Mathematics Day

Originating in India, the day is particularly centered around one man. In fact, the reason Mathematics Day is set on December 22 is because it is the birthday of the country’s most respected mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. A math genius of the highest degree, Ramanujan was born in 1887 and spent his life under British rule in India.

In spite of the fact that he had almost no training in mathematics, Ramanujan made some important contributions to the discipline, including number theory, infinite series, mathematical analysis, and continued fractions.

Ramanujan’s original mathematical research and theories were born in isolation, as his work was far too advanced and novel for the mathematicians of his day to work with him. However, through correspondence with an English math professor at the University of Cambridge, Ramanujan became more connected and eventually moved to England and became the first Indian Fellow at Trinity College in Cambridge.