E: The Story of a Number

<p>The interest earned on a bank account the arrangement of seeds in a sunflower and the shape of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis are all intimately connected with the mysterious number <i>e</i>. In this informal and engaging history Eli Maor portrays the curious characters and the elegant mathematics that lie behind the number. Designed for a reader with only a modest mathematical background this biography brings out the central importance of <i>e</i> to mathematics and illuminates a golden era in the age of science.</p>