English

A geometric proof that $e$ is irrational and a new measure of its irrationality

History and Overview 2010-10-07 v2 Number Theory

Abstract

We give a simple geometric proof that ee is irrational, using a construction of a nested sequence of closed intervals with intersection ee. The proof leads to a new measure of irrationality for ee: if pp and qq are integers with q>1q > 1, then ep/q>1/(S(q)+1)!|e - p/q| > 1/(S(q)+1)!, where S(q)S(q) is the smallest positive integer such that S(q)!S(q)! is a multiple of qq. We relate this measure for ee to a known one and to the greatest prime factor of an integer. We make two conjectures and recall a theorem of Cantor that can be proved by a similar construction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0704.1282,
  title  = {A geometric proof that $e$ is irrational and a new measure of its irrationality},
  author = {Jonathan Sondow},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.1282},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

7 pages, 1 figure, Addendum gives details on why the intersection of the intervals is $e$