This post is to give some background about the constant e. Math students normally encounter e (2.7182818284590452…) in their Precalculus chapter on exponentials and logarithms, and they often wonder where this rather odd number comes from, and what is special about it.

It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

I have often told students that becoming good at math is a lot like becoming good at a sport or at playing an instrument – practice is extremely important. Hours and hours of practice.

However, there is a [...]