1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,320 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:03,600 Commons License. 3 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:05,950 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 4 00:00:05,950 --> 00:00:09,940 continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:09,940 --> 00:00:12,520 To make a donation, or to view additional materials 6 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:16,120 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 7 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:21,900 at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:21,900 --> 00:00:27,060 PROFESSOR: All right, so let's begin lecture six. 9 00:00:27,060 --> 00:00:44,630 We're talking today about exponentials and logarithms. 10 00:00:44,630 --> 00:00:49,390 And these are the last functions that I need to introduce, 11 00:00:49,390 --> 00:00:50,950 the last standard functions that we 12 00:00:50,950 --> 00:00:55,110 need to connect with calculus, that you've learned about. 13 00:00:55,110 --> 00:00:58,230 And they're certainly as fundamental, if not more so, 14 00:00:58,230 --> 00:01:00,830 than trigonometric functions. 15 00:01:00,830 --> 00:01:04,960 So first of all, we'll start out with a number, 16 00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:09,030 a, which is positive, which is usually called a base. 17 00:01:09,030 --> 00:01:12,790 And then we have these properties that 18 00:01:12,790 --> 00:01:14,870 a to the power 0 is always 1. 19 00:01:14,870 --> 00:01:17,180 That's how we get started. 20 00:01:17,180 --> 00:01:21,270 And a^1 is a. 21 00:01:21,270 --> 00:01:24,030 And of course a^2, not surprisingly, 22 00:01:24,030 --> 00:01:26,200 is a times a, etc. 23 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:35,400 And the general rule is that a^(x_1 + x_2) is a^(x_1) times 24 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:36,970 a^(x_2). 25 00:01:36,970 --> 00:01:41,440 So this is the basic rule of exponents, and with these two 26 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:49,070 initial properties, that defines the exponential function. 27 00:01:49,070 --> 00:01:52,220 And then there's an additional property, 28 00:01:52,220 --> 00:01:54,360 which is deduced from these, which 29 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:59,020 is the composition of exponential functions, which 30 00:01:59,020 --> 00:02:03,330 is that you take a to the x_1 power, to the x_2 power. 31 00:02:03,330 --> 00:02:08,390 Then that turns out to be a to the x_1 times x_2. 32 00:02:08,390 --> 00:02:11,540 So that's an additional property that we'll take for granted, 33 00:02:11,540 --> 00:02:14,140 which you learned in high school. 34 00:02:14,140 --> 00:02:22,650 Now, in order to understand what all the values of a^x are, 35 00:02:22,650 --> 00:02:28,620 we need to first remember that if you're taking a rational 36 00:02:28,620 --> 00:02:34,350 power that it's the ratio of two integers power of a. 37 00:02:34,350 --> 00:02:37,190 That's going to be a^m, and then we're going to have to take 38 00:02:37,190 --> 00:02:39,440 the nth root of that. 39 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:40,840 So that's the definition. 40 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,050 And then, when you're defining a^x, 41 00:02:45,050 --> 00:03:00,370 so a^x is defined for all x by filling in. 42 00:03:00,370 --> 00:03:03,480 So I'm gonna use that expression in quotation marks, 43 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:09,930 "filling in" by continuity. 44 00:03:09,930 --> 00:03:11,540 This is really what your calculator 45 00:03:11,540 --> 00:03:13,960 does when it gives you a to the power x, 46 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:17,540 because you can't even punch in the square root of x. 47 00:03:17,540 --> 00:03:19,590 It doesn't really exist on your calculator. 48 00:03:19,590 --> 00:03:21,230 There's some decimal expansion. 49 00:03:21,230 --> 00:03:24,400 So it takes the decimal expansion to a certain length 50 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:26,080 and spits out a number which is pretty 51 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,120 close to the correct answer. 