Review and Summary of e: The Story of a Number

People use the number “e” without a thought of why we use it and where it came from. This book reaches out to a broad audience and addresses the question, “where did e originate?” Eli Maor describes the history and long process it took to reach the invention of the number e in a manner that allows people with even a weak background in mathematics to understand. We often forget to give recognition to the many mathematicians that took part in various discoveries and inventions in mathematics. What Eli Maor does in this book is date back to the invention of logarithms because it is important to understand that without this invention, e would not have been found. It proceeds on after the logarithm invention throughout the many years in detail of the steps taken by the mathematicians, whether or not they were credited for a discovery or invention. What surprised me most was the number of people included in the history of e. It was interesting and impressive the amount of research Maor must have done in order to learn about all of these individuals. The stories and facts that were included in the book were what kept me interested and entertained. There were some flaws that held me back a bit, but overall I really enjoyed what I read and it has helped me as a mathematic major.

As a mathematic and education major, I find it important to understand everything about what you are teaching. It is only when you know about its process and history that you understand it well enough to teach it to others. Learning the history of an aspect of mathematics is not an easy task, seeing as most are somehow tied in together and rely on each other in one way or another. This book is an accurate example of this because it states and explains the process that it took in order to obtain the result of the number e. It obviously did not just happen in one day. It took hundreds and hundreds of years and numerous mathematicians and scientists to come across this possible finding. Once they noticed that they found a new mathematical discovery, they had to prove it and explain it to others. The complete process for this specific operation took centuries to stumble upon and realize the significance. The invention of e introduced the mathematical world to a whole new light and advanced us to a new level.

Despite the valid information and great ideas found in e: The Story of a Number by Eli Maor, there are some flaws to his writing that as a reader I struggled with. Something that stuck out to me that made the reading difficult was the amount of formulas. Perhaps, it is the way that Maor displayed the formulas that caused the difficulty. However, occasionally, the book felt more like a mathematics text book rather than a history book because of the amount of formulas and explanations of those. Focusing more on how the formulas were derived would have helped steer clear of that feeling. I believe that it is just as important for someone to understand how the formula works, but that should be done in class. This book was written with the intentions to explain the story of e, not with the intentions to teach how to use it (or other mathematical operations for that matter).  Overall, the book contains great insight to the process and history that is behind e. It is not too complicated to read and people with a poor mathematical background should be able to read it without much struggle to understand what was being conveyed.