Making Transcendence Transparent

The Journey Ahead At the heart of transcendental number theory lies an intriguing paradox: While essen­ tially all numbers are transcendental, establishing the transcendence of a particular number is a monumental task. Thus transcendental numbers are an enigmatic species of number: We know they are all around us and yet it requires enormous effort to catch one. More often than not, they slip through our fingers and dissappear back into the dense jungle of numbers. Here we will venture to tame a