… Napier believed that one of his servants was stealing some
of his belongings. He announced that his
black rooster would identify the transgressor.
The servants were ordered into a dark room, where each was asked to pat
the rooster on its back. Unknown to the
servants, Napier had coated the bird with a layer of lampblack. On leaving the room, each servant was asked
to show his hands; the guilty servant, fearing to touch the rooster, turned out
to have clean hands, thus betraying his guilt.
- e, The Story of a Number, pg. 4, by Eli Maor
Yes, I just started reading a book about the mathematical constant e,
which is equal to 2.718281828459045 … (and it’s fairly easy to memorize those
fifteen digits east of the decimal point).
And yes, I am enjoying it.
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