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What makes e natural? (2004)
This article appeared in the English version of KöMaL, Vol. 2 No.
If that common limit (which we can now denote by e) is chosen as the base of the exponential function, the tangent at (0,1) will indeed enclose an angle of 45 o with the x-axis. The purpose of this paper has been to show why the limit of the sequence \(\displaystyle \left(1+\frac{1}{n}\right)^{n}\) is so special, why this number is the right choice for the base of the exponential and logarithmic functions. My students perhaps will compute e, use power or Taylor series, an easy summation formula, obvious, clear, elegant!''
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