International Day of Mathematics 2023: Five fascinating facts about Indian mathematicians

International Day of Mathematics 2023 is celebrated to drive the significance of mathematics in our daily lives. Photo Courtesy: Midday File Pic

International Day of Mathematics also known as Pi Day is celebrated to draw attention towards the significance of mathematics in our daily lives. This day was finalised to be written in the format (MM/DD) to represent the value of Pi which is 3.14. Global educators and mathematicians celebrate this day to recognize and appreciate the ease that mathematics facilitates in our lives.

On this day, we bring to you the top five Indian mathematicians and their ground-breaking contributions to the world of numbers:

Aryabhatta

Aryabhatta, an Indian mathematician and astronomer was born in 476 AD in the region of Kusumapura. He is considered to be one of the most influential people in the development of Indian mathematics and astronomy. He invented the concept of the number ‘0', which was a significant development in the history of mathematics. His ideas were influential in the development of trigonometry. Aryabhatta has also taught lessons on how to solve quadratic equations, extract square roots, and predict eclipses.

Shakuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi was an Indian mathematician, mental calculator, and a writer who was born on November 4, 1929, in Bangalore, India. Known for her exceptional abilities in mental calculations, she was rightfully called as the ‘human computer'. She demonstrated her abilities publicly for the first time when she was six years old. She did not receive any formal education in mathematics. She was a prodigious learner and reportedly mastered complex calculations at a very young age.

Brahmagupta

Brahmagupta was an Indian mathematician born in 598 AD in the region of Rajasthan, India. He is considered to be one of the most important mathematicians of ancient India, and his work had a significant impact on the development of mathematics and astronomy at a global level. He introduced the concept of negative numbers and gave rules for their arithmetic operations. He also devised formulas for the areas and volumes of various geometric shapes, such as triangles, circles, and spheres. He also discussed various methods for solving arithmetic problems, such as finding the square root of a number. Brahmagupta also gave methods for computing compound interest and exchange rates.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians in history. He was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode, a town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India. Despite having no formal training in mathematics, Ramanujan made groundbreaking contributions to various fields of mathematics, including number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. He showed a natural aptitude for mathematics from a young age, but his family was poor, and he was unable to pursue higher education in the subject. However, he continued to study mathematics independently and made several significant discoveries on his own. Ramanujan's most important contributions were in the field of number theory. He developed new ways of looking at and understanding prime numbers and their distribution, and he made several significant discoveries about the properties of highly composite numbers. He also developed new methods for calculating the values of various mathematical functions, including the Riemann zeta function

Harish Chandra

Harish Chandra was a prominent Indian-American mathematician and physicist known for his contributions to representation theory, harmonic analysis, and the theory of semi simple Lie groups. He was born on October 11, 1923, in Kanpur, India. Harish Chandra's work in mathematics and physics was highly influential and has had a significant impact on these fields. His research focused on the representation theory of lie groups and related topics. Harish Chandra's contributions to mathematics and physics have had a profound impact on these fields, and his work has been influential in many areas of research. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, and his legacy continues to inspire mathematicians and physicists today.

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