into the real world.
From what I remember, the later years of English class (in Ontario) are more focused on literary criticism than effective communication. This was a frustration for me personally, and my lowest mark in High School. The high 80 dragged my average down enough that I didn't make the cut for Waterloo.
As a (lapsed) English teacher, I must point out that critically examining how others communicate is essential to improving one's own ability.
(Mind you, your teachers might not have approached your classes in that way, and high-end literary criticism tends towards performative nonsense°, so I can understand and sympathize if they were a waste of time, but they didn't have to be.)
°It's exactly analogous to Brain Fuck: huge fun if you have the background, intellectual ability, and are in on the joke. Both are mostly pursued for the opportunities they provide to show off How Smart™ you are.
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#414Earlier 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
> The cited book has no information on how the surveys themselves were conducted.
These are not surveys. These are actual full data from the erstwhile British Administration’s revenue records with the data collected by each Provincial head and the District administration revenue collectors and officials at that time. The modus operandi of the data collection is also detailed in the book.
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
> making me read things I didn't want to read and writing things I didn't want to write How to do things you don't want to do is a fundamental requirement for adulthood, and probably the most important skill anyone learns in school
That may be your experience. In such case I feel for you. For me doing things I don't want to do take less than an hour a day for my whole adult life. During school it was more like 11 (including going there, homework, other related chores). I hate school system with passion and I feel it was the worst thing that happened to me. I would be better off wandering the streets and getting access to a library.
If you suddenly got a passive source of income matching your best possible salary progression on the condition that you don't work, would you forgo it and keep your work as it is?
If your answer is no, you're currently doing things you'd rather not.
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#416Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also see some of Ramanujan biographic documentaries on Youtube, specifically; The Man Who Loved Numbers - Srinivasa Ramanujan documentary (1988) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqP2c5xNaTU Srinivasa Ramanujan: The Mathematician and His Legacy (2016) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5jsgBvJMUc
Thank you! Really enjoyed the 2nd one. Haven't had the time for the 1st one yet.
Watch them all including the ones in my first comment :-) There are a few more on Youtube eg. George Andrews' presentation etc.
Watch particularly Prof. Ken Ono's videos where you can literally feel his Admiration and Reverence for Ramanujan. He credits his Career/Repairing relationships with his Father/Family to their shared love of Ramanujan and his Mathematics (his autobiography is named My Search for Ramanujan: How I Learned to Count). I found it highly inspiring and motivating and encourage all students/teachers to watch them.
Also see Ramanujan's wikipedia page which contains lots of details/quotes/links to books/videos/etc. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
Quote:
K. Srinivasa Rao has said, "As for his place in the world of Mathematics, we quote Bruce C. Berndt: 'Paul Erdős has passed on to us Hardy's personal ratings of mathematicians. Suppose that we rate mathematicians on the basis of pure talent on a scale from 0 to 100. Hardy gave himself a score of 25, J. E. Littlewood 30, David Hilbert 80 and Ramanujan 100.'"
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#417Earlier quoted context omitted.
Arguably. Assuming that's actually where they end up, they earn lots of money and they get to choose what they want to do with it. We should force them to be mathematicians if they didn't want to be? The other version in the West is he moves to rural Montana and sends bombs through the mail.
> Assuming that's actually where they end up, they earn lots of money and they get to choose what they want to do with it. We should force them to be mathematicians if they didn't want to be? I think that if you tried you could imagine a world where Ramanujans are both supported and respected with nice lives, while also contributing to the future of the species rather than helping dig our own grave. > The other versi…
You mean a world where someone like Terence Tao gets to be a professor of mathematics at UCLA, where he holds the James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences?
That brilliant geniuses have chosen corporate America and to not go into academia is yours and mine and the world's loss, but a defining feature of the Western world is that they get to make that choice for themselves.
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you! Really enjoyed the 2nd one. Haven't had the time for the 1st one yet.
Watch them all including the ones in my first comment :-) There are a few more on Youtube eg. George Andrews' presentation etc. Watch particularly Prof. Ken Ono's videos where you can literally feel his Admiration and Reverence for Ramanujan. He credits his Career/Repairing relationships with his Father/Family to their shared love of Ramanujan and his Mathematics (his autobiography is named My Search for Ramanujan: H…
Thank you. I'll watch them. It's incredible that Hardy gave Ramanujan a perfect 100, no reserves at all. I guess that only comes due to the close interactions with him.
Another marvelous mathematician story is that of Yitang Zhang. The Newyorker had a good article about him if you haven't seen it yet.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220527042904/https://www.newyo...
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#419Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Shakespeare's plays will tell you as much about England in 1585-1613 as Terry Gilliam's filmography does about the Anglosphere in 1971-present. Why, given the vast ocean of possible knowledge, would you assume I or most people would have any interest or benefit in that? Over something like geometric algebra, soldering or solving quadratic equations? Human creations can be roughly divided in two categories, tools an…
I was agreeing with you about these points, sorry if that didn't come across, I was rather tired while writing that. I was also saying that even though the lens of culture, the generally mandatory Shakespeare is overrated.
It's my fault that it didn't come across. English is not my native language. Most of it maps to my brain really well, but there are some phrases that my brain just refuses to properly assimilate. "I concur" is the one. Somehow my brain intuitively maps it rather to "I object" than "I agree" like it should.
Re: Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan
#420Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It's true that the unconscious way he came about his theorems puts him in a different category to other famous names. But I wouldn't rank him as highly as Von Neumann. That man made groundbreaking results in the foundations of mathematics, pure and applied mathematics, early computer science, quantum mechanics, economics, and more. I think Von Neumann might arguably be the most significant genius of the 20th Century,…
yes, but the contrast is striking:
Von Neumann had privileged upbringing and education
Just imagine what what Ramanujan could have been if he grew up in Von Neumann household