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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 is the state of Ramanujan's work now?

2. What are partitions in math?

3. What practice does Kanigel say Ramanujan had difficulty adjusting to in England?

4. Who was Neville?

5. How does Kanigel describe Ramanujan when he returned to India?

Short Essay Questions

1. What problems did Ramanujan have on account of his Indian cultural practices?

2. What was Ramanujan's condition when he returned to India?

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

4. Where did Ramanujan go when he reached England?

5. What was Ramanujan's Master Theorem intended to do?

6. Describe Ramanujan and Hardy's work on partitions.

7. What was Ramanujan's interest in pi?

8. What is a formalist in mathematical thinking?

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

10. How much did Ramanujan's bride share in his mathematical life?

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

Describe the importance of illness and bad health on Ramanujan's life. How did it shape his personality and his intellect? How did it weaken him? How did it strengthen him?

Essay Topic 3

Having reached a degree of fame, Ramanujan attempted suicide because he could not solve all the problems around him. Why was Ramanujan incapable of handling this inevitable limitation? Where else in his life were his needs far beyond the realm of what was possible?

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