52 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:31,550 But indeed, in theory, there is an a to the power 53 00:03:31,550 --> 00:03:33,710 square root of 2, even though the square root of 2 54 00:03:33,710 --> 00:03:34,740 is irrational. 55 00:03:34,740 --> 00:03:37,540 And there's a to the pi and so forth. 56 00:03:37,540 --> 00:03:41,000 All right, so that's the exponential function, 57 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,830 and let's draw a picture of one. 58 00:03:46,830 --> 00:03:52,230 So we'll try, say y = 2^x here. 59 00:03:52,230 --> 00:03:55,180 And I'm not going to draw such a careful graph, 60 00:03:55,180 --> 00:03:58,630 but let's just plot the most important point, which 61 00:03:58,630 --> 00:04:01,360 is the point (0,1). 62 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,510 That's 2^0, which is 1. 63 00:04:04,510 --> 00:04:08,940 And then maybe we'll go back up here to -1 here. 64 00:04:08,940 --> 00:04:13,860 And 2 to the -1 is this point here. 65 00:04:13,860 --> 00:04:18,990 This is (-1, 1/2), the reciprocal. 66 00:04:18,990 --> 00:04:23,460 And over here, we have 1, and so that goes all the way up to 2. 67 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:26,870 And then exponentials are remarkably fast. 68 00:04:26,870 --> 00:04:30,680 So it's off the board what happens next out at 2. 69 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,360 It's already above my range here, 70 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,970 but the graph looks something like this. 71 00:04:37,970 --> 00:04:38,610 All right. 72 00:04:38,610 --> 00:04:41,200 Now I've just visually, at least, graphically 73 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:43,240 filled in all the rest of the points. 74 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:46,730 You have to imagine all these rational numbers, and so forth. 75 00:04:46,730 --> 00:04:51,670 So this point here would have been (1, 2). 76 00:04:51,670 --> 00:04:53,330 And so forth. 77 00:04:53,330 --> 00:04:54,610 All right? 78 00:04:54,610 --> 00:05:00,992 So that's not too far along. 79 00:05:00,992 --> 00:05:01,950 So now what's our goal? 80 00:05:01,950 --> 00:05:04,020 Well, obviously we want to do calculus here. 81 00:05:04,020 --> 00:05:08,050 So our goal, here, for now - and it's gonna take a while. 82 00:05:08,050 --> 00:05:10,220 We have to think about it pretty hard. 83 00:05:10,220 --> 00:05:22,250 We have to calculate what this derivative is. 84 00:05:22,250 --> 00:05:26,020 All right, so we'll get started. 85 00:05:26,020 --> 00:05:28,520 And the way we get started is simply 86 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,190 by plugging in the definition of the derivative. 87 00:05:31,190 --> 00:05:34,760 The derivative is the limit as delta 88 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:41,690 x goes to 0 of a to the x plus delta x, minus a to the x, 89 00:05:41,690 --> 00:05:45,080 divided by delta x. 90 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:50,320 So that's what it is. 91 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:56,140 And now, the only step that we can really perform here 92 00:05:56,140 --> 00:05:58,790 to make this is into something a little bit simpler 93 00:05:58,790 --> 00:06:03,200 is to use this very first rule that we have here. 94 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,930 That the exponential of the sum is the product 95 00:06:06,930 --> 00:06:08,070 of the exponentials. 96 00:06:08,070 --> 00:06:10,340 So we have here, a^x . 97 00:06:10,340 --> 00:06:15,750 So what I want to use is just the property that a^(x + delta 98 00:06:15,750 --> 00:06:22,460 x) = a^x a^(delta x). 