dly wrote: > Napier's constant which he denoted e in honour of Euler is given by > 1x1 in J which similarly can be raised by powers of e > Napier never used e: in particular he did not have the notion of a base (plus he died about a century before Euler was born). Euler himself first used e in private correspondence in the 1720s. It first appeared in print around 1736. It is conjectured that either it is the first letter of exponential or, more likely, the first available vowel (he used "a" for something else). It is unlikely he named it after himself.
> (Not to be confused with Euler's constant which he denoted C and > Macheroni denoted γ=0.5772156649) > I'm not convinced Mascheroni used gamma, but I have not seen the original work (from 1790, where he also miscalculated it). The secondary source often cited for this is from the 1870s. Cajori's book on mathematical notation claims Mascheroni used A. Other notations persisted through the 19th century. Best wishes, John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
