Word: ramanujan
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Dates: during 1962-1962
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...that and unwisdom generate scientific progress. But it is one thing to say that one scientist's mistakes send another in the right direction, and quite another that unwisdom in a wayward scientist presents no contradiction to his greatness. The English mathematician G. H. Hardy said the first of Ramanujan, the Indian genius: "Ramanujan's false statement was one of the most fruitful he ever made, since it ended by leading us to all our joint work on partitions...
Science and sensibility does have at least one particularly self-contained piece; unfortunately Newman claims he had little to do with it. This is G. H. Hardy's description of his experiences with Ramanujan, certainly the most fascinating article I found in the two volumes. "My job has been merely to copy, paraphrase, and select" writes Newman. Hardy is describing his five-year acquaintance with the unknown Hindu clerk who had, before he was 25 and with the help of just one obscure work of higher mathematics, independently divined answers to problems that occupied Europe's best mathematicians. Hardy writes...
...last two formulae, stand apart because they are not right and slow Ramanujan limitations, but that does not prevent them from being additional evidence of his extraordinary powers...
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