6 May
2008
6 May
'08
10:04 a.m.
I find it interesting that there are elegant formulae involving pi seem to come with additional coefficient baggage: e.g., pi/2, pi/4, 4pi, pi^2/6. On the other hand, Euler's constant e seems to shine brightly from just one point. Are there any interesting formulae where e shows up with additional baggage? At 08:59 PM 5/5/2008, James Propp wrote:
There was a short piece (in the Mathematical Intelligencer, I think; perhaps the March 2007 issue?) that explored exactly this theme, and made the "modest proposal" that we should switch from using __ || = 3.14...
to using --- ||| = 6.28...
in our formulas. (An impassioned advocacy of this position would make a fun "heresy" at a college Pi Day.)