History
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Euler's number, also known as e. First discovered in the seventeenth century by the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli when he was studying compound interest, e is now recognised as one of the most important and interesting numbers in mathematics. Roughly equal to 2.718, e is useful in studying many everyday situations, from personal savings to epidemics. It also features in Euler's Identity, sometimes described as the most beautiful equation ever written.
With:
Colva Roney-Dougal
Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews
June Barrow-Green
Senior Lecturer in the History of Maths at the Open University
Vicky Neale
Whitehead Lecturer at the Mathematical Institute and Balliol College at the University of Oxford
Producer: Thomas Morris.
view more
More Episodes
Cosmic Rays
2013-05-16
14
2013-05-16
14
Water
2013-03-28
22
2013-03-28
22
Absolute Zero
2013-03-07
1
2013-03-07
1
Pitt-Rivers
2013-02-28
3
2013-02-28
3
Comets
2013-01-17
28
2013-01-17
28
Crystallography
2012-11-28
7
2012-11-28
7
Fermat's Last Theorem
2012-10-25
3
2012-10-25
3
The Cell
2012-09-13
8
2012-09-13
8
Game Theory
2012-05-10
23
2012-05-10
23
Early Geology
2012-04-12
18
2012-04-12
18
The Measurement of Time
2012-03-29
22
2012-03-29
22
Conductors and Semiconductors
2012-02-23
38
2012-02-23
38
The Scientific Method
2012-01-26
2
2012-01-26
2
Macromolecules
2011-12-29
4
2011-12-29
4
The Hippocratic Oath
2011-09-15
6
2011-09-15
6
The Origins of Infectious Disease
2011-06-08
11
2011-06-08
11
The Neutrino
2011-04-14
4
2011-04-14
4
The Age of the Universe
2011-03-03
48
2011-03-03
48
The Nervous System
2011-02-10
7
2011-02-10
7
Random and Pseudorandom
2011-01-13
9
2011-01-13
9
Get this podcast on your
phone, FREE
