When I was a freshman at BYU in 1994, I was sitting in my calculus class and started playing with my calculator. I started punching in every scientific constant I could think of: π, e, i .... and mixing and matching them to see what would happen. After a few minutes, I stumbled upon this amazing formula: eiπ + 1 = 0 .
Needless to say, I was elated. It was as if all the stars in the heavens had suddently aligned. This was proof that there was order to the universe. I already believed in God, but this confirmed it.
Years later, I found out that I was (sadly) not the first person to discover this equation. It's called Euler's identity, and has been known for hundreds of years. But I am neither the first nor the last person to be awestruck by the sheer beauty of this mathematical truth.
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