ABSTRACT

Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of India’s greatest mathematical geniuses, yet due to his poor upbringing he did not have enough money to gain entry to an Indian University. So he wrote to Professor G. H. Hardy (see Chapter M), a great pure mathematician of the time at Cambridge University in England, asking for his help. Part of the letter that he wrote went as follows:

After leaving school I have been employing the spare time at my disposal to work at mathematics. I have not trodden through the conventional regular course but I am striking out a new path for myself. I have found some startling results such as this formula for n which produces eight more decrnal places m lh each term

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