Euler’s Equation

This morning I reread Chapter 3, “π”, of a book from my shelves, Euler’s Pioneering Equation, by Robin WIlson. It brought forth memories of me as a youth.  Even back then I was conscious of the beauty of π, and I remember reading about continued fractions and infinite series. I was that much of a nerd that I used to grind out by hand various of the approximations granted by the infinite series. I also liked graphing, by hand of course in those days, various functions. I would get out books from the Malvern Library and read about discontinuities, non-Euclidian geometry, the various infinities. All these facets of mathematics fascinated me. But I was lacking in both perseverance and confidence and never got any good at mathematics. But I still can’t resist buying the odd popularising book on it.  When I was around 10–12 years old, my father had given me Prelude to Mathematics, by W. W. Sawyer. That was undoubtedly the initial impetus.