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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. What was proved incorrect in Ramanujan's work from this time?

2. What does Kanigel say characterized Indian intellectuals' experience at Cambridge?

3. What did Hardy try to arrange after receiving Ramanujan's letter?

4. What does Kanigel say was Ramanujan's greatest talent?

5. What did Ramanujan discover when his friend Mahalanobis read a puzzle from the paper?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Ramanujan's response when Hardy asked him for proofs?

2. What was Ramanujan's relationship with Cambridge after he left for India?

3. What cultural practices did Ramanujan hold on to from India?

4. What was the conflict between Ramanujan's family and his wife?

5. What has been the impact of Ramanujan's work?

6. Ramanujan kept extensive notes of his thinking. What was in Ramanujan's notebooks, and how much of his work was valuable, according to Kanigel?

7. What was Ramanujan's decline like, and death?

8. What problem kept Ramanujan from coming to England, as Hardy hoped he would?

9. How was Ramanujan treated on his return to India?

10. What did Hardy do with Ramanujan's letter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the importance of money and class status in Ramanujan's life. Was it important, or incidental? Where did he run into difficulties, or challenges, because of money? How did he solve them?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Ramanujan's life and Hardy's. How are they similar? How are they different? What did they offer each other? Was Ramanujan truly Hardy's greatest accomplishment? Does that make Ramanujan's depression, suicide attempt and death Hardy's greatest failure?

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)

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