The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan

Out of India

The first two days of Ramanujan’s travels were miserable because he suffered from seasickness. After the Nevassa reached its first port of call in Sri Lanka and he was able to disembark for a short time, things became increasingly less miserable for him. Ramanujan arrived in England on April 14, 1914. He was met at the docks in London by E. H. Neville, whose charity and hospitality and whose affiliation with Cambridge helped Ramanujan get himself situated to his new surroundings in a way that most other Indian newcomers would not have access to. He moved into Neville’s home, and Kanigel points out that while he shared the home with Neville and his wife, Ramanujan experienced an unprecedented degree of privacy there. Once settled in his living quarters, Ramanujan almost immediately went to work with Hardy and his associate John Littlewood.

Together

Kanigel discusses the work that Hardy and Ramanujan performed and goes into some detail about the math behind it. The more Hardy investigated Ramanujan’s theories, the more it became clear to him that he was in the presence of an especially gifted mathematical mind. Although some of Ramanujan’s theories had been proven for many years, the way he approached the problems were unorthodox and revealed to Hardy a uniqueness not found in English mathematics at the time.