Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 424 views

    Ramanujan's Number: and Some Extensions

    Uploaded by

    Manik Bhola
    The document discusses Ramanujan numbers, which are positive integers that can be written as the sum of positive cubes in more than one way. It notes that 1729 is the smallest such number, as it can be written as 103 + 93 or 123 + 13. The document then poses challenges to find the next Ramanujan number after 1729 and smallest positive integers that can be written as sums of squares, triangular numbers, or fourth powers in multiple ways.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Ramanujan's Number: and Some Extensions

    Uploaded by

    Manik Bhola
    424 views1 page
    The document discusses Ramanujan numbers, which are positive integers that can be written as the sum of positive cubes in more than one way. It notes that 1729 is the smallest such number, as it can be written as 103 + 93 or 123 + 13. The document then poses challenges to find the next Ramanujan number after 1729 and smallest positive integers that can be written as sums of squares, triangular numbers, or fourth powers in multiple ways.

    Original Title

    14_ramanujan_filler

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document discusses Ramanujan numbers, which are positive integers that can be written as the sum of positive cubes in more than one way. It notes that 1729 is the smallest such number, as it can be written as 103 + 93 or 123 + 13. The document then poses challenges to find the next Ramanujan number after 1729 and smallest positive integers that can be written as sums of squares, triangular numbers, or fourth powers in multiple ways.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    424 views1 page

    Ramanujan's Number: and Some Extensions

    Uploaded by

    Manik Bhola
    The document discusses Ramanujan numbers, which are positive integers that can be written as the sum of positive cubes in more than one way. It notes that 1729 is the smallest such number, as it can be written as 103 + 93 or 123 + 13. The document then poses challenges to find the next Ramanujan number after 1729 and smallest positive integers that can be written as sums of squares, triangular numbers, or fourth powers in multiple ways.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    Ramanujan’s

    Number by

    They say that each number has its own special property, oper
    op erty, unique a
    and
    nd
    pert
    pe rty;
    y; but
    peculiar to it. It is not always easy to find such a property; but some-
    times, by luck, or by hard work, one stumbles upon it. t.
    odfrey
    Mathematicians such as John E Littlewood and Godfrey ey
    H Hardy who worked closely with the great mathematician
    atic
    at ician
    Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) would say of him ttha
    that
    hat he
    seemed to know the positive integers as friends. He wo
    woululd
    would d kn
    know
    ow
    the individual peculiarities of each number!
    Here is a well known property that Ramanujan noted about
    ed a
    abo ut tthe number
    bout num
    umbe 1729:
    berr 17
    1729
    29::
    he said to Hardy one day:
    “It is the smallest positive integer that can be written as the sum of
    two positive cubes in more than one way“.
    ‘Cubes’ are numbers like 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216,…. Ramanujan obviously had in mind the following
    identity: 1729 = 103 + 93 = 123 + 13.
    The identity is easy to check. But how could he know that 1729 is the smallest positive integer that
    can be written in two such ways? Only if he had looked at lots and lots of integers before that ….
    Ramanujan is said to have made this observation to Hardy who happened to be visiting him while
    he was recovering in a sanatorium in England, in the year 1918; on entering Ramanujan’s room,
    Hardy apparently said (perhaps just to start a conversation), “I came in a taxi whose number was
    1729. I could not see anything interesting about that number” — thereby inviting the response
    quoted above.1
    We shall call a number with such a property a Ramanujan number. Thus, 1729 is the least Ra-
    manujan number.
    Here is our challenge to you: Find the next Ramanujan number after 1729.
    Probably you will need to use a computer to make a systematic search for such numbers.

    And some extensions …


    1. Which is the smallest positive integer that can be written as the sum of two squares in more
    than one way?
    2. Which is the smallest positive integer that can be written as the sum of two triangular numbers
    in more than one way? (The ‘triangular numbers’ are the numbers 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4,
    ...; i.e., the numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, ...)
    3. Which is the smallest positive integer that can be written as the sum of two fourth powers in
    more than one way? (You will certainly need to use a computer to solve this.)
    We will discuss the answers in the next issue, and at the same time make some general com-
    ments about such problems.

    1 Editor’s note: Ramanujan had gone to England four years earlier, in 1914, at the invitation and insistence of
    Hardy. We shall have more to say about Ramanujan in future issues of this magazine.

    You might also like

    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy