The Search for the Next Mathematical Genius

There never used to be any films about mathematical geniuses.

Then there was A Beautiful Mind and everything changed. Russell Crowe portrayed nobel prize winner, John Nash. The public were fascinated by a brain so brilliant beyond their conception and yet so fragile that his closest confidante doesn't exist (oops - spoiler).

Russell Crowe (above) portraying John Nash (below).

In fact, John Nash is on record discussing the portrayal of his schizophrenia in the movie. The interview is fascinating and you can listen to it here.

Further films about people with incredible mathematical talents have followed:

Bottom right, here, is the remarkable story of Ramanujan, a 23 year-old Indian postal clerk with no formal training whose ideas were so outlandish and insightful that when he sent his results to Cambridge mathematician, G.H. Hardy, he was invited to work with him at the university.

Ramanujan's historic letter to G. H. Hardy

This is one of the extraordinary and beguiling things about mathematics. Some people (a lot of people), even with the best tuition, struggle to tell the difference between a percentage decrease and the reversal of a percentage increase. Some people (not a lot of people), with no formal training at all, have a natural flair for mathematics and an innate ability to help the human race march forward in its understanding of structure and pattern.

But how do you find those people?

Well this year, inspired by Ramanujan's story and headed by Japanese-American number theorist, Ken Ono, a global search is underway. Anyone can take part because they want to look everywhere. They want to find undiscovered mathematical talent and they want to nurture it.

There are of course, various organisations that already do this. The UK Mathematics Trust runs maths challenges available to all schools in the UK. The challenges are entertaining to sit and are the first step in recruiting mathematicians for the UK olympiad team (the film x+y pictured above is based on this process - it's lovely). Incidentally, this year they placed 7th; the team's best result for two decades. Best British performer, Warren Li, achieved a gold medal and was individually placed 19th out of the 602 competitors.

The Spirit of Ramanujan Math Talent Initiative, however, doesn't even require your school to get involved. You can register individually online and enter the open round straight away. During this round, you have the chance to answer various multiple choice questions which are released regularly. Here's an example:

There is a huge and entertaining variety of problems. If you solve a sufficient quantity by the end of October (2016) you will be invited into round 2 and the adventure continues.

The project has already had success. Ishwar Karthik, the 12 year-old son of Indian immigrants to Qatar is to be invited to Atlanta to meet some fields medalists. Where else will this worldwide search unearth burgeoning talent?

from matheminutes http://ift.tt/2bi0aAz