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Summary: Ramanujan = combo of Galois and Abel ?
Review: I don't know much about orchestral music, but it should be the way ` what instrument is to music..Ramanujan was to maths '
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Summary: Excellent work by Robert Kanigel... Interesting !!!!
Review: I read this book on Ramanujan (whom I consider to be one of the greatest genious of all time ) arround 3 years back in 1995. Though I had heard a lot about RAMANUJAN ,still reading this book was sort of totally new experience. I can not expect a better write up. Maintaining the interest of the reader in a topic as complex and hard as MATHEMATICS and that too about RAMANUJAN, who has been a mystery to all of us till date , is the single most important achievement of the book. It sure is an inspiring biography. And you would sure learn few news things about MATHS if you consider your self a novice in the field of MATHEMATICS.
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Summary: Wow
Review: I think the worst book on mathematics or mathematicians I have read. The reader would have some knowledge, perhaps to the 9th grade, but is informed what a coefficient is, that the denominator is 'the number on the bottem'! Functions of interest to Ramanujan are mentioned but never adequately specified. Similarly for theorems. The author seems uncomfortable with mathematics.
The reader comes away with the sense of great things done but no idea of what they were.
This book is a read only for those interested in cataloging the faults of sloppy 'scientific' writing.
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Summary: A touching biography
Review: Im not too fond of biographies, but I would give this book an exception.The life of Ramanujan is amazing and one is pushed to only awe the limits of mind. Being an Indian, I can see Robert Kanigel has given a comprehensive treatment to all facets of the life of Ramanujan - his boyhood days in small town of Kumbakonam, his obsession with Maths, his seperation from Mother and his wife, his relationship with Hardy and others, his stay in London, and his final days. Kanigel has really done a wonderful job in depicting the Brahmin house-hold of the early 1900s. One could really imagine Ramanujan with a tuft and a religious symbol on forehead, but his mind calculating 10,000 th decimal of pi. His purely professional relations with Hardy has also been very deftly depicted. How hard the days must have been! Being a Ramanujan's biography its hard to avoid mathematical formulas - and the author justifiably includes them when necessary. But even if you do not understand them - you can just wonder at the string of symbols joined together to purport some meaning. The narration is truly captivating. It sends an horripulating feeling to the mind, when Hardy describes the first letter of formulas as "These must be true. If they are not, nobody would have the audacity to invent it." The final days of Ramanujan are indeed sad and emotional and also beautifuly captured in the book. Typical is the life of geniuses - the world has hard time understanding them. This book is really worth in my library.
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Summary: An excellent book for people who love Science and History
Review: In each field of science there are many unsung heroes whose stories are all but forgotten. Nevertheless some of these stories are astonishing and in the hands of a good author makes fscinating reading. One such story is that of Ramanujan, who was to Math what Mozart was to music. His genius was almost mystical. This book deals with his life, how came to the attention of Hardy, went to England and became one of the well known mathematicians of his time.
But this book also deals with the "mystical" aspects of his genius. Strange, almost unbelievable anecdotes of how from the esoteric shadows of the east came an almost uneducated man who, isolated from the scientific world, rediscovered many of the great mathematical theorems that had been dsicovered over centuries in Europe.
The book is written in a superb style. I really enjoyed reading it, and I urge everyone to read it for its sheer entertainment value
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Summary: It covers every second of Ramanujan's life
Review: It is a superb biography, can as well serve as a guide to S.India and Cambridge.It is amazing to see that Kanigel has presented the lifestyle of S.Indians in all its details. No book has been written in India on an Indian mathematician giving utmost attention to even trivial details. The best biography I have ever come across.
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Summary: Ramanujan - a man beyond his time
Review: It is interesting to note that much of the work of Ramanujan is still not understood, and it might be another 100 years before we could even begin to unravel the way he thought. A superb proof of the power of one mind, and a warning to everyone to take care not to summarily discard that which we do not understand. A superb book. It will appeal to anyone interested in the triumph of excellence over great obstacles. No math background is needed to read this book.
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Summary: An exploration of genius in the colonial condition ....
Review: Kanigel's is the first book I've read on Ramanujan. It is well put together and explores the elements of the man, South India and Cambridge that led to the "collaboration" which allowed Ramanujan to flourish and be "discovered" by the West. Mathematics and Science is Planetary in scope, whereas cultures and colonialism, idiosyncracies of Universities, constraints of poverty, all in some way deny us the fruits of genius, whom I daresay are "normally" distributed in all populations! Nurture, in the true and fullest sense of the word, allows the light to shine through. Ramanujan's letter to Hardy is a classic! It is the essence of understatement, he may have been uneducated in the purely formal sense, but he was quite aware of the world he was to be reluctantly invited to join. His gifts are rare, his powers abundantly evident, there is no use debating how much longer he may have lived, if both he and Hardy understood the difficulties of a South Indian clerk attempting to live in Cambridge. The collaboration brings into sharp relief, the genarally accepted notion that in most endeavours of man, critical mass, or an informed bouncing wall/mirror brings out the best. Does Hingis give of her best against a weak opponent? Doesn't Michael Jordon reach deep when there is half a minute and five points to score? Would Karpov have ramped up his game had Fischer allowed him a match? Ramanujan may have contributed much more had he survived even two more Summers. As it stands his contribution is so outstanding that his notebooks still give up useful gems to knowledge-hungry post-graduate students. Kanigel's book is a must read for anyone interested in the history of Mathematics, anyone interested in harnessing the powers of genius, the relationships among nature and nurture, genes and culture etc. Good companion reading would include the lives of Richard Feynman, John Maynard Keynes and anything on the Manhattan Project to name but a few.
Rating:
Summary: An exploration of genius in the colonial condition ....
Review: Kanigel's is the first book I've read on Ramanujan. It is well put together and explores the elements of the man, South India and Cambridge that led to the "collaboration" which allowed Ramanujan to flourish and be "discovered" by the West. Mathematics and Science is Planetary in scope, whereas cultures and colonialism, idiosyncracies of Universities, constraints of poverty, all in some way deny us the fruits of genius, whom I daresay are "normally" distributed in all populations! Nurture, in the true and fullest sense of the word, allows the light to shine through. Ramanujan's letter to Hardy is a classic! It is the essence of understatement, he may have been uneducated in the purely formal sense, but he was quite aware of the world he was to be reluctantly invited to join. His gifts are rare, his powers abundantly evident, there is no use debating how much longer he may have lived, if both he and Hardy understood the difficulties of a South Indian clerk attempting to live in Cambridge. The collaboration brings into sharp relief, the genarally accepted notion that in most endeavours of man, critical mass, or an informed bouncing wall/mirror brings out the best. Does Hingis give of her best against a weak opponent? Doesn't Michael Jordon reach deep when there is half a minute and five points to score? Would Karpov have ramped up his game had Fischer allowed him a match? Ramanujan may have contributed much more had he survived even two more Summers. As it stands his contribution is so outstanding that his notebooks still give up useful gems to knowledge-hungry post-graduate students. Kanigel's book is a must read for anyone interested in the history of Mathematics, anyone interested in harnessing the powers of genius, the relationships among nature and nurture, genes and culture etc. Good companion reading would include the lives of Richard Feynman, John Maynard Keynes and anything on the Manhattan Project to name but a few.
Rating:
Summary: Great job
Review: Kudos to the author on his well researched story. Read this to get an insight into early 20th century mathematics at Cambridge and of course, the life of the genius Ramanujam. A must buy.
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