Talk:Srinivasa Ramanujan

Mathematical Achievements
There is a big mistake in the algoritm for calculate pi. For k=0 it works, but for k=1 pi is equal to 129 million. For k=5 the entire part of pi has 48 digits. Are there anybody who can repare it? User: ivan tchakoff — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ivan tchakoff (talk • contribs) 00:20, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
 * which algorithm? This page lists several.--Jasper Deng (talk) 01:42, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
 * User:Tchakoff might be referring to the equation for the reciprocal of pi. The infinite series contains a "k".
 * See the paragraph entitled "Mathematical achievements". The equation is in the fourth line.

Nationality - Indian
Why in the infobox the nationality written as Indian? In the similar case of Galileo Galilei, there is just a comment: "During his life, Italy, as we know it today, didn't exist. Don't add the nationality as Italian because it isn't true.". I think that we should do the same way here. India was not a country then. --Seekl (talk) 14:29, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
 * No. India, while under the British, WAS a separate country. It was a British colony and was referred to as "India" even then. --JavaHurricane (talk) 12:36, 17 November 2019 (UTC)

Citation: "defeated him and his colleagues completely"
I think the closest you'll get is Hardy's remark in Ramanujan: Twelve Lectures on Subjects Suggested by his Life and Work:

The formulae (1.10)—(1.13) are on a different level and obviously both difficult and deep. An expert in elliptic functions can see at once that (1.13) is derived somehow from the theory of “complex multiplication”, but (1.10)—(1.12) defeated me completely; I had never seen anything in the least like them before. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.159.248.94 (talk) 20:45, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Tamil name
It is customary to include a person's name in their language of origin/"mother tongue" -- see Grigori Perelman, Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov, Shiing-Shen Chern, Shin'ichirō Tomonaga etc. Why does User:Limit-theorem feel that Ramanujan's should not be included? This user may explain himself here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.201.57.124 (talk) 19:04, 17 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Please see MOS:INDICSCRIPTS for the reason. Favonian (talk) 19:06, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

Ramanujan's name in Tamil and meaning behind his name.
Hi there, please take note that Ramanujan's name in Tamil characters is ஸ்ரீனிவாச ராமானுஜன் not the one stated there. Also the meaning of his name comes Ramanujacharya, a Sri Vaishnava exponent and a branch of Hinduism which Ramanuja's family follows. Please take note — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pavarms (talk • contribs) 11:15, 12 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Let's open the discussion to get references or comments from those who know Tamil.Limit-theorem (talk) 12:14, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 September 2021
The text reads ” Of his thousands of results, all but a dozen or two have now been proven correct.”

But looking at the source in footnote 8 it is ” There are a number of misprints. I did not count the number of serious mistakes but it is an extremely small number - maybe five or ten out of over 3,000 results.”

Shouldn’t it therefore be ”incorrect” instead of ”correct” 94.254.111.144 (talk) 20:35, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * The first quote is saying that all of the results are correct, minus about 12 or 24. The second quote is saying that the number if mistakes is small.  They are saying the same thing.  RudolfRed (talk) 23:34, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Needs correcting
an illness then widespread in Madras, than tuberculosis. 90.253.57.18 (talk) 01:09, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Another error (I'm old, drunk and stupid, wtf people)
Of his thousands of results, all but a dozen or two have now been proven 90.253.57.18 (talk) 01:18, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 February 2022
The use of "born" (as in Srinivasa Ramanujan born Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar) is silly. He never changed his name. Yes, Indian patronymics are unfamiliar to some Anglophone readers, but this is like saying "John Smith, born John David Smith". Robertus Avunculus (talk) 13:48, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Heartmusic678 (talk) 16:50, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

"Fellow of Arts"
Currently the main article says that Ramanujan was studying for an F.A. degree, which is expanded as "Fellow of Arts." I have not read any long biography of his, so can't say for certain, but I am sure that FA actually stood for "First Examination in Arts," which was the exam at the end of the first year of a Bachelor of Arts programme. The scheme for degrees in Indian universities at that time was based on that of the University of London. Putting FA after your name was risky, because it implied you had dropped out of a BA course, and it could be lampooned as "Failed BA."NRPanikker (talk) 03:59, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Unmatched HTML reference tag
Under Adulthood in India, subheading Pursuit of career in mathematics, there is a broken reference tag:

"With Aiyer's help, Ramanujan had his work published in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. Kanigel 1991, p. 86 "

Removing the quotation mark in the opening tag should fix the issue. 192.77.143.182 (talk) 16:39, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Done. Thanks for the suggestion. Limit-theorem (talk) 22:33, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 18:39, 2 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Srinivasa Ramanujan - OPC - 2 (cleaned).jpg

Semi-protected edit request on 13 October 2022
On the page, it said "Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902; he developed his own method to solve the quartic. In the following year, he tried to solve the quintic, not knowing that it could not be solved by radicals."

