JMA Pilani Rajasthan Celebrates National Mathematics Day to Commemorate Srinivasa Ramanujan Birthday

PILANI, India - Dec. 22, 2016 - PRLog -- In a prologue to the best selling, award winning biographical book on Ramanujan, titled "The Man who knew Infinity", the famous American author, Robert Kannigal writes, Srinivasa Ramanujan, "was a mathematician so great that his name transcends jealousies…His leaps of intuition confound mathematicians even today, many decades after his death. His papers are still plumbed for their secrets.

Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920), was a mathematical genius not only of the twentieth century but for all time. He was an enigma to his teachers even at school because of his prodigious memory and unusual mathematical talent which began to show even before he was ten years old. 22 Dec 2016 happens to be the 129th Birth anniversary of this great mathematician and is being celebrated as National Mathematics Day.

Smt Jamuna Mishra Academy – JMA Pilani which has embarked on a rich tradition of celebrating various days of national and international significance had a talk on the significance of the day by Prof BR Natarajan well known alumnus of BITS Pilani who is Presently advisor Sangam University Bhilwara.  Giving an overview of the biography of Srinvasa Ramanujan, Prof Natarajan explained the significance of number theory from basics odd, even, prime, cube, composite, cube, square, triangular to Fibonacci and Tetranacci numbers.  Starting with Sum of two squares can be a square, Prof Natarajan escalated the discussion to Fermat's Last Theorem "can the sum of two nth powers can be an nth power". The students were amused by the anecdote associated with Carl Friedrich Gauss who did the task of adding up all numbers from 1 to 100 assigned by his irritated teacher immediately using the formula n(n+1)/2 while his classmates were dutifully adding.

The students were fascinated to hear that Ramanujan in a flash of a second had told his mentor Prof G H Hardy that the cab number 1729 in which he came is the smallest number which can be written as sum of two cubes in two different ways (1 and 12 as well as 9 and 10). In honour of same, 1729 is known as Ramanujan Hardy number. Students were thrilled to know that Srinvasa Ramanujan had a unique and prominent presence at the white marble Saraswati temple at Vidya Vihar Pilani Rajasthan.

Prof Natarajan sharing jokes like volume of a pizza with radius 'z' and height 'a', urged the students to appreciate the culture relevance and excitement of mathematics and enjoy learning the same. The celebrations ended with the screening of trailer of the Hollywood film "The Man who Knew Infinity". Principal Mrs Booma Natarajan anchored the proceedings including the welcome address and vote of thanks proposal.

For more details about JMA Pilani see http://jmapilani.org

About JMA Pilani: Smt. Jamuna Mishra Academy (JMA) established in the year 2004 which has been making rapid strides in early childhood education is presently one of the most sought after schools at Pilani considered as Oasis in the desert state of Rajasthan well known in India today for one among top in world ranking BITS Pilani University as well as CSIR Laboratory CEERI and globally renowned Birla Science Museum. JMA Pilani is a Co-educational English Medium School with Experienced Teachers, Spacious Classrooms and Modern Amenities designed to impart Quality Education combined with All Round Personality Development and lay the Best Foundation for the Child's Future. JMA which started in 2004 with an enrollment of 60 students for the Nursery, LKG, First Junior and Class I has grown today till Class XII and enrollment of 900. While the school admits both boys and girls, the girl student enrollment has been steadily rising every year and is presently nearly 50% of the total strength. The school has NCC for boys and the school girls band has been winning laurels every year too. Yoga and Fine arts are not just part of school routine but a way of life for the students.