Anecdotes of some great scientists - 1

Srinivasa Ramanujan: 1729

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematical prodigy."I remember once going to see him when he was lying ill at putney,"the mathematician G.H.Hardy once remarked."I had ridden in taxicab 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."'["Every positive number,"Hardy later remarked, "was one of his personal friends."Despite recieving little formal education,Ramanujan was discovered by Hardy,to whom he sent some of his first papers.Hardy later gave Ramanujan a rating of 100 on his own scale of "pure talent."Hardy's own rating/25.]