99 00:06:22,460 --> 00:06:26,880 And if I do that, I see that I can factor out a common factor 100 00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:29,760 in the numerator, which is a^x. 101 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:35,120 So we'll write this as the limit as delta x goes to 0, 102 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:41,300 of a to the x times this ratio, now a to the delta x, minus 1, 103 00:06:41,300 --> 00:06:49,280 divided by delta x. 104 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:50,160 So far, so good? 105 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:53,640 We're actually almost to some serious progress here. 106 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:58,460 So there's one other important conceptual step 107 00:06:58,460 --> 00:07:00,100 which we need to understand. 108 00:07:00,100 --> 00:07:03,010 And this is a relatively simple one. 109 00:07:03,010 --> 00:07:05,340 We actually did this before, by the way. 110 00:07:05,340 --> 00:07:08,162 We did this with sines and cosines. 111 00:07:08,162 --> 00:07:09,870 The next thing I want to point out to you 112 00:07:09,870 --> 00:07:15,680 is that you're used to thinking of x as being the variable. 113 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:18,140 And indeed, already we were discussing 114 00:07:18,140 --> 00:07:20,130 x as being the variable and a as being fixed. 115 00:07:20,130 --> 00:07:22,220 But for the purposes of this limit, 116 00:07:22,220 --> 00:07:26,290 there's a different variable that's moving. x is fixed 117 00:07:26,290 --> 00:07:29,340 and delta x is the thing that's moving. 118 00:07:29,340 --> 00:07:33,440 So that means that this factor here, which is a common factor, 119 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:34,799 is constant. 120 00:07:34,799 --> 00:07:36,590 And we can just factor it out of the limit. 121 00:07:36,590 --> 00:07:39,450 It doesn't affect the limit at all. 122 00:07:39,450 --> 00:07:41,130 A constant times a limit is the same 123 00:07:41,130 --> 00:07:44,580 as whether we multiply before or after we take the limit. 124 00:07:44,580 --> 00:07:46,830 So I'm just going to factor that out. 125 00:07:46,830 --> 00:07:49,110 So that's my next step here. 126 00:07:49,110 --> 00:07:53,450 a^x, and then I have the limit delta x goes to 0 127 00:07:53,450 --> 00:07:59,830 of a to the delta x minus 1, divided by delta x. 128 00:07:59,830 --> 00:08:02,180 All right? 129 00:08:02,180 --> 00:08:03,910 And so what I have here, so this is 130 00:08:03,910 --> 00:08:05,220 by definition the derivative. 131 00:08:05,220 --> 00:08:12,730 So here is d/dx of a^x, and it's equal to this expression here. 132 00:08:12,730 --> 00:08:17,340 Now, I want to stare at this expression, 133 00:08:17,340 --> 00:08:22,880 and see what it's telling us, because it's telling us 134 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:27,680 as much as we can get so far, without some-- 135 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:34,810 So first let's just look at what this says. 136 00:08:34,810 --> 00:08:40,260 So what it's saying is that the derivative of a^x is a^x times 137 00:08:40,260 --> 00:08:42,820 something that we don't yet know. 138 00:08:42,820 --> 00:08:46,060 And I'm going to call this something, this mystery number, 139 00:08:46,060 --> 00:08:47,130 M(a). 140 00:08:47,130 --> 00:08:52,990 So I'm gonna make the label, M(a) is equal to the limit 141 00:08:52,990 --> 00:08:56,640 as delta x goes to 0 of a to the delta x 142 00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,800 minus 1 divided by delta x. 143 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:00,300 All right? 144 00:09:00,300 --> 00:09:08,870 So this is a definition. 145 00:09:08,870 --> 00:09:14,540 So this mystery number M(a) has a geometric interpretation, 146 00:09:14,540 --> 00:09:16,000 as well. 147 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:17,554 So let me describe that. 148 00:09:17,554 --> 00:09:18,970 It has a geometric interpretation, 149 00:09:18,970 --> 00:09:20,678 and it's a very, very significant number. 150 00:09:20,678 --> 00:09:22,200 So let's work out what that is. 151 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,690 So first of all, let's rewrite the expression in the box, 152 00:09:25,690 --> 00:09:28,470 using the shorthand for this number. 