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Similarities in Irrationality Proofs for π, ln2, ζ(2), and ζ(3)
Year of Award: 2002
Publication Information: The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 108, March, 2001, pp. 222-231
Summary: This paper presents a uniform setting (involving integration) for proofs of the irrationality of the four numbers in the title.
About the Author: (from The American Mathematical Monthly,Vol. 108, (2001)) Dirk Huylebrouck obtained his Ph.D. in linear algebra at the University of Ghent (Belgium). Several years of teaching in Congo came to a sudden end after a conflict between former president Mobutu and Belgium. He taught in Portugal, and later at University of Maryland for American GIs in Europe. His fascination for the history of mathematics led him to produce a poster of 100,000 coloured decimals of pi. Another stay in Africa again came to an abrupt end after a coup in Burundi (by someone else), and so he settled at the Sint-Lucas Institute for Architecture in Brussels, Belgium. He still has an African dream: to let its oldest mathematical artifact one day reach space.