I wish people would stop writing this as e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0. That deliberately obscures the meaning behind this formula. It's only zero because it happens that

I wish people would stop writing this as e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0. That deliberately obscures the meaning behind this formula. It's only zero because it happens that sin(pi)=0 and cos(pi)=-1. The real equation is e^(i*theta) = i*sin(theta) + cos(theta) That's much more illuminating than the special case everyone writes. It tells you that the imaginary exponential function can be viewed as rotation.