153 00:09:28,470 --> 00:09:33,840 So if I just rewrite it, it says d/dx of a^x is equal to this 154 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,800 factor, which is M(a), times a^x. 155 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:43,450 So the derivative of the exponential is this mystery 156 00:09:43,450 --> 00:09:44,790 number times a^x. 157 00:09:44,790 --> 00:09:48,870 So we've almost solved the problem of finding 158 00:09:48,870 --> 00:09:50,560 the derivative of a^x. 159 00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:53,270 We just have to figure out this one number, M(a), 160 00:09:53,270 --> 00:09:55,720 and we get the rest. 161 00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:01,780 So let me point out two more things about this number, M(a). 162 00:10:01,780 --> 00:10:09,350 So first of all, if I plug in x = 0, 163 00:10:09,350 --> 00:10:14,250 that's going to be d/dx of a^x , at x = 0. 164 00:10:14,250 --> 00:10:19,150 According to this formula, that's M(a) times a^0, 165 00:10:19,150 --> 00:10:21,370 which of course M(a). 166 00:10:21,370 --> 00:10:23,540 So what is M(a)? 167 00:10:23,540 --> 00:10:26,410 M(a) is the derivative of this function at 0. 168 00:10:26,410 --> 00:10:39,790 So M(a) is the slope of a^x at x = 0, of the graph. 169 00:10:39,790 --> 00:10:41,330 The graph of a^x at 0. 170 00:10:41,330 --> 00:10:46,170 So again over here, if you looked at the picture. 171 00:10:46,170 --> 00:10:48,260 I'll draw the one tangent line in here, 172 00:10:48,260 --> 00:10:50,640 which is this one here. 173 00:10:50,640 --> 00:11:00,050 And this thing has slope, what we're calling M(2). 174 00:11:00,050 --> 00:11:02,491 So, if I graph the function y = 2^x, 175 00:11:02,491 --> 00:11:03,740 I'll get a certain slope here. 176 00:11:03,740 --> 00:11:05,315 If I graph it with a different base, 177 00:11:05,315 --> 00:11:07,590 I might get another slope. 178 00:11:07,590 --> 00:11:12,820 And what we got so far is the following phenomenon: 179 00:11:12,820 --> 00:11:16,310 if we know this one number, if we know the slope at this one 180 00:11:16,310 --> 00:11:18,940 place, we will be able to figure out the formula for the slope 181 00:11:18,940 --> 00:11:23,320 everywhere else. 182 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:25,690 Now, that's actually exactly the same thing 183 00:11:25,690 --> 00:11:28,040 that we did for sines and cosines. 184 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:33,120 We knew the slope of the sine and the cosine function 185 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:35,900 at x = 0. 186 00:11:35,900 --> 00:11:37,450 The sine function had slope 1. 187 00:11:37,450 --> 00:11:39,470 The cosine function had slope 0. 188 00:11:39,470 --> 00:11:41,560 And then from the sum formulas, well 189 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:44,004 that's exactly this kind of thing here, 190 00:11:44,004 --> 00:11:44,920 from the sum formulas. 191 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:47,110 This sum formula, in fact is easier than the ones 192 00:11:47,110 --> 00:11:49,320 for sines and cosines. 193 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:50,960 From the sum formulas, we worked out 194 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,620 what the slope was everywhere. 195 00:11:53,620 --> 00:11:57,610 So we're following the same procedure that we did before. 196 00:11:57,610 --> 00:12:00,960 But at this point we're stuck. 197 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:04,660 We're stuck, because that time using radians, 198 00:12:04,660 --> 00:12:07,140 this very clever idea of radians in geometry, 199 00:12:07,140 --> 00:12:09,640 we were able to actually figure out what the slope is. 200 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:14,920 Whereas here, we're not so sure, what M(2) is, for instance. 201 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,200 We just don't know yet. 202 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:22,790 So, the basic question that we have to deal with right now 203 00:12:22,790 --> 00:12:32,060 is what is M(a)? 204 00:12:32,060 --> 00:12:34,680 That's what we're left with. 205 00:12:34,680 --> 00:12:42,990 And, the curious fact is that the clever thing to do 206 00:12:42,990 --> 00:12:51,260 is to beg the question. 