Main post link -> http://blog.brilliant.org/2013/02/17/the-discovery-of-the-number-e/
When most of us are first taught about the number , we are told that it is an irrational, transcendental number that is about 2.7182. Most people simply learn to manipulate . High school classes rarely mention where comes from. It is usually introduced when learning about exponents and logarithms as a “special” base that you will use a lot down the road. Early in high school I remember asking a teacher what was. I received the usual circular answer, that is the base of the natural logarithm which in turn is the logarithm of an exponent raised to the base of . This answer did not satisfy me, but I was told that I had to wait for calculus to learn other ways of approaching it’s definition...
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