As the title says, how come the value e is special? it has functions and rules just dedicated to it, but what sets it apart from another random number?
In: 397
> it has functions and rules just dedicated to it, but what sets it apart from another random number?
It makes a lot more sense if you flip that around.
You have a whole bunch of interesting questions. Because the questions are related to each other, the answers to those problems are themselves (unsurprisingly) related. Because the questions are all “numbers problem” sort of equations, the answers are all number answers. Put the two together, and you’re going to find the same numbers cropping up over and over again, because you can describe the answer to one problem in terms of the answer to another problem: “_foo(x)_ is the same as _√(bar(x^2))_”, that sort of thing.
What you’re left with is a collection of numbers that are notable for one reason or another in specific branches of mathematics. When you’re talking about problems related to circles and angles, the number that keeps cropping up is _π_. In computer science, it’s 2 (and not just because we use binary computers, it’s more fundamental than that). When you’re talking about things that involve exponentials, that number is _e_.
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