207 00:12:51,260 --> 00:12:54,730 So we're going to go through a very circular route here. 208 00:12:54,730 --> 00:12:56,580 That is circuitous, not circular. 209 00:12:56,580 --> 00:12:58,360 Circular is a bad word in math. 210 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:00,380 That means that one thing depends on another, 211 00:13:00,380 --> 00:13:03,220 and that depends on it, and maybe both are wrong. 212 00:13:03,220 --> 00:13:07,460 Circuitous means, we're going to be taking a roundabout route. 213 00:13:07,460 --> 00:13:10,384 And we're going to discover that even though we refuse 214 00:13:10,384 --> 00:13:11,800 to answer this question right now, 215 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,841 we'll succeed in answering it eventually. 216 00:13:14,841 --> 00:13:15,340 All right? 217 00:13:15,340 --> 00:13:18,340 So how are we going to beg the question? 218 00:13:18,340 --> 00:13:20,150 What we're going to say instead is 219 00:13:20,150 --> 00:13:30,650 we're going to define a mystery base, or number e, 220 00:13:30,650 --> 00:13:45,790 as the unique number, so that M(e) = 1. 221 00:13:45,790 --> 00:13:47,930 That's the trick that we're going to use. 222 00:13:47,930 --> 00:13:50,610 We don't yet know what e is, but we're just going 223 00:13:50,610 --> 00:13:53,900 to suppose that we have it. 224 00:13:53,900 --> 00:13:57,340 Now, I'm going to show you a bunch of consequences of this, 225 00:13:57,340 --> 00:14:00,540 and also I have to persuade you that it actually does exist. 226 00:14:00,540 --> 00:14:03,640 So first, let me explain what the first consequence is. 227 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,670 First of all, if M(e) is 1, then if you 228 00:14:06,670 --> 00:14:09,540 look at this formula over here and you write it down for e, 229 00:14:09,540 --> 00:14:13,650 you have something which is a very usable formula. 230 00:14:13,650 --> 00:14:19,930 d/dx of e^x is just e^x. 231 00:14:19,930 --> 00:14:22,750 All right, so that's an incredibly important formula 232 00:14:22,750 --> 00:14:24,210 which is the fundamental one. 233 00:14:24,210 --> 00:14:26,710 It's the only one you have to remember from what we've done. 234 00:14:26,710 --> 00:14:28,251 So maybe I should have highlighted it 235 00:14:28,251 --> 00:14:34,760 in several colors here. 236 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,800 That's a big deal. 237 00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,630 Very happy. 238 00:14:40,630 --> 00:14:42,770 And again, let me just emphasize, 239 00:14:42,770 --> 00:14:52,077 also that this is the one which at x = 0 has slope 1. 240 00:14:52,077 --> 00:14:53,660 That's the way we defined it, alright? 241 00:14:53,660 --> 00:15:00,640 So if you plug in x = 0 here on the right hand side, you got 1. 242 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:03,540 Slope 1 at x = 0. 243 00:15:03,540 --> 00:15:05,580 So that's great. 244 00:15:05,580 --> 00:15:07,980 Except of course, since we don't know what e is, 245 00:15:07,980 --> 00:15:15,770 this is a little bit dicey. 246 00:15:15,770 --> 00:15:21,750 So, next even before explaining what e is... 247 00:15:21,750 --> 00:15:23,440 In fact, we won't get to what e really 248 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,110 is until the very end of this lecture. 249 00:15:26,110 --> 00:15:34,530 But I have to persuade you why e exists. 250 00:15:34,530 --> 00:15:37,406 We have to have some explanation for why 251 00:15:37,406 --> 00:15:40,740 we know there is such a number. 252 00:15:40,740 --> 00:15:44,100 Okay, so first of all, let me start with the one that we 253 00:15:44,100 --> 00:15:46,970 supposedly know, which is the function 2^x. 254 00:15:46,970 --> 00:15:49,710 We'll call it f(x) is 2^x. 255 00:15:49,710 --> 00:15:50,460 All right? 256 00:15:50,460 --> 00:15:51,820 So that's the first thing. 257 00:15:51,820 --> 00:15:54,460 And remember, that the property that it had, 258 00:15:54,460 --> 00:15:58,170 was that f'(0) was M(2). 259 00:15:58,170 --> 00:16:04,430 That was the derivative of this function, the slope at x = 0 260 00:16:04,430 --> 00:16:06,610 of the graph. 