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The single greatest mathematical equation is e^i*pi = -1 No way we mess with that.
by paul_f 11y ago
The single greatest mathematical equation is e^i*pi = -1
No way we mess with that.
- fnayr 11y ago-Feynman
- gizmo686 11y agoe^i * tau -1 = 0 To my eye as a mathematician, the tau version I provided looks better. e^i * tau = 1, has a much nicer geometric interperatation, of e^i * tau representing a full rotation (which is just the identity), whereas e^i * pi = -1 represents half a rotation, and it is not quite as immediately obvious that -1 is a 1/2 rotation (although this is not particularly opaque). While I am on the subject, surely the equation you want to discuss is e^i * pi * x, = cos(pi * x)+isin(pi * x), which clearly represents a rotation of x/2 of a complete circle. Of course, viewing it this way, it seems even clearer why one would want to use tau.