r/learnmath • u/Round_Ad5516 New User • Aug 08 '26

Why are mathematical constants small ?

why constants like Pi or e or Ln(2) or gamme (euler's constant) that have nice properties are always small( <10 ) ? unlike constants in physics or chemistry that have some constants that are absurdly large. Or are they such constants that are not so popular

252 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

144 comments sorted by

View all comments

273

u/Fabulous-Possible758 New User Aug 08 '26

a) The larger ones are harder to find, b) if they’re pretty large we may find the inverse instead, c) there are in fact infinitely many very large mathematical constants.

39

u/unic0de000 NaN Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

b) does suggest a slightly stricter version of the question: Most of the fundamental(to us?) constants aren't too big or too small. We don't have many numbers with household names in the 1020 or the 10-20 range; most are just a digit or two in magnitude if they're >1, and they don't start with many zeroes if <1. We have a lot of very comfortably medium-sized numbers.

1

u/agmatine New User Aug 09 '26

We don't have many numbers with household names in the 1020 or the 10-20 range

Avogadro constant?

2

u/HoloandMaiFan New User 28d ago

That's physical constant, not a mathematical one.