Srinivasa Ramanujan's cryptic theory proved right
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LONDON: Mathematicians from a US university have solved a cryptic puzzle that renowned Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan claimed came to him in his dreams on his deathbed.
While on his death-bed in 1920, Ramanujan wrote a letter to his mentor, British mathematician G H Hardy, outlining several new mathematical functions never before heard of, along with a hunch about how they worked, the Daily Mail said.
Now, researchers say they have proved Ramanujan was right, and that the formula could explain the behaviour of black holes. "We've solved the problems from his last mysterious letters," Ken Ono, a mathematician from Emory University in Georgia, US, said.
Ono said Ramanujan spent so much time thinking about math that he flunked out of college in India twice. A devout Hindu, he thought these patterns were revealed to him by the goddess Namagiri. However, no one at the time understood what he was talking about.
"It wasn't until 2002, through the work of Sander Zwegers, that we had a description of the Ramanujan functions that Ramanujan was writing about in 1920," Ono said. With colleagues, Ono drew on modern mathematical tools that had not been developed before Ramanujan's death to prove that his theory was correct.
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While on his death-bed in 1920, Ramanujan wrote a letter to his mentor, British mathematician G H Hardy, outlining several new mathematical functions never before heard of, along with a hunch about how they worked, the Daily Mail said.
Now, researchers say they have proved Ramanujan was right, and that the formula could explain the behaviour of black holes. "We've solved the problems from his last mysterious letters," Ken Ono, a mathematician from Emory University in Georgia, US, said.
Ono said Ramanujan spent so much time thinking about math that he flunked out of college in India twice. A devout Hindu, he thought these patterns were revealed to him by the goddess Namagiri. However, no one at the time understood what he was talking about.
"It wasn't until 2002, through the work of Sander Zwegers, that we had a description of the Ramanujan functions that Ramanujan was writing about in 1920," Ono said. With colleagues, Ono drew on modern mathematical tools that had not been developed before Ramanujan's death to prove that his theory was correct.
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