This message gives me pause, though. The poster makes it sound as if pi^4 + pi^5 = e^6 was already circulating and debunked several times over, only 3 days after Frederiksen's post. Not that this disproves that Frederiksen was the discoverer, but it raises the possibility that Frederiksen was simply parroting an already circulating curiosity (which might also explain why Frederiksen never claimed authorship or apparently said anything more about the subject after this thread).
Newsgroups: sci.math From: dkei...@Gang-of-Four.Stanford.EDU (Dave Eisen) Date: 6 Jul 89 10:31:08 GMT Local: Thurs, Jul 6 1989 6:31 am Subject: Re: Relation between pi and e?
4 5 6 Pi + Pi = e Strange enough to be true?????
pi**4 + pi**5 doesn't equal e**6, and if we are given the values of e and pi to about 13 or more digits we can prove it.
This is sci.math? Then how come I've seen a half dozen computations that show $$ \pi^4 + \pi^5 \ne e^6 $$ by numerical coincidence. Don't all mathematicians know from birth that $\pi$ and $e$ are algebraically independent? I'm not a number theorist so I don't know the reasoning behind it and I don't know the references that well. Still, this is the kind of fact that smells like it has to be discussed in Hardy and Wright. Experts?? Dave Eisen dkei...@Gang-of-Four.Stanford.EDU (415)723-2963 "It is poignant but fundamental that the flag protects those who hold it in contempt." --- Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy