This week on pplpod, we dive into the extraordinary life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a self-taught mathematical prodigy who rose from poverty in South India to become a Fellow of the Royal Society. Despite having almost no formal training in pure mathematics, Ramanujan made substantial contributions to number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, solving problems that were previously considered unsolvable.

Join us as we trace his journey from failing his college exams in Madras because he couldn't focus on anything but math, to his historic correspondence with English mathematician G. H. Hardy. We discuss how Ramanujan’s raw, intuitive genius "completely defeated" Hardy, leading to one of the most famous collaborations in mathematical history.

In this episode, we cover:

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