what is ln and e?

[Semidevil]

It seems that these 2 appear really frequently, especially in economics, and it seems like it is used very frquently in deriving all the economic formulas and theorems.

exactly what is it? how do I explain it to someone if someone asks 'what is ln? what is e??

I mean, I can say natural log, or exponential function, but is it really?

 

[Kelemvor]

tell them to go sign up for a math class at the local college.

 

[Skiguy411]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_log

 

[alkemyst]

in economics:

ln is when your stock craps...the pun is intended.

e [actually eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee] is the sound an accountant makes when he meets his yearly goals and gains his bonus.

Å

 

[2Xtreme21]

e ? 2.72

ln stands for "log base e of ___." Logarithms are the inverse of an exponential function (where some number is raised to x power). In this case, e is raised to x power and ln is used to find x.

Practical use? A lot of interest formulas rely on e (Pe^(r*t)) to find compounded interest and so on.

 

[artikk]

Originally posted by: Semidevil
It seems that these 2 appear really frequently, especially in economics, and it seems like it is used very frquently in deriving all the economic formulas and theorems.

exactly what is it? how do I explain it to someone if someone asks 'what is ln? what is e??

I mean, I can say natural log, or exponential function, but is it really?

and you couldn't use google for this why?

 

[keeleysam]

Wow.

Did you ever take a math class in high school?

e=2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535
47594571382178525166427427466391932003059921817413596629043572900334295260595630
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92447614606680822648001684774118537423454424371075390777449920695517027618386062
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59879316368892300987931277361782154249992295763514822082698951936680331825288693
98496465105820939239829488793320362509443117301238197068416140397019837679320683
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[stu1811]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
Wow.

Did you ever take a math class in high school?

e=2.7182818284590452353602874713526624977572470936999595749669676277240766303535
47594571382178525166427427466391932003059921817413596629043572900334295260595630...

lol

 

[flawlssdistortn]

wow, just wow... please tell me you know what pi is.

 

[ArJuN]

I wonder if anyone has memorized the first few hundred yet...

 

[flawlssdistortn]

today in my psychology class i saw a video of some indian guy who memorized 10,000 digits of pi and could rattle em off forwards, backwards, and starting at any point in the middle.

 

[TheChort]

stop being dicks
just because you know something doesnt mean everyone else knows it

learning math is like learning a foreign language. Some people have it down cold, and others just never catch on. Besides ln and e are at least a few years into the foreign language.

edit: thats a good question btw. I would really like to see ln and e explained in lay men's terms. Even though i know how to use them, cant really explain them that way, though 2Xtreme21 seems to have come close.

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: ArJuN
I wonder if anyone has memorized the first few hundred yet...

Someone memorized like 100k digits of pi, so I'd assume someone has done a couple hundred with this one.