Which is the best mathematical constant?

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Fri May 11, 2018 8:01 pm

Lord Golbez · Post by **Lord Golbez** » Fri May 11, 2018 9:26 pm

e to the i pi, really. But out of what you gave, i.

Do you know electrical engineers have the nerve to use j for imaginary numbers because i is current? Current isn't even spelled with an i. You can change that symbol, idiots!

eightman · Post by **eightman** » Fri May 11, 2018 10:16 pm

i find life difficult without at least a few constants

Mitsurugi CP · Post by **Mitsurugi CP** » Sat May 12, 2018 2:10 am

e plays the biggest role in my job. It's an important constant for estimating drug metabolism in medications that show first order (i.e. logarithmic) decay (which is most of them, but we do the most math for antibiotics, chemotherapy, and immunosuppressants).

Lord Golbez · Post by **Lord Golbez** » Sat May 12, 2018 2:31 am

No love for the golden ratio here.

Mitsurugi CP · Post by **Mitsurugi CP** » Sat May 12, 2018 3:11 am

I'm neither an artist nor a nautilus, so I cannot appreciate it.

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Sat May 12, 2018 3:31 am

While researching this poll, I learned that while the nautilus shell is a good approximation to a logarithmic spiral, it does not in fact follow the golden ratio.

But to make up for that bummer, I also learned today that the whole Isaac-Newton-saw-an-apple-fall-from-a-tree thing is not as patently apocryphal as many assume, and there’s good reason to believe that the tree there now is (sort of) the one he would have claimed to have been inspired by. (“Sort of” because the original blew over in a windstorm in 1820 but the roots remained and more tree grew from them.)

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Sat May 12, 2018 3:34 am

Lord Golbez wrote:e to the i pi, really. But out of what you gave, i.

Do you know electrical engineers have the nerve to use j for imaginary numbers because i is current? Current isn't even spelled with an i. You can change that symbol, idiots!

e to the i pi is an amazing thing, but it’s really more of an equation (once you add in the “= -1”) than a constant.

And yes, engineers are known to be backwards folk.

Lord Golbez · Post by **Lord Golbez** » Sat May 12, 2018 1:34 pm

Don't turn my constant into an equation.

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Sat May 12, 2018 1:37 pm

So your constant is... -1?