261 00:16:06,610 --> 00:16:09,870 Of the tangent line, that is. 262 00:16:09,870 --> 00:16:12,980 So now, what we're going to consider 263 00:16:12,980 --> 00:16:16,880 is any kind of stretching. 264 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:22,750 We're going to stretch this function by a factor k. 265 00:16:22,750 --> 00:16:23,610 Any number k. 266 00:16:23,610 --> 00:16:29,090 So what we're going to consider is f(kx). 267 00:16:29,090 --> 00:16:34,790 If you do that, that's the same as 2^(kx). 268 00:16:34,790 --> 00:16:37,420 Right? 269 00:16:37,420 --> 00:16:41,030 But now if I use the second law of exponents that I have over 270 00:16:41,030 --> 00:16:46,700 there, that's the same thing as 2 to the k to the power x, 271 00:16:46,700 --> 00:16:51,110 which is the same thing as some base b^x, 272 00:16:51,110 --> 00:16:55,420 where b is equal to-- Let's write that down over here. 273 00:16:55,420 --> 00:16:55,940 b is 2^k. 274 00:16:59,081 --> 00:16:59,580 Right. 275 00:16:59,580 --> 00:17:03,630 So whatever it is, if I have a different base which is 276 00:17:03,630 --> 00:17:07,740 expressed in terms of 2, of the form 2^k, 277 00:17:07,740 --> 00:17:14,110 then that new function is described by this function 278 00:17:14,110 --> 00:17:17,700 f(kx), the stretch. 279 00:17:17,700 --> 00:17:20,730 So what happens when you stretch a function? 280 00:17:20,730 --> 00:17:24,720 That's the same thing as shrinking the x axis. 281 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:30,035 So when k gets larger, this corresponding point over here 282 00:17:30,035 --> 00:17:32,160 would be over here, and so this corresponding point 283 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:32,990 would be over here. 284 00:17:32,990 --> 00:17:38,910 So you shrink this picture, and the slope here tilts up. 285 00:17:38,910 --> 00:17:43,140 So, as we increase k, the slope gets steeper and steeper. 286 00:17:43,140 --> 00:17:47,570 Let's see that explicitly, numerically, here. 287 00:17:47,570 --> 00:17:51,870 Explicitly, numerically, if I take the derivative here... 288 00:17:51,870 --> 00:17:56,580 So the derivative with respect to x of b^x, 289 00:17:56,580 --> 00:18:00,944 that's the chain rule, right? 290 00:18:00,944 --> 00:18:02,360 That's the derivative with respect 291 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:08,260 to x of f(kx), which is what? 292 00:18:08,260 --> 00:18:11,780 It's k times f'(kx). 293 00:18:11,780 --> 00:18:20,850 And so if we do it at 0, we're just getting k times 294 00:18:20,850 --> 00:18:26,570 f'(0), which is k times this M(2). 295 00:18:26,570 --> 00:18:31,390 So how is it exactly that we cook up the right base b? 296 00:18:31,390 --> 00:18:40,260 So b = e when k = 1 over this number. 297 00:18:40,260 --> 00:18:44,279 In other words, we can pick all possible slopes that we want. 298 00:18:44,279 --> 00:18:46,320 This just has the effect of multiplying the slope 299 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:47,550 by a factor. 300 00:18:47,550 --> 00:18:50,130 And we can shift the slope at 0 however we want, 301 00:18:50,130 --> 00:18:56,240 and we're going to do it so that the slope exactly matches 302 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:58,150 1, the one that we want. 303 00:18:58,150 --> 00:18:59,580 We still don't know what k is. 304 00:18:59,580 --> 00:19:01,340 We still don't know what e is. 305 00:19:01,340 --> 00:19:04,940 But at least we know that it's there somewhere. 306 00:19:04,940 --> 00:19:05,640 Yes? 307 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:08,299 Student: How do you know it's f(kx)? 308 00:19:08,299 --> 00:19:09,340 PROFESSOR: How do I know? 309 00:19:09,340 --> 00:19:13,440 Well, f(x) is 2^x. 310 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:19,160 If f(x) is 2^x, then the formula for f(kx) is this. 311 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:23,060 I've decided what f(x) is, so therefore there's 312 00:19:23,060 --> 00:19:25,120 a formula for f(kx). 