MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES FOUNDATION

RECOGNISING RAMANUJAN COMPETITION

INSTRUCTIONS & SAMPLE QUESTIONS

FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ARE NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE QUESTIONS

IN THE EXAMINATION. THEY ARE JUST INDICATIVE OF THE LEVEL OF
AWARENESS THAT IS LIKELY TO BE NEEDED.

PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY:

• These are sample questions and are only indicative of the style and
format.
• The actual questions may vary.
• The full question paper shall have a duration of 60 minutes.
• The actual question paper shall have two parts. Both parts shall consist of
multiple-choice questions.
• In the actual examination you shall be required to fill out your answers on
OMR sheets
• Part 1 shall have a weightage of 30 percent.
• Part 1 deals with the life of Ramanujan. All questions on his life shall be
non-technical in nature. In other words the questions of Part 1 shall not
be based on mathematical ideas.
• Part 2 shall be based on material provided in the question paper.
• Students must read the mathematical matter of Part 2 carefully.
• There shall be negative marking of .5 per incorrect answer.

PART 1
THERE SHALL BE NO SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR PART 1

The following references are only indicative of the sort of resources that could be
consulted for Part 1. They are not the full or complete list of resources on the life
of Ramanujan:

▪ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Srinivasa-
Ramanujan
▪ http://www-history.mcs.st-
and.ac.uk/Biographies/Ramanujan.html
▪ https://www.famousscientists.org/srinivasa-ramanujan/
▪ https://www.imsc.res.in/~rao/ramanujan.html
▪ http://www.nbtindia.gov.in/books_detail__9__national-
biography__27__srinivasa-ramanujan.nbt
 ▪ The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius
Ramanujan. Author: Robert Kanigel. Rupa & Co.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS OF PART 2

JUNIOR LEVEL
STD.’s VI-VII

The sample questions can be answered after carefully reading the text
provided below. Rough sheets shall be provided for calculations.

A counting number n is said to be a prime number if it is greater than 1 and has

only two divisors; 1 and n. As examples we see that 3 and 11 are prime numbers.

A perfect square n is a number that is the square of another counting number,

say m, so that n= 𝑚2 = 𝑚 𝑋 𝑚. Examples include 9 = 32 = 3 x 3 and 16 = 42 = 4 x
4

A twin prime pair is a pair of two prime numbers p and q such that p + 2 = q.

1. Between 1 and 100 the number of prime numbers is:

a. 50
b. 25
c. 13
d. 29
e. None of the above
2. If n denotes the number of primes between 1 and 100 and m denotes the
number of primes greater than 100 and less than 200, then
a. n is less than m
b. n = m
c. n is greater than m
d. n divides m
e. none of the above
3. Every number that has 23 as its last two digits is a prime number
a. True
b. False
4. If a prime number p divides the square of a number say 𝑥 2 then p divides
𝑥:
a. True
b. False
5. The number of twin prime pairs from 1 to 100 is
a. 14
 b. 12
c. 17
d. 19
e. none of the above

SAMPLE QUESTIONS OF PART 2

SENIOR LEVEL
STD.’s VIII-IX

The sample questions can be answered after carefully reading the text
provided below. Rough sheets shall be provided for calculations.

It is known that prime numbers are the building blocks of number theory. Every
counting number greater than 1 is uniquely expressible as a product of prime
numbers i.e. if m is a counting or natural number greater than 1 then m can be
factorized as a product of prime numbers, i.e. 𝑚 = 𝑝1 𝑝2 … 𝑝𝑛 where each 𝑝𝑖 is a
prime number.

Note: some of the prime numbers may be present more than once in the above
factorization, i.e. some of the prime numbers may be repeated in the
factorization.

It is also known that the number of prime numbers is infinite. The proof is very
straightforward and can be found in any elementary school level text book that
deals with numbers.

An integer is any one of the infinite collection of numbers (0, 1, -1, 2, -2, 3, -3,…)

1. Let A be the number of prime numbers between 1 and 100, B the number
of prime numbers between 100 and 200. Then:
a. A < B
b. A > B
c. A = B
d. A is a prime number
e. None of the above
2. If n is a prime number then at least one of the following numbers shall
also be a prime number: n + 10, n + 12, n + 14, n + 16.
a. True
b. False
3. If A is the product of any three distinct prime numbers plus 1 then
a. A is an odd number
b. A is always a prime number
c. A is always an even number
d. A does not have more than two prime factors
e. None of the above
4. The number of integer pairs (x, y) that satisfy 6𝑥 + 9𝑦 = 15 is
a. 1
b. 2
c. more than 4
d. 4
e. none of the above
5. The number of distinct positive divisors of 1296 is:
a. None of the answers below
b. 15
c. 25
d. 30
e. 35