Madam, I Have Come From A Country

The Kind Of Knowledge Which Is Supported Only By Observations And Is Not Yet Proved Must Be Carefully Distinguished From The Truth; It Is Gained By Induction, As We Usually Say. Yet We Have Seen Cases In Which Mere Induction Led To Error. Therefore, We Should Take Great Care Not To Accept As True Such Properties Of The Numbers Which We Have Discovered By Observation And Which Are Supported By Induction Alone. Indeed, We Should Use Such A Discovery As An Opportunity To Investigate More Exactly The Properties Discovered And To Prove Or Disprove Them; In Both Cases We May Learn Something Useful.

Notable Enough, However, Are The Controversies Over The Series 1 - 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 - ... Whose Sum Was Given By Leibniz As 1/2, Although Others Disagree. ... Understanding Of This Question Is To Be Sought In The Word "sum"; This Idea, If Thus Conceived - Namely, The Sum Of A Series Is Said To Be That Quantity To Which It Is Brought Closer As More Terms Of The Series Are Taken - Has Relevance Only For Convergent Series, And We Should In General Give Up The Idea Of Sum For Divergent Series.

Transcendental [numbers], They Transcend The Power Of Algebraic Methods.

Thus You See, Most Noble Sir, How This Type Of Solution To The Königsberg Bridge Problem Bears Little Relationship To Mathematics, And I Do Not Understand Why You Expect A Mathematician To Produce It, Rather Than Anyone Else, For The Solution Is Based On Reason Alone, And Its Discovery Does Not Depend On Any Mathematical Principle.

For The Sake Of Brevity, We Will Always Represent This Number 2.718281828459... By The Letter E.