Intuitively, why is the Euler-Mascheroni constant near $\sqrt{1/3}$? Questions that ask for "intuitive" reasons are admittedly subjective, but I suspect some people will find this interesting.
Some time ago, I was struck by the coincidence that the Euler-Mascheroni constant $\gamma$ is close to the square root of $1/3$. (Their numerical values are about $0.57722$ and $0.57735$ respectively.)
Is there any informal or intuitive reason for this? For example, can we find a series converging to $\gamma$ and a series converging to $\sqrt{1/3}$ whose terms are close to each other?
An example of the kind of argument I have in mind can be found in Noam Elkies' list of one-page papers, where he gives a "reason" that $\pi$ is slightly less than $\sqrt{10}$. (Essentially, take $\sum\frac1{n^2}=\pi^2/6$ as known, and then bound that series above by a telescoping series whose sum is $10/6$.)
There are lots of ways to get series that converge quickly to $\sqrt{1/3}$. For example, taking advantage of the fact that $(4/7)^2\approx1/3$, we can write
$$
\sqrt{\frac{1}{3}}=(\frac{16}{48})^{1/2}
=(\frac{16}{49}\cdot\frac{49}{48})^{1/2}=\frac{4}{7}(1+\frac{1}{48})^{1/2}
$$
which we can expand as a binomial series, so $\frac{4}{7}\cdot\frac{97}{96}$ is an example of a good approximation to $\sqrt{1/3}$. Can we also get good approximations to $\gamma$ by using series that converge quickly, and can we find the "right" pair of series that shows "why" $\gamma$ is slightly less than $\sqrt{1/3}$?
Another type of argument that's out there, showing "why" $\pi$ is slightly less than $22/7$, involves a particular definite integral of a "small" function that evaluates to $\frac{22}{7}-\pi$. So, are there any definite integrals of "small" functions that evaluate to $\sqrt{\frac13}-\gamma$ or $\frac13-\gamma^2$?

I also asked this question at the xkcd messageboards and got an answer that was enlightening to me.
http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=107888#p3570666
