Australian Mathematical Society Web Site

e the EXPONENTIAL - the Magic Number of GROWTH

Keith Tognetti - University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia

12 February 1998

This Module is written as a self contained introduction to e, bringing together the main theorems and important properties of this fundamental constant of natural growth processes.

Not only is an axiomatic treatment given but this is complemented by some theorems that have been selected for their unexpected beauty.

It assumes only an elementary understanding of integration. Some anecdotes and history are also included. It will be seen that Euler's gamma constant also comes into the main theorem and this highlights the intimate interconnection between e, the area under the curve 1/x, and the the truncated Harmonic series.

Downloading the Module

In general we recommend using the PDF format of the files at this site. Such files can be read on most platforms using the freely available Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader. Unfortunately, there seem to be a few problems in the conversion to this format, which causes certain symbols to be misplaced on the page. We hope to remedy this soon.
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Last updated by Ian Doust, 08/04/98.