English

Comment on "Which is greater: $e^{\pi}$ or $\pi^{e}$? An unorthodox physical solution to a classic puzzle"

Classical Physics 2024-07-16 v1

Abstract

In a recent Note (Am. J. Phys. 92:397, 2024; arXiv:2309.10826), Vallejo and Bove provide a physical argument based nominally on the second law of thermodynamics as a way of resolving the mathematical question appearing in the title. A remarkable aspect of their argument is that it does not depend on the numerical value of π\pi, because exxee^{x} \ge x^{e} for all positive xx, with equality occurring only when x=ex = e. Moreover, their argument does not depend on the validity of the second law but is rather a limited proof of it for this particular case.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.09568,
  title  = {Comment on "Which is greater: $e^{\pi}$ or $\pi^{e}$? An unorthodox physical solution to a classic puzzle"},
  author = {Roderick M. Macrae},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.09568},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

5 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication by Am. J. Phys., comment on arXiv:2309.10826