What is e (2.718…) and why does it literally appear everywhere?
In: 756
There are several different, equivalent definitions of the constant e (it is also called the “Euler Number”). For example, one of the deftnitions is that it is the number whose exponential function is equal to the derivative of it’s exponential function.
It’s just a number that happens to be the solution to a bunch of (mathematical) problems humans have come up with. It doesn’t appear everywhere: the things it appears in are all somehow related, or are purposefully defined to contain it.
[Edit: Pleased disregard anything below this point, I was, or course, thinking of the golden ratio]
I suspect you are thinking about spirals in nature. People really overstate both the commonness and accuracy of those patterns. It’s a pretty normal thing for humans to do: humans like patterns, and they like something cool to talk about. Remember how everyone was talking about the world ending in 2012, or the bermuda triangle? Yeah, those are just cool, mysterious things. Memes basically, like when people put the euler spiral on random pictures. Those pictures don’t actually fit the euler spiral, usually not even remotely. But it’s a fun joke.
Yes, it’s true that some plants or shells seem to resemble it, or that some galaxies are shaped in that way. But even more of them aren’t shaped like that, and those that are, are only approximately so.
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