Why is "2.718" not as popular as "3.1416"?

[Yavin4]

I mean "3.1416" get its own day and is celebrated, but nothing for "2.718"?

[arcane1]

1. You're being irrational about this.

[BlueJazz]

4. Snort!

[SwissTony]

9. Peace, brother/sister.

Let us be transcendental in this matter. This subject is not imaginary.

[hifiguy]

2. BEcause everyone likes

pi(e).

[HERVEPA]

3. My favorite number. I love how it repeats for a bit. 2.718281828..

[KamaAina]

5. Well, it does have its own bay

[KamaAina]

6. Because most people quit learning math somewhere between geometry and logarithms?

[hunter]

7. A circle is a simple thing almost anyone can understand.

e is a little more difficult.

Most people look at things like this...



... and scratch their heads.

Start talking about Euler's Identity being a tautology, and they will think you are nuts.



But she is a pretty thing. Hubba hubba.

Trained as an evolutionary biologist, I'm comfortable with tautology. It seems to be the way our human minds and our languages, even our mathematical languages, work.

Nevertheless, someone who understands radius and circumference in our society is smarter than the average Republican congressman. We The People who know pi.

Scary thought, that.

But not knowing e doesn't necessarily make a person innumerate. It's more like someone who hasn't seen some popular movie or has no idea who Miley Cyrus is because they've been busy pursuing their own arts.

[lastlib]

8. Pi has a better press agent?

Maybe Pi looks better in a swimsuit?

Why don't we organize a committee and prepare to celebrate "e-Day" on Feb. 7, 2018?

[SwissTony]

10. Or maybe few know how to pronounce pi the way the Greeks do.

Give you a hint, it's not "pie'.

And e-Day sounds like a great idea.

[cloudbase]

11. It's only natural. n/t

[lastlib]

12. true, it's not *commonly* known to most people.........

[Aerows]

15. I almost said that it was

biological, but the idea decayed before it fully took form.

[progressoid]

13. Not as delicious?

[Aerows]

14. I agree

It's irrational.

[Fearless]

17. Quite irrational indeed!

[Wolf Frankula]

16. What Do You Mean, Not as Popular

2.718 is the most popular letter in the English Language.

Wolf

[Glassunion]

18. You're compounding the problem.

It's not natural.

[Taitertots]

19. Too many people can't pronounce Euler.

Where can I get a shirt with Leonard Euler wearing stunner shades, with the caption "what do you mean we can't call it Molly's number"

[qwlauren35]

20. I love PIE!

But really, pi gets introduced earlier, and has to do with circles, which are easy to grasp.

e is more complicated, gets introduced later, is associated with higher math, and even though it also occurs in nature, it's more associated with physics than simple geometry.

BTW, I hate e and logs and all that stuff.

[MosheFeingold]

21. Euler? Euler? Anyone?! Anyone?! n/t