This sentence may be considered "Ramanujan developed his own method to solve quartic after he was shown to solve the cubic equations in 1902."

But in the book "Man Who Knew Infinity" p.27, it said, "Ramanujan learned from an older boy how to solve cubic equations." and no mention of solving the quartic equations.

And in the book "Ramanujan's Notebooks IV" by B. Berndt, Chap. 22 Elementary Results, Entry 20, p.31, explains the new method for solving quartic equations.

I presume that there is a time gap between learning how to solve cubic equations and developing a new method for solving quartic equations.

1. So I think the sentence "Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902; he developed his own method to solve the quartic." has to be changed to "Ramanujan was shown how to solve cubic equations in 1902 and he went on to find his own method to solve the quartic. and later in his life he found his own method."

2. Also, "In the following year, he tried to solve the quintic" needs a reference. Askif2 (talk) 01:33, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
 * It took me awhile to parse what the problem you wanted to fix was, but I got it in the end. I have added as the citation for Ramanujan attempting to solve the quintic per the sentence he tried (and of course failed) to solve the quintic. I have re-written the sentence to clarify that he did not develop a personal method for solving quartics immediately following getting taught how to solve cubics. I mark this as partly done only because I did not use your proposed text word-for-word. Thank you for your contributions, and happy editing! — Sirdog (talk) 06:22, 29 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your considerations for my suggestions! Askif2 (talk) 15:03, 6 November 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 November 2022
Citizenship from British India to Indian please 2601:647:4800:F7B0:AC01:3ABA:19FC:D4B (talk) 05:09, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: "British Indian" refers to the British Raj, which is more accurate than "Indian" would be. Actualcpscm (talk) 10:21, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Archiving content removed from lede
The following content was recently removed from lede, because this is better explained in article body. That content is archived here for future references:

A deeply religious Hindu, Ramanujan credited his substantial mathematical capacities to divinity, and said his family goddess, Namagiri Thayar, revealed his mathematical knowledge to him. He once said, "An equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God." &#8212;CX Zoom[he/him] (let's talk • {C•X}) 07:57, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

"see also"
needs links to "the man who knew infinity" film and book 73.170.203.143 (talk) 22:41, 2 January 2023 (UTC)


 * The film is linked to from Srinivasa Ramanujan and the book is linked from Srinivasa Ramanujan. Per MOS:SEEALSO, links that are in the article body should not be repeated in the See also section. &#8212;CX Zoom[he/him] (let's talk • {C•X}) 10:20, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 June 2023
Please change the infobox main image from "Srinivasa Ramanujan - OPC - 2 (cleaned).jpg" to "Srinivasa Ramanujan- Add. MS a947.jpg". The image source has updated their license to CC BY 4.0.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Srinivasa_Ramanujan-_Add._MS_a947.jpg DappledHistory (talk) 14:13, 19 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. The current image looks better to me, and they are both marked public domain so it is not clear why you are asking for CC 4.0 license?  RudolfRed (talk) 23:15, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

Math equations in a biographical wiki?
They're just not necessary. Azbookmobile (talk) 21:04, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 September 2023
Citation proving he left to England in 1914. Sushidude21! (talk) 01:54, 10 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Tollens (talk) 02:21, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

Ramanujan Machine addition
The Ramanujan Machine is a distributed computing project that has its own article. It would be fairly relevant to have a hyperlink included on this page to the corresponding Wiki page (below). Though it was started by present-day mathematicians, the algorithm(s) were created in honor of him and use similar strategies that he would have employed to find conjectures similar to the ones he sought after. I was thinking add it to 'See Also'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanujan_machine Unfazed 799 (talk) 02:53, 26 February 2024 (UTC)