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Hello all,
Most of us here have heard of Ramanujan's letter to Hardy. This is
from www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/courses/mx4531/chap_gamma/pdf/ram.pdf :
"S. Ramanujan to G.H.Hardy
16 Jan 1913
Madras
Dear Sir,
I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accounts Department
of the Port Trust Office at Madras on a salary of only 20 pounds per
annum. I am now about 23 years of age. I have had no University
education..."
An identical letter is also given here,
http://www.parabaas.com/SHEET2/LEKHA10/bCarr_eng.html a nice article by
the mathematical physicist Amitabha Sen.
But since Ramanujan had the lifespan (1887-1920), died 32 (he would
have turned 33 on Dec) then 1913-1887 = 26, so he was 26 when he sent
the letter. (When I realized this I had to check my calculator twice.)
For somebody who instantly recognized/remembered that 1729 = 1^3+12^3 =
9^3+10^3, I don't think he would make an arithmetical mistake on his
age! So the only conclusion is that this is a typo. Even Wikipedia
picked up this mistake and in fact that was where I first noticed it.
So where did this typo start? Is it in the book "Ramanujan: Letters and
Commentary" or is the correct age given there? (If you have JSTOR
access it should be there.)
-Titus
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