Srinivasa Ramanujan · Mathematics

Hardy, and the Meeting of Rigour and Intuition

The 1913 letter that stunned Cambridge, and the five-year collaboration between G. H. Hardy - apostle of rigorous proof - and Ramanujan - intuition incarnate - that produced results neither could have reached alone, including the great asymptotic formula for the partition function and the circle method.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Ramanujan’s 1913 letter of unproved theorems stunned Hardy, who brought him to Cambridge; that Hardy supplied the rigour Ramanujan lacked; and that together they found an asymptotic formula for the partition function using the ‘circle method.’ Explain how their two gifts combined.

Leads to G. H. Hardy.

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.