e (mathematical constant)
mathematical constant; limit of (1 + 1/n)^n as n approaches infinity; transcendental number approximately equal 2.718281828 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
is a number. It is the base of the natural logarithm and is about 2.71828.[1][2] It is an important mathematical constant. The number is occasionally called Euler's number after the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, or Napier's constant in honor of the Scottish mathematician John Napier who introduced logarithms. It is equally important in mathematics as and . is an irrational number, and Euler himself gave the first 23 digits of .[3]
The number has great importance in mathematics,[4] as do 0, 1, , and . All five of these numbers are important and occur again and again in mathematics. The five constants appear in one formulation of Euler's identity. Like the constant , is also irrational (it cannot be represented as a ratio of Integers)[5] and transcendental (it is not a root of any non-zero polynomial with rational coefficients).[2]
The number is very important for exponential functions. For example, the exponential function applied to the number one, has a value of .
was discovered in 1683 by the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, while he was studying compound interest.[6] The numerical value of truncated to 20 places is:[5]