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German mathematician (1852–1939)
Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann (12 April 1852 – 6 March 1939) was a German mathematician , noted for his proof, published in 1882, that π (pi) is a transcendental number , meaning it is not a root of any polynomial with rational coefficients .
Life and education Lindemann was born in Hanover , the capital of the Kingdom of Hanover . His father, Ferdinand Lindemann, taught modern languages at a Gymnasium in Hanover. His mother, Emilie Crusius, was the daughter of the Gymnasium's headmaster. The family later moved to Schwerin , where young Ferdinand attended school.
He studied mathematics at Göttingen , Erlangen , and Munich . At Erlangen he received a doctorate, supervised by Felix Klein ,[1] on non-Euclidean geometry . Lindemann subsequently taught in Würzburg and at the University of Freiburg . During his time in Freiburg, Lindemann devised his proof that π is a transcendental number (see Lindemann–Weierstrass theorem ). After his time in Freiburg, Lindemann transferred to the University of Königsberg . While a professor in Königsberg , Lindemann acted as supervisor for the doctoral theses of the mathematicians David Hilbert , Hermann Minkowski , and Arnold Sommerfeld .[2]
Transcendence proof In 1882, Lindemann published the result for which he is best known, the transcendence of π . 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 π was irrational, as Johann Heinrich Lambert proved π was irrational in the 1760s .
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