Exquisite Equation

The Friday File: When 14 mathematicians were given fMRI scans of their brains as they viewed 60 mathematical formulas, the formula that generated the most activity in the brain area stimulated by moral, musical and visual beauty was ei pi+1=0, or Euler’s (pronounced oilers) Identity, which magically links five mathematical constants. Mathematicians and physicists have compared this identity to a Shakespeare sonnet, and have called it the most remarkable math formula.