e has always bothered me — not the letter, but the mathematical constant. What does it really mean?
I love math questions like this. I often find that math people get caught up in the status-affirming qualities of their work, which means that lots of the writing is done is a ‘pure’ notational, logical form.
In other words, math folks speak in their own language because it makes them feel smart at the expense of communicating concepts.
This article is a remedy for all that garboozh.
Not Unreasonable 