Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann
Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann (
1852 -
1939) was a German mathematician, noted for his proof, published in
1882, that
&pi is a
transcendental number, i.e., it is not a zero of any
polynomial with
rational coefficients. His methods were similar to those used nine years earlier by
Charles Hermite to show that
e, the base of natural logarithms, is transcendental. Before the publication of Lindemann's proof, it was known that
if π is transcendental, then the ancient and celebrated problem of
squaring the circle by straightedge and compass could not be solved.
See also Lindemann-Weierstrass theorem.
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