313 00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:26,609 And furthermore, by the chain rule, 314 00:19:26,609 --> 00:19:28,150 there's a formula for the derivative. 315 00:19:28,150 --> 00:19:33,930 And it's k times the derivative of f. 316 00:19:33,930 --> 00:19:35,150 So again, scaling does this. 317 00:19:35,150 --> 00:19:37,890 By the way, we did exactly the same thing 318 00:19:37,890 --> 00:19:39,920 with the sine and cosine function. 319 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:41,650 If you think of the sine function 320 00:19:41,650 --> 00:19:44,660 here, let me just remind you here, 321 00:19:44,660 --> 00:19:46,310 what happens with the chain rule, 322 00:19:46,310 --> 00:19:51,720 you get k times cosine k t here. 323 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:55,340 So the fact that we set things up beautifully with radians 324 00:19:55,340 --> 00:19:58,650 that this thing is, but we could change the scale to anything, 325 00:19:58,650 --> 00:20:02,340 such as degrees, by the appropriate factor k. 326 00:20:02,340 --> 00:20:05,320 And then there would be this scale factor shift 327 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:07,500 of the derivative formulas. 328 00:20:07,500 --> 00:20:09,500 Of course, the one with radians is the easy one, 329 00:20:09,500 --> 00:20:11,130 because the factor is 1. 330 00:20:11,130 --> 00:20:13,850 The one with degrees is horrible, 331 00:20:13,850 --> 00:20:20,085 because the factor is some crazy number like 180 over pi, 332 00:20:20,085 --> 00:20:22,410 or something like that. 333 00:20:22,410 --> 00:20:25,880 Okay, so there's something going on here 334 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,420 which is exactly the same as that kind of re-scaling. 335 00:20:30,420 --> 00:20:37,040 So, so far we've got only one formula which is a keeper here. 336 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:38,810 This one. 337 00:20:38,810 --> 00:20:40,870 We have a preliminary formula that we still 338 00:20:40,870 --> 00:20:42,510 haven't completely explained which 339 00:20:42,510 --> 00:20:45,820 has a little wavy line there. 340 00:20:45,820 --> 00:20:49,260 And we have to fit all these things together. 341 00:20:49,260 --> 00:20:52,260 Okay, so now to fit them together, 342 00:20:52,260 --> 00:21:11,450 I need to introduce the natural log. 343 00:21:11,450 --> 00:21:21,590 So the natural log is denoted this way, ln(x). 344 00:21:21,590 --> 00:21:24,570 So maybe I'll call it a new letter name, 345 00:21:24,570 --> 00:21:28,470 we'll call it w = ln x here. 346 00:21:28,470 --> 00:21:32,040 But if we were reversing things, if we started out with 347 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:37,880 a function y = e^x , the property that it would have is 348 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:41,030 that it's the inverse function of e^x. 349 00:21:41,030 --> 00:21:45,870 So it has the property that the log of y is equal to x. 350 00:21:45,870 --> 00:21:46,370 Right? 351 00:21:46,370 --> 00:21:58,910 So this defines the log. 352 00:21:58,910 --> 00:22:01,790 Now the logarithm has a bunch of properties 353 00:22:01,790 --> 00:22:04,270 and they come from the exponential properties 354 00:22:04,270 --> 00:22:04,940 in principle. 355 00:22:04,940 --> 00:22:07,500 You remember these. 356 00:22:07,500 --> 00:22:10,379 And I'm just going to remind you of them. 357 00:22:10,379 --> 00:22:12,420 So the main one that I just want to remind you of 358 00:22:12,420 --> 00:22:21,100 is that the logarithm of x_1 * x_2 359 00:22:21,100 --> 00:22:28,130 is equal to the logarithm of x_1 plus the logarithm of x_2. 360 00:22:28,130 --> 00:22:32,170 And maybe a few more are worth reminding you of. 361 00:22:32,170 --> 00:22:37,120 One is that the logarithm of 1 is 0. 362 00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:43,310 A second is that the logarithm of e is 1. 363 00:22:43,310 --> 00:22:43,840 All right? 364 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:47,160 So these correspond to the inverse relationships here. 365 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:51,170 If I plug in here, x = 0 and x = 1. 