Re: [HM] e
Prof. Dr. Ivo Schneider (Ivo.Schneider@UniBw-Muenchen.de)
Mon, 3 May 1999 20:01:48 +0200 (MET DST)
> Maor writes (page 156):
>
> Why did he choose the letter e? There is no general consensus.
> According to one view, Euler chose it because it is the first
> letter of the word exponential. More likely, the choice came
> to him naturally as the first "unused" letter of the alphabet,
> since the letters a, b, c, and d frequently appear elsewhere
> in mathematics. ... In any event, his choice of the symbol e,
> like so many other symbols of his, became universally accepted.
The fact that Laplace, a member of the generation after Euler, in all his
publications used the letter c instead of the Eulerian e, raises the
question if later mathematicians just preferred to follow Euler rather
than Laplace or somebody else in the use of the symbol or if their majority
liked the use of e for some other reason, one of which could be to honour
Euler.
Ivo Schneider