Why Haven't You Heard Of One Of History's Greatest Geniuses?

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Writing: Steven Rix
Editing: Jack Stevens

[CamMackay]

As a university level mathematician myself, I have to emphasise just how insanely genius you need to be in order to not only understand high level pure maths but be making breakthroughs in the fields, all without any formal education or access to mathematical textbooks. Its almost more impressive than anyone else because he did everything solely based on his own brainpower.

[creedbratton]

A point to note here is that there were many theorems that were already discovered by the mathematicians of that time. But Ramanujan didn't get them from anywhere rather he discovered them all on his own which many different mathematicians discovered over a period of time.

[theghostofuchiha]

S. Ramanujan was a mad genius.
We, in India, were taught about him through textbooks and what nots. You'll always find his face in museums and science fairs.
Man revolutionised maths.

[AA-fnxz]

Ramanujan was most likely the most incredibly gifted mathematician to have ever lived. To be able to accomplish what he did with the resources and education that he had is nigh unfathomable.

[medipeace]

The Mock Theta Functions which is used to explain Black Holes was proved 92 years after his death .
Just goes to show how far ahead of his time he was .

[hansulrichjohner]

I think you described his fantastic genius the right way: missing formal education he studied the thousands of formulas until they talked to him. His brain created a language for him and only him!

[sunnythegreat]

It's almost as if the Universe didn't want him to uncover all it's secrets, so he was taken from us at such an early age. I only imagine what people like him can discover/invent if they had a longer lifespan.

[ludvigwittgenstein]

Hardy was asked where Ramanajun ranked in the pantheon of mathematical genius. Hardy replied "From a scale of 0 to 100, i would place myself at 20, Whitehead at 30, Hilbert at 80, and Ramanajun at 100."

Such was the monumental scale of his genius. Had he lived to old age, there is no doubt he would be remembered as the most gifted mathematician to ever live. Im not being hyperbolic.

He was truly one of a kind!

[alexcampbell]

"he may not of started out on top of humanities wall of knowledge, but that didn't matter S R just built his own". Beautifully put Thoughty2 beautifully put.

[arpitmandhotra]

Ramanujan's story is hand down one of the greatest such a profound genius it's quite remarkable what he did with little to no formal education

[adebayoezekiel]

honestly, i am actually crying right now,
imagining the pain he would have gone through, not because of his sickness but because of his unfulfilled works.
kudos to the great Man

[brandonfleischhacker]

I feel his lack of formal education is the reason he was able to develop so fast and go so far. The lack of preconceptions of how it should work let him explore to find his own way.

[Styxswimmer]

I studied this man in high school (I'm 40 now). I taught myself algebra, calculus, matrix analysis, quantum mechanics and elementary particle physics, but the moment I started studying this man's work, I was completely stumped. I had no idea what I was looking at. Ramanujan was centuries ahead of his time.

[SilencedButNotForgotten]

Hardy was a genius himself. One of the greatest of his generation.
He helped Ramanujan throughout the years with great success.
Their joint works are incredible.

But even he himself admitted that there is a high possibility that Ramanujan could have become the greatest mathematician of his generation, and that his achievements during his short life already qualified him as one of the greatest.

He also said that when all his works will be finally analyzed, his true genius will seem even greater than they did that day.

He was right.

[howardandrews]

If this great man would have lived into his 60's or 70's he would of by a long shot been the greatest mathematician this world has ever seen, it was truly a natural born gift.

[TheRealKitWalker]

India and Indians have always been looked down upon by the world whereas in reality they're a treasure trove of knowledge and prosperity. In ancient times, people from the world used to visit India for knowledge, enlightenment, trade and much more. No other country in the world can match India in terms of what India has given to the world and quite forgivingly like a nourishing mother. Ancient times India had various universities such as takshila, narmada university to name a few. Please do more research about India and you'd be fascinated by what you'll discover.

[devamjani]

There is a large misconception regarding Ramanujan that he was not able to prove his own theorems, which is very far from truth ofcourse, he proved most of his own results and latter in his life when he was sick, he noted down only the final results in his notebook and did the proof work in his slate, for those who don't know what a slate is, it's a mini chalk board, with a mini chalk and a peace of cloth that works as a duster. Slates were really popular in India at that time and you can find them still today in rural parts of India, the reason he didn't note down the proofs but only the final results was because papers were really expensive at that time and so as to note down the most of his work in as little space as possible, he only noted down the final results in his paper notebook and did the proofs in his slate.

[escalocity]

Ramanujan frequently said, "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God."-and he wasn't kidding. Like ancient Indian mathematicians, Ramanujan only noted the results and summaries of his works; no proof was worked out for the formulae he came up with. He straightaway credited his work to the divine providence of Mahalakshmi of Namakkal, a family goddess whom he looked to for inspiration. The mathematician said that he dreamed of the Goddess' male consort Narasimha, who is denoted by droplets of blood, after which, scrolls of complex mathematical work unfolded in front of his eyes.

[thiruvetti]

Being from the same Indian state as Shri. Ramanujam, its not suprising that he is ignored here.

In Tamilnadu(India) where Shri. Ramanujam was born, he has least respect or mention. Rarely does he get mentioned in schools. Infact the movie made about him rarely got any attention due to political hatred spread against his religious background.

[mlynskey]

I wonder if his lack of formal education in mathematics actually helped him make discoveries which were made down paths that formal education would steer you away from - as in he could see things in a different way to most other mathematicians that had been trained a certain way