The Ludolphine Number
68The Ludolphine number or Ludolph number (Ludolf number) is the same as the constant that today is known as pi. It's value is about 3.141592, but since it is an irrational number, the decimal value if you tried to write it out would go on forever. The Ludolphine number is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. If you take any circle and measure the distance around it (that's the circle's circumference) and divide by the distance straight across from one side to the other (that's the circle's diameter) then you would get the value pi = Ludolph number = 3.141592... It doesn't matter what size the circle is. That value will always be the same for every perfect circle.
Pi is sometimes called the Ludolphine number after the German mathematician Ludolph van Ceulen. He calculated the value of pi out to 35 digits and the number was engraved on his tombstone.
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wesleycox: Yes, that's right. I have known for a long time what Pi was, but I had never heard it called the Ludolph number until someone asked about it here on HubPages. I think the fact that the guy had the number engraved on his tombstone makes for a pretty good story.
Agreed. I too have not heard Pi referred to ludolph either. This is a good bit of information to know. Thank you
The article provides interesting historical information.
Some clarification would be useful in regards to the number pi.
Number pi (greek ?) is a TRANSCENDENTAL number. It is not an algebraic number, because it can not be presented as a solution of any polynomial equation with rational coefficients. Btw, number e (the base of natural logarithm function) is another Transcendental one.
IRRATIONAL numbers are algebraic and could be presented as a solution of polynomial equation with rational coefficients, but cannot be presented as the ratio of Integers A/B.
RATIONAL numbers could be presented as a ratio of Integers A/B.
wesleycox Level 2 Commenter 2 years ago
So if I have this right multiply a circles diameter by Pi and you get the circumference?