Leonhard Euler
In mathematics, the letter e represents a constant called Euler’s number named after mathematician Leonhard Euler. The simple decimal approximation of Euler’s number is 2.71828. The name Euler’s constant was given as Euler was heavily involved in the development of our current mathematics notation, as well as his work with the constant.
The University of St. Andrews released an article by J J O’Connor and E F Robertson in 2001 detailing the discovery of e. Compared to another constant, pi, e is "a relative newcomer on the mathematics scene." Pi’s earliest beginnings are in Babylonian and Egyptian times, circa 1900-1680 BCE. On the other hand, we see the first glimpse of e in 1618 AD. In an appendix to mathematician John Napier’s work on logarithms "a table appeared giving the natural logarithms of various numbers." The table was almost certainly written by English mathematician William Oughtred.
The University of St. Andrews released an article by J J O’Connor and E F Robertson in 2001 detailing the discovery of e. Compared to another constant, pi, e is "a relative newcomer on the mathematics scene." Pi’s earliest beginnings are in Babylonian and Egyptian times, circa 1900-1680 BCE. On the other hand, we see the first glimpse of e in 1618 AD. In an appendix to mathematician John Napier’s work on logarithms "a table appeared giving the natural logarithms of various numbers." The table was almost certainly written by English mathematician William Oughtred.
Now, right here we see an answer to our question. The natural logarithm was explicitly used first. (chicken bawk) It was analyzed and used in calculation though it may not have been a function. However, the logarithms Oughtred recorded were not thought of as we do now. Our modern view expresses a logarithm in terms of a corresponding exponential. For example, log base 10 of 100 equals 2, meaning we need to exponentially raise 10 to the power of 2 to produce 100. But this view was not developed until the 1680’s. We still have 62 years to go.
The encounters with e following Napier and Oughtred were dubious. In 1624 e almost made it into mathematical literature when English mathematician Henry Briggs approximated e in the base 10 logarithm, and again when "in 1647 Saint-Vincent computed the area under a rectangular hyperbola" but didn"t associate that with our constant e. In 1661, Christian Huygens again worked with the rectangular hyperbola. By then, he must have understood the relationship between the area under the rectangular hyperbola and the logarithm. "It is this property that makes e the base of natural logarithms". Once again, we can use our mathematical hind sigth to draw conclusion that these 17th century mathematicians were seeking.
The progress continues with Huygens in 1661 where he defines a curve using the phrase "logarithmic." Next is 1668, where Nicolaus Mercator pulbished the Logarithmotechnia which officially used the term "natural Logarithm" for the first time for logarithms base e.
By now you are probably thinking, "how much longer can this go on!" In 1683, Jacob Bernoulli placed a limit on e when he examined continuous compound interest But he still may have not made the connection between the natural logarithm and e. That fell on James Gregory in 1684.
We have made the connection! And officially the number e appears in its own right in 1690 in a letter Leibnez wrote to Huygens. Ironically, he used the notation b instead of e.
Only after 34 years of calculus study did e appear as itself in 1731 in a letter fro, Euler to Prussian mathematician Christian Goldbach. It is said that Euler chose the letter ’e’ not because of his own name or for exponential, but because he was already using the first vowel ’a’ in his work.
We now officially have an e! One hundred and thirteen years later, mathematicians began to fully discover and publish "full treatment of ideas surrounding" e. (chicken bawk). (End Jazz Music)