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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why was Ramanujan late for his wedding?

2. What does Kanigel say people appreciated about Hardy?

3. What distinguished Ramanujan's class?

4. What did Ramanujan use as evidence of his credentials in interviews?

5. What does Kanigel say 'A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics' is lacking?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who were the Apostles?

2. What does 'A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics' consist of?

3. How did marriage change Ramanujan's life?

4. How did Hardy explain the value of math to his family?

5. Describe Ramanujan's experience at Pachaiyappas College in Madras.

6. What happened after Ramanujan left Pachaiyappas College?

7. What happened after Ramanujan left Kumbakonam's Government College?

8. What was the subject of the challenge Ramanujan set and then resolved in his first paper?

9. What was Hardy's experience at Trinity College, Cambridge?

10. Describe Ramanujan's wedding ceremony.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the intersection the British culture of secret society and prestige with Ramanujan's culture of Brahmin prestige and privilege. How much did these cultures clash in Ramanujan's experience? How did they work together?

Essay Topic 2

What did Ramanujan use math for? What problems did he solve with it? Were they abstract mathematical problems, or life problems? How did math solve Ramanujan's life problems? Where did it fail to?

Essay Topic 3

Was Ramanujan different 'as a person' than he was 'as a mathematician'? Did his work in math redeem the discomforts or failures he suffered elsewhere in his life? How does his life balance out--was he a mathematician, or a fully-developed human being, who could adjust to any number of human experiences?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 690 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample