March 18, 2008

Continuing our brief digression

Continuing our brief digression into mathematics and related subjects, I think I posted this before but I can't find it in the archives. So as if starting over from scratch, here is the greatest mathematical formula of all time:

eiπ + 1 = 0
"It is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth."

Posted by Ken S at March 18, 2008 06:10 AM | TrackBack (0) |
Comments

Math is funny that way. Beautiful and elegant, but in some aspects useless. As far as we know, that is.

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at March 18, 2008 06:45 AM

"It is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth."

Just like Gorebal Warmening!

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at March 18, 2008 06:50 AM

But with actual proof!

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 18, 2008 06:53 AM

Well, if you start involving imaginary numbers, anything is possible, so I confess to see the superficial resemblance. I also confess to flunking first-year calculus, which has absolutely no connection to the discussion. NONE.

Posted by: nightfly at March 18, 2008 07:08 AM

Time to move on to Chaos Theory.

Posted by: physics geek at March 18, 2008 08:32 AM

So what is the equation actually used for?

Posted by: Alan K. Henderson at March 18, 2008 11:55 AM

Nothing, Alan. It's like your wife's special china: it's too purdy to sully by actually being useful.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at March 18, 2008 12:10 PM

What about "e to the ixpi equals -1"?

Posted by: mojo at March 19, 2008 11:02 AM

Same equation, Mojo. The nice thing about this particular expression of it is that it has all five fundamental constants, including both 0 and 1 (the arithmetic identities). It also includes three operations (addition, multiplication, and exponentiation)

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 19, 2008 12:06 PM

Yes, I know it's the same equation, but yours is a resultant of mine. I think...

Posted by: mojo at March 19, 2008 06:31 PM

True, but there is a certain beauty about that form.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 19, 2008 06:39 PM