e: The Story of a Number

Download or read book e: The Story of a Number written by Eli Maor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The interest earned on a bank account, the arrangement of seeds in a sunflower, and the shape of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis are all intimately connected with the mysterious number e. In this informal and engaging history, Eli Maor portrays the curious characters and the elegant mathematics that lie behind the number. Designed for a reader with only a modest mathematical background, this biography brings out the central importance of e to mathematics and illuminates a golden era in the age of science.