Prof Béla Bollobás (1963), explains the significance of Indian mathematician Ramanujan

Ramanujan is a complete singularity is most unusual absolutely unique in the world he's someone who learned mathematics essentially all by himself every great mathematician went to a good course of studies and most of them had had very good teachers some at least people who inspired them told them what to learn not Ramanujan he learned all by himself from starting with a notorious book of love thousands of problems that he did for himself and he got totally hooked on mathematics I was absolutely obsessed and and working by himself without essentially any reward he discovered amazing patterns also he tried to discover much of what large chunks of mathematics that that in in in Europe people had been working on for hundreds of years so that that was a random positive an impossible task but but what is amazing for me that before he came to Cambridge before hardly brought him to Cambridge he produced so much interesting material and not not only interesting but very very unusual so it had tended to work of course he worked on on lots of different topics some were rather standard others were not not not so he fearlessly attacked the big problems in number theory the problems that nobody could do at the time and any way anywhere in the world and he saw that he could just go and and and so solve them and the mathematical scene in England in the first half of the 20th century was dominated by two mathematicians hardy gh Hardy and little J little and they really change change put put England on the mathematical map of the world until they were there England was not really a major force in mathematics and and it was to to hardly that Ramanuja wrote wrote a letter giving lots and lots of his results lots and lots of his claims without proofs and and the hardly to his credit great credit didn't show the letter into the wastepaper basket that it is a letter from one of the loonies who who thinks he can prove these things but but actually went through it and as a result hardly got convinced what was convinced that that this man is really a G genius is at least as good as Yakko be one of the major mathematicians were reared and then he wrote to the Ramanujan asking for more more results asking for proofs the correspondence started they correspond it very regularly and then soon after hard they had the idea of bringing Ramanujan to Cambridge it's all occasionally claimed that that hard delude Ramanujan to Cambridge I think that's nonsense I mean nothing could have been better for evolution them to come come to Trinity not that that was absolutely the best best thing for him to do he did object to the trip because of cast prejudices especially his mother objected to his leaving India going to a foreign land crossing the ocean that the no no so even when Ramanujan came and then he was mourning that oh I shall never be invited to a funeral again we have having broken the caste rules but but in in Cambridge hardly could teach Ramanujan the kind of mathematics Ramanujan never got to without destroying his confidence that was hard this main concern that that if he just says that oh my goodness you don't know that how can you not know that every every undergraduate he had knows it now that would have been that's absolute an absolute tragedy instead he did it very gently and and and try to so that he should know more and not lose his his MA amazing confidence in at attacking impossible problems you mentioned how he teaching Ramanujan did did that role change because it became apparent that there was very little that Hardy could actually teach Ramanujan that Ramanujan was far more talented than than he that the kind of mentor scholar relationship no no no no actually actually actually actually that that's that that's that's an exaggeration no no Hardy was an extremely good mathematician hardly was still one of the best mathematicians in the world I first heard of Ramanujan almost 60 years ago from Paul Erdos a great Hungarian mathematician who passed on to me Hardy's remarks about natural talent both air dish and hardly saw that that Ramanujan was the most talented mathematician ever in the world as far as natural talent pure talent is concerned whatever that means so so hardly like to construct lists and I'd like to read rate events and cricketers and people and well everything so he also rated natural talent in mathematicians and and in that on the scale of zero to hundred he gave himself twenty-five he gave little wood thirty Hilbert David Hilbert who is a the greatest mathematician of the 20th century 80 and Ramanujan hundred but the P your talent is not quite the same as knowing mathematics and being able to prove things I wonder when he kept because this place hasn't changed since then you know so when he arrived a hundred years ago just before the start of the first world war he seemed like a confident young one but two would have been daunted intimidated by the surroundings here yes of course of course he was daunted and intimidated he was lifted taken out of his natural habitat and deposited in this very strange strange land so even later when when of what know from very beginning that he could have eaten in the hole but but he never ate in the hole again due to dr. caste regulations the rules of his caste he wouldn't have have gone gone to the hole to eat eat with the others which which is why he was rather a shadowy figure in the college so he didn't make many friends I mean eventually he did make some friends but they were all Indians naught naught naught naught naught naught the local students they the only two people here really knew mostly hardly and then the other one who whom he knew quite well but much less well than hardly was was little would actually it was little wood who said that every natural number was ramanuja's best friend so every natural number was Ramanujan's friend Nate you know natural numbers are 1 2 3 4 it doesn't make much sense to somebody who is not a mathematician but but as an example people always quote this little little story that when Hardy went to visit Ramanujan in Putney where he was in a hospital then hardly was lost for words as mathematicians tend tend to be and didn't really know what to talk to the next man who is ill ill so we just mentioned that I came in a taxi and the number of the this taxi was very dull what what what was it awesome illusion 1729 Oh Hardy how can you say that 17:20 and it's a very interesting number it is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of two cubes so 1729 is ten cube plus nine cube and also 12 cube plus one cube but the fact that Ramanujan instantly they said it is truly truly amazing and that he had this familiarity he love love love to see what was what what these number numbers looked like it looked like here I read somewhere underneath it's true that the hardy said that Ramanujan at that time had no equal no rival a hundred years later would that still hold all true it in effect that somebody sprang fully armed like like Pallas Athena is still unique nobody even comes close to it absolutely close to it there's always no nobody about whom you could say are he also told by himself without much reward and then when he appeared on the scene he had an amazing body of results there's no nobody like that and finally he became a fellow here the first Indian fellow at Trinity what what would have been the process how how would that have have happened and and what was felt about that at the time Marama knew John had two great supporters in their College of course hardly a little and in 1917 when ramanuja got his BSC just just his bachelor's degree then they decided that he had had so many amazing results that that of course he should be elected a fellow of the college so they proposed with all the letters recommendations Ramin region but body of results that he should be elected fellow of the college and I'm sorry to say that that it ran into a lot of opposition some of it was sadly racially motivated and and he was not elected then hardly a little will change deck they put Ramanujan up for a fellowship of the Royal Society same scene where come same letter same same body of results and there they were successful so in 1918 Ramanuja was elected a fellow of the Royal Society having got an FRS for a ram anujan hardly a little hood again proposed Ramanuja for a trinity fellowship and then they were successful the opponents of the of this election were grumbling that oh what a dirty trick you cannot refuse an FRS so they had to give in because being an FRS of course is much higher it is a much higher honor than being a fellow of Trinity on the other hand if you are an FRS that doesn't help to keep your body and soul together and and ramanuja needed help for his for his family back back in India and for and for himself just finally would do in kind of summary we can only speculate on this but Ramanujan had great champions and friends in little wooden and Hardy who to a certain degree put their own reputations on the line in backing him to the extent that they they did without that help and and and charities how would we be sitting here now talking about Ramanujan I wonder I have my doubts I seriously doubt that that ramanuja and would have been supported all that much in India as soon as hardly got ramen which ours first letter even before Ramanujan second letter came with elaborating only on the under Hardy wrote to friends in India suggesting that Ramanujan must be given more support because he knew that Ramanujan was living on a tiny tiny tiny income at the time as a clerk in the Madras port of the Madras Port Authority so he was working as a clerk and in his spare time which wasn't all that much he did mathematics oh but hard this letter was so influential that instantly he got a much much bigger grant than his salary had been and he was free to work on mathematics

Channel: Trinity College, Cambridge

Views: 201,498

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Keywords: Ramanujan, Professor Bela Bollabas, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Mathematics, Indian Mathematician, Trinity College Cambridge

Id: fGFK7rhpbWk

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2016