e^Pi-pi

It's weird, offthehook, because it is a very simple formula that almost gives an integer. And the story told sounds like it could even be true

It is mildly amusing, and that shows you to what degree I am a sadist.

I have been the victim of at least one such jape. At about 16 years old, I was established as being top at maths at school (and probably more self-assured about my abilities than now due to not have yet realised that I could only ever fully understand a small part of the subject). Anyhow, having signed up for a course on computing as my "minority time studies" (non-examinable study in an off-curricular subject), I had started to learn the basics of flow-charting and such-like. One day my pure maths teacher presented me with a complicated, tangled flow diagram which said it was for calculating square roots. I studied this monster for a day or two trying to figure out what the heck it was doing and, when he asked me whether I understood it, had to say that I only partially understood it. It was then he told me it was actually a joke and didn't really have any function. Cruel, but perhaps a lesson in skepticism useful in the Internet age.

With the e^pi-pi joke, I consider it fair punishment for anyone who believes that such a number is rational without finding a valid reference. Perhaps a good lesson for academia (and Wikipedia editors).