Below is an edited version of what Y had to say about X, whom he discovered:
The stories, true and false, of what happened when I read the letters have been well spread --- like how I first stored them in my wastepaper basket before retrieving them for a second look, and so on. Only someone of the highest class could have written them. They had to be true, for if they were not, no one would have the imagination to invent them .........
At another time, upon hearing of a famous incident involving X, Y and Y's preferred mode of transport, Littlewood, also Y's collaborator, had commented that every positive integer was one of X's personal friends.
Who is X, the man who knew infinity?
Any Guesses on Y and the famous incident?
Posts
12 comments:
Is X=Ramanujam and Y=Hardy?
The famous incident then would be when Hardy took a taxi numbered 1729. And Ramanujam mentioned that 1729 is the only number that is the sum of 2 different pairs of cubes (1 & 12 and 10 & 9)
X I am guessing is Ramanujan..
No clue about Y and the story..
There is a Ramanujan biography that has the same title as your blog post. So, I am guessing X= Ramanujan?
Going further on a limb, Y= Hardy. No clue of the famous incident.
Ramanujan and his advisor at Cambridge/Oxford?
X = Srinivasa Ramanujam
Y = Hardy
The incident is the 1729 taxicab number one..
(I've read the book The man who knew infinity)
X - Ramanujan
Y - Hardy
X is ramanujan and Y is Hardy... No Idea about the incident...
X is ramanujan and Y is Hardy... No Idea about the incident...
Oh and I think the incident is about the license plate number of the cab that the advisor took to meet Ramanujan in hospital. Something about prime numbers...cant recall what exactly
X is Cantor (because of the infinity reference). No clue about the rest.
Ramanujan and Prof Hardy
X is Ramanujan
Y is Hardy.
The man who knew infinity is the name of Ramanujan's biography.
The mode of conveyance is a taxicab. The incident is what is said to have lead to the Ramanujan numbers/ Taxicab numbers.
Cheers!
The incident:
“Hardy used to visit him, as he lay dying in hospital at Putney. It was on one of those visits that there happened the incident of the taxicab number. Hardy had gone out to Putney by taxi, as usual his chosen method of conveyance. He went into the room where Ramanujan was lying. Hardy, always inept about introducing a conversation, said, probably without a greeting, and certainly as his first remark: ‘I thought the number of my taxicab was 1729. It seemed to me rather a dull number.’ To which Ramanujan replied: ‘No, Hardy! No, Hardy! It is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.’”
http://www.durangobill.com/Ramanujan.html
Post a Comment