I'm a math teacher at Balwearie High School, but also very into English and grammar. I teach math classes every day but the two classes that stand out are 2F5 and 6A1. The 2nd years are a very troublesome bunch and do my head in, so I ask for helpers from 6A1. This class, the Advnaced Higher class, are a good lot. I enjoy teaching them about integration, differentiation, logarithms etc.
I was at a math conference not so long ago, and the waiter was a young man, a atudent no doubt. His name tag read "JOSH!", so us math teachers, being the sad creatures that we are, all knew this lad as "Josh Factorial".
A mathematician has been invited to speak at a conference. His talk is announced as
Proof of the Riemann hypothesis.
When the conference actually takes place, he speaks about something completely different.
After his talk, a colleague asks him: "Did you find an error in your proof?"
He replies: "No - I never had one."
"But why did you make this announcement?"
"That's my standard precaution - in case I die on my way to the conference..."
Top ln(e^10) reasons why e is better than pi
10) e is easier to spell than pi.
9) pi ~= 3.14 while e ~=2.718281828459045.
8) The character for e can be found on a keyboard, but pi sure can't.
7) Everybody fights for their piece of the pie.
6) ln(pi^1) is a really nasty number, but ln(e^1) = 1.
5) e is used in calculus while pi is used in baby geometry.
4) 'e' is the most commonly picked vowel in Wheel of Fortune.
3) e stands for Euler's Number, pi doesn't stand for squat.
2) You don't need to know Greek to be able to use e.
1) You can't confuse e with a food product.
Top ten reasons why e is inferior to pi
10) e is less challenging to spell than pi.
9) e ~=2.718281828459045, which can be easily memorized to its billionth place, whereas pi needs "skills" to be memorized.
8) The character for e is so cheap that it can be found on a keyboard. But is special (it's under "special symbols" in word processor programs.)
7) Pi is the bigger piece of pie.
6) e has an easy limit definition and infinite series. The limit definition of pi and the infinite series are much harder.
5) e you understand what it is even though you start learning it late when you're in pre-calculus. But pi, even after five or six years it's still hard to know what it really is.
4) People mistakenly confuse Euler's Number (e) with Euler's Constant (gamma). There is no confusion with the one and only pi.
3) e is named after a person, but pi stands for itself.
2) Pi is much shorter and easier to say than "Euler's Number".
1) To read pi, you don't have to know that Euler's name is really pronounced Oiler.
