#The man who knew infinity movie#

It is unclear how Ramanujan, especially with no formal training, could have possibly anticipated several decades of work carried out by number theorists over half a century after his time. Nevertheless, Hardy recognized Ramanujan’s genius, and indeed the significance of many of their discoveries is only being understood and explored today. This often infuriated Hardy, who insisted on a more rigorous approach. Ramanujan, who many biographers describe as devoutly orthodox, often simply wrote down fantastic identities and formulas without formal proof, claiming that he had been inspired by religious figures in his dreams. Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons do a stellar job of capturing the friction and mathematical differences between Ramanujan and his mentor Hardy.

#The man who knew infinity movie#

After reading some of Ramanujan’s theorems, Hardy is famously quoted as saying: “They must be true, because, if they were not true, no-one would have the imagination to invent them.”Īfter overcoming the objections of his parents, Ramanujan sailed to Cambridge, where the movie really picks up. Hardy, one of the pre-eminent mathematicians of the era. Although initially viewed as a crank, Ramanujan’s work caught the eye of G. Despite the fact that he had little to no formal training, during these years he continued doing independent research in mathematics, and eventually managed to send samples of his results to the leading mathematicians of England at the time. Without a degree, Ramanujan had to endure several years of extreme hardship and poverty before finding a stable job. Although he excelled in mathematics from a young age, Ramanujan did poorly in other subjects while in college (presumably because he spent all his time focusing on math) and eventually dropped out. Read on for more details!īorn in India in 1887, Ramanujan’s story is one of the most intriguing and famous stories in all of mathematics, not least because of his unusual mathematical style. I had the good fortune to be able to attend an advance showing of the movie with several other graduate students, and it was a great experience. Starring some serious screen talent – including Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons – “The Man Who Knew Infinity” chronicles Ramanujan’s life and mathematical talents, mainly focusing on his time spent in Cambridge and his relationship with his mentor, G. Hi! For this post, I thought I would take a break from posting math riddles and take a brief moment to draw your attention to an exciting new movie premiering in the United States this week – “The Man Who Knew Infinity”, a biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan directed by Matthew Brown, based on the book of the same name by Robert Kanigel.