[net.math] Near-miss equality

cscussel@ihuxq.UUCP (08/23/83)

I forgot to mention my current favorite. It's not really that near a miss,
but it's curious enough to make up for that:

                        i
                       i  = 1/5

It's actually about 0.208-, but it is in fact real (that is, not complex).

res@ihuxn.UUCP (08/23/83)

Another oddity which is not a near miss is the following:
		 
		 e ** (-i * PI) = -1

Note that what we have is the fact that a transcendental number raised
to an imaginary transcendental power is a real integer.

(I may have one or more of the signs in the above equation messed up,
since it has been lots of years since I studied AC Circuits.  If any
flames result, please direct them to ...!hades!/dev/null).

					Rich Strebendt
					...!ihnp4!ihuxn!res

levy@princeton.UUCP (08/25/83)

Sorry, but to me the fact that e ** (i * PI) = -1 is no more surprising
than e ** 0 = 1... It just comes from the fact that the circle is round,
and its perimeter is 2 * pi the radius...
             -- Silvio Levy