A Response from Sri Alok Kumar :: Regarding A Math mystery from ramanujan's dairy

Hi,

This is regarding one of your post which is having the link :

http://iteacherz.blogspot.com/2011/07/maths-mystery-from-srinivasa-ramanujans.html

There is a flaw in it in the line :

 (3-5/2)(3-5/2) = (2-5/2)(2-5/2)

This has been misinterpreted. 

  if a square = b square then it does not mean that a = b . It should be treated as a = (+/-) b

so similarly if you use it for :

(3 - 5/2) square = (2-5/2) square

it should be treated as 

 3-5/2 = (+/-) (2 - 5/2)

if you take positive then you end up with 3 = 2 which is incorrect

while if you take negative, you will get 5 = 5 which is correct.

Hope it clarifies the doubt and flaw.

Thanks to Sri Alok Kumar Garu for spontanious response to my Post. - Admin, iteacherz