[17th Miss Regt]

Pi is one of the transcendental numbers, all of which are non-terminating. It is not the root of any algebraic polynomial - a polynomial with rational coefficients.

In the late nineteenth century there was a debate in professional math circles as to whether every number was the solution of an algebraic equation. The matter was resolved with a proof that pi is not such a number. Another transcendental number is e (~2.7182818284...), the base of natural logarithms and there is also the Euler-Mascheroni constant (~0.57712...). Any rational multiple of a transcendental number is also transcendental so there are a lot of them.

[17th Miss Regt]

Oops! “Any rational multiple...” should be “Any non-zero rational multiple...”