The interest earned on a bank account, the arrangement of seeds in a
sunflower, and the shape of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis are all
intimately connected with the mysterious number e. In this informal
and engaging history, Eli Maor portrays the curious characters and the
elegant mathematics that lie behind the number. Designed for a reader
with only a modest mathematical background, this biography brings out
the central importance of e to mathematics and illuminates a golden
era in the age of science.