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Ramanujan's Deathbed Conjecture Finally Proven
jomama717 writes "Another chapter in the fascinating life of Srinivasa Ramanujan appears to be complete: 'While on his death bed, the brilliant Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan cryptically wrote down functions he said came to him in dreams, with a hunch about how they behaved. Now 100 years later, researchers say they've proved he was right. "We've solved the problems from his last mysterious letters. For people who work in this area of math, the problem has been open for 90 years," Emory University mathematician Ken Ono said.
Ramanujan, a self-taught mathematician born in a rural village in South India, spent so much time thinking about math that he flunked out of college in India twice, Ono said.'"
I can't wait to see what the elite-math-folks around here post below here.
He could be running a 7-11 and courteously frowning at me, as is indian custom, while serving me an overpriced hotdog.
2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Just imagine the contributions he might have made if he had lived. Such a shame.
It's just a hunch, but I have a feeling, unlike say technology, that mathematics is one of those fields where discoveries aren't always inevitable. Either someone thinks up of some things or they don't.
twice as in binary or twice as in decimal?
I hear BRITNEY SPEARS flunked two children out the same placenta..
A mumbling woman pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday night, the second time this month someone has been killed in such nightmarish fashion, police said.
What in the hell is wrong with people? What would Srinivasa Ramanujan think of our society? He did not live for long, but accomplished much in his life.
I wonder what would happen if US colleges (or even earlier in our educational system) let students have free reign, and really specialize. If over in India this man had been nurtured in college, and allowed to stay in math courses (or even better conduct his own lines of study), might he have had a more enjoyable or productive life? If we recognize genius and cultivate it, what might grow in that garden?
Second time? I bet he would have found a pattern and prevented further deaths.
Ono's team did not prove the Ramanujan Conjecture. It was proven a long time ago, in 1974 by Deligne as part of his proof of the Weil conjectures
Yeah, he lived through WWI where people gassed each other and bayonetted each other in the gut while waiting to be shelled in the trenches. Yet I'm sure he'd think we're nuts now.
Unless you're a doctor or a lawyer, your Indian degree is less than worthless.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was given a brain, a brain that is not that different from the one we have in between our own ears.
The only difference between Srinivasa Ramanujan and 99.99999% of the human race is that he opted to use his brain power as much as it could be sustained.
If only the rest of 99.99999% of the human population can do the same - becoming a galaxy-roaming race wouldn't stay merely a dream for long.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
The summary suggests that Ramanujan wrote down some results that were conjectures until now. He wrote down many results, few if any on his deathbed, and most of them have already been verified for years, though some were still open until recently. Apparently the actual article is about the closing of the last few ones only.
"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hi AC,
I know about four sentences of a whole lot of stuff. It's like it's a party game, you can drop a key word or two, but the min any actual specialist asks you a question, you're hosed.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I'm lost, he apparently wrote a bunch of stuff on his deathbed and sent it all to Mr. Hardy.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Whenever I read submissions like this, I wonder why they put a sentence like "genius in flunked out of ...". Unless the area they were a genius in was the same one he/she failed at, it seems kind of flame-bait - trying to start an "school is useless - look at these outliers" discussion.
Ramanujan was brilliant at mathematics, and there is no denying that. But like any school/college, his was made for the average person. Sure, it would be great if education was tailored to each individual's aptitude. But we don't have a good way of finding out what that is directly yet. Instead, we throw a bunch of subjects at students, and they figure out where there relative strengths are. And they focus on one or two areas where their natural aptitude lies (or more realistically, where their job prospects and abilities/interests combine to give "best" results; best being chosen by the student. Some may chase money, others fame, others just want to solve interesting problems - applications/paycheck be damned).
And discovering outliers early is hard when the teachers themselves are not much better at their subjects than the students. If some kindergarten student started using calculus for loading of building blocks, it won't be much use if her teacher doesn't realize that what she is doing is phenomenal (especially since the child will have her own notations/symbols). Obviously, that is an extreme example, but the point remains - outliers will have a tough time in the current system.
Alternatively, we can let everyone do what they find interesting, but a majority of students will just spend time doing "fun" things like sports - which is not necessarily bad. But as long as we have the current system where you starve if you can't hold down a job doing "productive things", I think the educational system prepares most people for such a world.
Outliers are great - and can help speed up society's progress significantly. But at the end of the day, they are just that - outliers. If you design a system to help the outliers, most people (myself included) would wind up getting a very bad outcome - because most people aren't phenomenally skilled at anything (and no, being the best me I can be doesn't cut it). And if you have a lot of starving deadbeats on the street (instead of the mediocre, but holding down a job majority) I expect society to completely break down - and that won't help the outliers either.
Not really buying it.
If you got a kiddo with a 150+ IQ, your lectures on Gilgamesh will be wasted. End Of Story.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Why do people want to make this into a debate on his mental state? I think he took a phenomenal ability and used it to the fullest extent that his personal circumstances allowed. He certainly didn't wallow in an aspie tank, moaning about how brilliant he was and wasting his too short life on comic book trivia.
Disagree entirely. A little cross-training is generally good for the brain as a whole - look at the classic Feynman story where he decided to do a biology class to expand his horizons (he went to the library and asked for a "map of a cat").
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Whenever I read submissions like this, I wonder why they put a sentence like "genius in flunked out of ...".
Let's look at the sentence in question: "spent so much time thinking about math that he flunked out of college in India twice" -- and you went off on a many-paragraph rant, when the only things that the sentence showed were that he was more interested in mathematics (some might rather say obsessed with) than the baseline, and perhaps that the school system was not set up to handle him. It does not contain an indictment of the school system, and only you thought it did, then went off on a massive rant about it. While your rant is not incorrect, and I see no problem with your conclusions, your introduction to the subject came straight from left field.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ramanujan is pretty near the top of my list of most admirable humans. His widely encompassing spirituality, the incredible way he developed his own native ability, and his focused obsession which hindered his college learning, are all themes that resonate strongly with me. The story of his life is at once a triumph of the individual human spirit and a tragedy of the life of one of the very finest of us being cut short.
But there's value to a well rounded education. In part because it lets you work with others and function in society better. While some great works are done almost solely by an individual (like the Principia) most are done via collaboration.
Also it allows you to see things more cross-domain. Knowledge of things in more than just one area can let you see connections that you might otherwise miss, and to see applications for things that otherwise might just seem to exist in a vacuum.
Hyper-focused education is not necessarily a good idea. Particularly since, as you note, people may not make the best choices as to what to focus on.
I have to say that some of the best moments of my life were calculating the area under the curve by tactile measurement.
Put a towel under the door.
There's room for both. Put a few "sythetist" type thinkers in with of a whole bunch of specialists and you've got a pretty amazing combination. Some people are better suited to specialty, while others excel at being a "jack of all trades". We obviously can't all be a DaVinci but those who are really make an impact.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Why are plant cells so efficient at harvesting light and how can we duplicate that ability?
They're not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthetic_efficiency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency