1729

You might have noticed that the url of my blog in aki1729.blogspot.com. In case you are wondering what 1729 stands for - it is the Hardy-Ramanujan's number. I do not remember how I came across this number, but it is indeed a very interesting number.

After a famous anecdote of the British mathematician G. H. Hardy regarding a hospital visit to the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. In Hardy's words:

"I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways."

~ source - wikipedia

What Ramanujan meant by  - "the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways" is:

1729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³

Another interesting property of the number is this:

By adding all its digits we get : 1 + 7 + 2 + 9 = 19
By multiplying the sum with its reverse we get : 19 * 91 = 1729. Voila!

Just in case you are wondering, a mathematician named Masahiko Fujiwara found that property, not me.
There are other interesting properties of this number, but I am afraid things might get a little too mathematical, so I'll leave it here.

Lucky Takes

The best photographs are taken when you are experimenting and most of the times you don't expect it to be good. I have been an infrequent photographer, but have had my lucky moments.

 

This is one of my favorites. Its a photo of a weed growing out of the stairs of the auditorium at my college.

Writing and Me

I was never much of a writer.

... it has been about half an hour since I wrote the last line. Now I am just staring at this large white space which I am supposed to paint with words but have no idea what-so-ever as how to do it. I wonder if that happens with every writer / blogger, or is it just me? 

... why is it so hard to find the right words! Maybe my vocabulary is just too weak!

I enjoyed writing though. Once back in school I had written a nonsense poem in Bangla titled Dekh Re Dekh Re Dekh. It had something to do with looking at things more closely, but unfortunately I have forgotten the poem entirely. That might have been my only complete and original piece of writing.

Throughout school I tried writing short pieces, essays sometimes even stories but gradually I let go. I was in company of very talented friends and fact is I felt kind of tiny in their company (not through any fault of theirs. They are perfectly nice people). Slowly I just lost all hope.

I took up the pen again when I started college. I bought a diary. Writing in a diary seemed less intimidating as I had no one to compare myself to. I could write crap and pretend that I was as good as Hemingway. Slowly, I started enjoying it again. The great thing about writing a diary is that you can preserve the tiniest details of the day which you would have otherwise forgotten. I actually enjoyed reading my diary more than writing it. It was a really novel experience (sometimes I could not believe that it was me who had written that stuff).

... oh crap! I am out of words again!

This is my first blog post. Frankly speaking I don't know why I wanted to start a blog. Most probably just because it has something to do with computers (I find anything related to computers mighty hard to resist). Hopefully this blog will help me take up writing again and to make new friends.

PS : A Very Happy New Year to all my readers.