The Machine That Is Named After The Famous Indian Mathematician Ramanujan

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s scientists have come up with a concept that they call the Ramanujan Machine. The machine is named after the famous Indian mathematician. Rather than being a real machine, it is an algorithm that has a really unconventional function.

What is Ramanujan Machine’s function?

Normally, humans input a mathematical problem and the computer program will use its algorithm to figure out a solution. The Ramanujan machine has the opposite way of working. For example, if someone inputs a constant such as the pi. The algorithm will give them an equation with an infinite series. And the person will have to prove whether this proposed equation is mathematically correct.

Why the machine is named after Indian mathematician Ramanujan?

The algorithm actually reflects how the Indian mathematician worked during his life. Even though he had very little formal training, Ramanujan worked with some of the most well-known mathematicians in history, especially when he was in England from 1914 to 1919. He completed a research degree at Cambridge University and joined the Royal Society as a Fellow.

Throughout his life, he came up with so many identities and equations which include equations that lead to the value of pi. And formally trained mathematicians were given the task to prove these. In 1985, an American programmer and mathematician called Ralph William Gosper used one of the formulas and calculate pi up to more than 19 million digits and earned a world record for this. Two years later, in 1987, all 17 of Ramanujan's 1/pi series were proven by two Canadian brothers.

What is the point of developing such an algorithm?

In many branches of science, especially in mathematics, conjectures play an important role in making new discoveries. Equations that define fundamental mathematical constants are elegant. However, in mathematics, new conjectures have been infrequent and rare. So the idea for building such an algorithm is to boost the process of discovery.

How good is the Ramanujan Machine?

In their paper, the researchers give examples of unknown equations that the algorithm produced, including for values of e and pi. These conjecture formulas were proposed by the Ramanujan Machine by matching numerical values. The question here is, after one point, will the series fail? The researchers are confident that it will not since they already tested hundreds of digits.

Until it is proven, it still remains a conjecture. It is also possible that the algorithm may deliver conjectures that would take years to be proven. A famous example is Fermat’s Last Theorem which was first proposed in 1637. It took 357 years for the theorem to be proven.

Where you can find the Ramanujan Machine?

You can go to a website called ramanujanmachine.com set up by the researchers.

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