Godfrey harold hardy biography

At a time when it seemed difficult to do so, Hardy liked equally both the United States and Russia. He spent the academic year at Princeton in an exchange with Veblenwho spent the year in Oxford. Despite having been unhappy at Cambridge, Hardy returned to the Sadleirian chair there in when Hobson retired. Snow in [ 6 ] says that Hardy returned to Cambridge for two reasons, firstly that he still considered Cambridge the centre of English mathematics and the Sadleirian chair the foremost mathematics chair in England, and secondly, that he could keep his rooms in College at Cambridge while this was not possible at Oxford.

To the unmarried Hardy, this held an attraction as he began to look toward old age. Hardy's interests covered many topics of pure mathematics - Diophantine analysissummation of divergent series, Fourier seriesthe Riemann zeta functionand the distribution of primes. His long collaboration with Littlewood produced mathematics of the highest quality.

It was a collaboration in which Hardy acknowledged Littlewood 's greater technical mathematical skills, but at the same time Hardy brought great talents of mathematical insight and a great ability to write their work up in papers with great clarity. Even more remarkable was Hardy's collaboration with Ramanujan. Hardy instantly spotted Ramanujan 's genius from a manuscript sent to him by Ramanujan from India in Two other top class mathematicians had previously failed to spot the genius.

Godfrey harold hardy biography: Godfrey Harold Hardy FRS (7 February

Hardy brought Ramanujan to Cambridge and they wrote five remarkable papers together. It was not only with Littlewood and Ramanujan that Hardy collaborated. Hardy was a pure mathematician who hoped his mathematics could never be applied. However innear the beginning of his career, he gave a law describing how the proportions of dominant and recessive genetic traits would be propagated in a large population.

Hardy considered it unimportant but it has proved of major importance in blood group distribution. There was only one passion in Hardy's life other than mathematics and that was cricket. In fact for most of his life his day, at least during the cricket season, would consist of breakfast during which he read The Times studying the cricket scores with great interest.

After breakfast he would work on his own mathematical researches from 9 o'clock till 1 o'clock.

Godfrey harold hardy biography: G.H. Hardy was a leading English

Then, after a light lunch, he would walk down to the university cricket ground to watch a game. In the late afternoon he would walk slowly back to his rooms in College. There he took dinner, which he followed with a glass of wine. When cricket was not in season, it was the Australian cricket scores he would read in The Times and he would play real tennis in the afternoons.

Hardy was known for his eccentricities. He could not endure having his photograph taken and only five snapshots are known to exist. He also hated mirrors and his first action on entering any hotel room was to cover any mirror with a towel. He always played an amusing game of trying to fool God which is also rather strange since he claimed all his life not be believe in God.

For example, during a trip to Denmark he sent back a postcard claiming that he had proved the Riemann hypothesis. He reasoned that God would not allow the boat to sink on the return journey and give him the same fame that Fermat had achieved with his " last theorem ". Moore, Bertrand Russell and J. Keynes were friends. He was an avid cricket fan and befriended the young C.

Snow who was one also. He was at times politically involved, if not an activist. Hardy was an atheist. He never married, and in his final years he was cared for by his sister. Hardy was extremely shy as a child, and was socially awkward, cold and eccentric throughout his life. During his school years he was top of his class in most subjects, and won many prizes and awards but hated having to receive them in front of the entire school.

Godfrey harold hardy biography: Hardy was a pure mathematician

He was uncomfortable being introduced to new people, and could not bear to look at his own reflection in a mirror. It is said that, when staying in hotels, he would cover all the mirrors with towels. In his obituary, a former student reports: "He was an extremely kind-hearted man, who could not bear any of his pupils to fail in their researches.

Being a bright student he was awarded many times but he detested receiving any kind of appreciation in front of everyone. He was member of various societies later on in life such as the Cambridge Apostles and the Bloomsbury group. He was also briefly involved in politics not as an activist but he did take part in the Union of Democratic Control in the First World War.

His students however had insight to his softer side. According to many, Hardy wanted his pupils to succeed and could not withstand any kind of failure. Hardy died in December after devoting all his life to mathematical work. Though Hardy wanted his maths to be "pure" and devoid of any application, much of his work has found applications in other branches of science.

Hardy regards as "pure" the kinds of mathematics that are independent of the physical world, but also considers some "applied" mathematicians, such as the physicists Maxwell and Einsteinto be among the "real" mathematicians, whose work "has permanent aesthetic value" and "is eternal because the best of it may, like the best literature, continue to cause intense emotional satisfaction to thousands of people after thousands of years.

During his school years, he was top of his class in most subjects, and won many prizes and awards but hated having to receive them in front of the entire school. He was uncomfortable being introduced to new people, and could not bear to look at his own reflection in a mirror. It is said that, when staying in hotels, he would cover all the mirrors with towels.

MooreBertrand Russell and J. Keynes were friends. Apart from close friendships, he had a few platonic relationships with young men who shared his sensibilities, and often his love of cricket. He was an avid cricket fan.