The Man Who Knew Infinity Page #3

you're worried he'll be

up there before you are.

Hmm, I doubt

a dark face will ever grace these walls,

let alone become a Fellow.

Hmm.

Ramanujan! Over here!

Come over, sit with us.

Welcome to Hall.

- I'm Chandra Mahalanobis.

- Hello.

And this is Andrew Hartley.

I am Ramanujan.

Well, everyone knows who you are, mate.

Word's out you've

taken on the prime number theorem.

It is quite extraordinary,

them bringing you here like this.

Such an honor.

There are other Indians?

A few. You're from the South?

Calcutta myself.

This must be quite a shock for you.

(CHUCKLES)

Truth is, you've more in

common than you think.

His father was a

schoolteacher. Not exactly Trinity stock.

Hardy's earned it on his own merits.

It's probably why he's taken to you.

Does he have a wife?

No.

He's married to his work, as they say.

I suppose that means you now.

Stop. He's a vegetarian.

MAN:
Very sorry.

Potatoes, sir.

How's that any better?

The potatoes are cooked in lard.

- I'm so sorry.

- Not at all.

But... But I think I will go.

I hope to see you soon.

(DOOR OPENS)

Ramanujan.

Did you have a good dinner?

They make a fine mutton.

Yes, sir.

Delicious.

And your... Your rooms?

Satisfactory?

I want everything to be to your advantage

so that we can

be as productive as possible.

Thank you, sir.

Very nice paper.

Well...

Use it wisely.

Well, I'll say good night, then.

All right. Now...

You. Are you following this?

Yes, sir. Most excitedly.

But you don't

appear to be taking any notes.

Is there something

you'd like to contribute?

Well, come on, then.

Come on!

You'll need the chalk.

But I... I hadn't completed that proof.

How do you know?

I don't know. I just do.

Well, gentlemen,

it appears that our time is up.

Thank you for your attention.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Not you.

Little wog, let me tell you something.

You don't pull

a stunt like that in my class.

You don't belong

here and you can tell your Master Hardy

I said as much! Now, get out!

(CHATTER AND LAUGHTER)

(CLOCK TICKING)

My sacred thread.

It's to help ward off evil spirits.

How did it work with Mr. Howard?

I'm sorry, sir.

I got too excited.

Not a word

often associated with his lectures.

How did you know that theorem?

It came to me.

(CHUCKLES)

Mr. Hardy, I don't understand

why we waste our time

doing all these proofs.

I have the formulas.

It's not that I can't see

what you've claimed.

It's that I'm not

sure that you know how you got there

or, indeed, that your claims are correct.

There are subtleties which...

But they are right, sir.

I have more important new ideas.

Yes, but intuition is not enough. It has

to be held accountable.

And a little humility would go a long way.

Why do you think they want us to fail?

Because I am Indian.

Well, yeah, there is that.

But also because of what we represent.

Now, Euler and Jacobi. Who are they?

Mathematicians.

Just names to you.

Euler was the most productive

mathematician of the 18th century.

Most of his work done after he was blind.

Jacobi, like you,

was snatched from obscurity,

and was almost as impressive as Euler.

Now, I think you are in their class.

What they had in common,

what I see in you, is a love of form.

It's all through your notebooks.

Let me ask you something.

Why do you do it, any of this?

Because I have to. I see it.

Like Euler. Form for its own sake.

An art unto itself.

And, like all art, it reflects truth.

It's the only truth I know. It's my church.

And you,

just as Mozart could

hear an entire symphony in his head,

you dance with numbers to infinity.

(CHUCKLES)

But this dance, this art,

does little to endear us

to certain factions

who see us as mere conjurors.

So if we are going

to challenge areas of mathematics

that are so well trod,

we cannot afford to be wrong.

I need you to attend your lectures,

don't offend your professors,

and keep doing your proofs,

otherwise this experiment of

ours will be doomed to failure.

Come with me.

I wanna show you something.

There are many ways to be honored in life.

For us, being

elected a Fellow is certainly one,

but in my humble opinion

to leave a legacy,

here at the Wren

after we're gone

is the greatest.

This library houses

the Epistles of Saint Paul,

the poems of Milton,

Morgan's Bible.

(INHALES DEEPLY)

But in my estimation, as a man of numbers,

the pice de rsistance

is Newton's Principia Mathematica.

Now, just as Newton represents the

physical aspect of our work,

your notebooks represent the abstract.

Took a long time for Newton to be proved.

Which is why we

have an obligation to prove these.

And if we do, I believe that one day...

(BREATHES DEEPLY)

One day these notebooks

will find their place here.

Now, do you understand

what's at stake here?

Good.

JANAKI:
I hope

you are taking care of yourself

and that Mr. Hardy is good to you.

Everyone here is so proud of you.

But most proud of all is me.

I spend every day missing you,

and waiting for your letter to tell me

I'm coming to be with you

across the ocean.

You are my everything.

(DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES)

I've discovered a new series.

Look, I'm not interested in a new series.

I thought I'd explained this.

I need your proofs.

We had an agreement.

Just, please, look at it, sir. It is true.

How do you know that?

Because it is written.

Written where, Ramanujan?

Hmm?

(SIGHS)

Now, take my coat, go home

and get properly dressed

before you freeze.

Sir, I've come a very long way to be here.

And you promised to help me publish.

(DOOR CLOSES)

Don't look at me like that.

It's for his own good.

You wouldn't think he's so bloody

smart by the way he dresses.

Huh.

MAN:
What the devil is that, anyway?

Partitions.

No, no, no, wait.

This even you could understand.

P of 4

equals 5.

Now, all that means is there are five

ways to add up the number 4.

1 + 1 + 1 + 1,

3 + 1,

2 + 1 + 1,

2 + 2,

and 4.

Seems simple enough.

Yeah. So it does.

But when you raise the number of P to 100,

there are 204,226

different combinations.

(CHUCKLES)

Major MacMahon

did it by hand. Took him weeks.

And now he thinks

he can figure out a formula.

Plug in the number, any number,

and out comes

the number of partitions. Like magic.

I take it you have tried

to crack this one before?

It's considered impossible. Unsolvable.

A bloody rabbit hole

mystery of the universe.

Until now?

"Din! Din! Din! Gunga Din."

So, um...

Using the divergence theorem,

what is the flux

of F through S here?

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

What on earth's he doing?

- Proofs. Yeah.

- Proofs?

You should let him run, Hardy.

You shouldn't stifle him.

He's gone to the cricket.

Just, uh, follow the umbrella.

Sir!

Mr. Hardy!

Mr. Hardy.

Oh, I've been over those proofs of yours,

if you can call them that, very carefully.

And I've marked where you're missing steps

and where you've made mistakes.

There's much more I could say, but

that's where you should begin.

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