366 00:22:51,170 --> 00:22:56,650 If I plug in x = 0 and x = 1, I get the corresponding numbers 367 00:22:56,650 --> 00:23:04,030 here: y = 1 and y = e. 368 00:23:04,030 --> 00:23:10,430 And maybe it would be worth it to plot the picture once 369 00:23:10,430 --> 00:23:13,430 to reinforce this. 370 00:23:13,430 --> 00:23:16,620 So here I'll put them on the same chart. 371 00:23:16,620 --> 00:23:20,200 If you have here e^x over here. 372 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:21,790 It looks like this. 373 00:23:21,790 --> 00:23:28,610 Then the logarithm which I'll maybe put in a different color. 374 00:23:28,610 --> 00:23:31,120 So this crosses at this all-important point 375 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:32,700 here, (0,1). 376 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:35,260 And now in order to figure out what the inverse function is, 377 00:23:35,260 --> 00:23:40,750 I have to take the flip across the diagonal x = y. 378 00:23:40,750 --> 00:23:44,600 So that's this shape here, going down like this. 379 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:47,090 And here's the point (1, 0). 380 00:23:47,090 --> 00:23:50,700 So (1, 0) corresponds to this identity here. 381 00:23:50,700 --> 00:23:53,000 But the log of 1 is 0. 382 00:23:53,000 --> 00:24:00,120 And notice, so this is ln x, the graph of ln x. 383 00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:05,680 And notice it's only defined for x positive, 384 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:09,570 which corresponds to the fact that e^x is always positive. 385 00:24:09,570 --> 00:24:15,130 So in other words, this white curve is only above this axis, 386 00:24:15,130 --> 00:24:19,210 and the orange one is to the right here. 387 00:24:19,210 --> 00:24:27,990 It's only defined for x positive. 388 00:24:27,990 --> 00:24:31,740 Oh, one other thing I should mention is the slope here is 1. 389 00:24:31,740 --> 00:24:35,380 And so the slope there is also going to be 1. 390 00:24:35,380 --> 00:24:41,180 Now, what we're allowed to do relatively easily, because we 391 00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:44,470 have the tools to do it, is to compute the derivative 392 00:24:44,470 --> 00:24:49,960 of the logarithm. 393 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:59,090 So to find the derivative of a log, 394 00:24:59,090 --> 00:25:04,060 we're going to use implicit differentiation. 395 00:25:04,060 --> 00:25:08,250 This is how we find the derivative 396 00:25:08,250 --> 00:25:09,806 of any inverse function. 397 00:25:09,806 --> 00:25:11,180 So remember the way that works is 398 00:25:11,180 --> 00:25:12,971 if you know the derivative of the function, 399 00:25:12,971 --> 00:25:15,590 you can find the derivative of the inverse function. 400 00:25:15,590 --> 00:25:18,280 And the mechanism is the following: 401 00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:22,677 you write down here w = ln x. 402 00:25:22,677 --> 00:25:23,510 Here's the function. 403 00:25:23,510 --> 00:25:25,510 We're trying to find the derivative of w. 404 00:25:25,510 --> 00:25:28,750 But now we don't know how to differentiate this equation, 405 00:25:28,750 --> 00:25:38,200 but if we exponentiate it, so that's the same thing as e^w = 406 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,660 x. 407 00:25:42,660 --> 00:25:46,420 Because let's just stick this in here. 408 00:25:46,420 --> 00:25:52,330 e^(ln x) = x. 409 00:25:52,330 --> 00:25:54,680 Now we can differentiate this. 410 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:56,800 So let's do the differentiation here. 411 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:04,010 We have d/dx e^w is equal to d/dx x, which is 1. 412 00:26:04,010 --> 00:26:06,030 And then this, by the chain rule, 413 00:26:06,030 --> 00:26:11,450 is d/dw of e^w times dw/dx. 414 00:26:11,450 --> 00:26:14,560 The product of these two factors. 415 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:15,580 That's equal to 1. 416 00:26:15,580 --> 00:26:18,680 And now this guy, the one little guy 417 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:27,980 that we actually know and can use, that's this guy here. 418 00:26:27,980 --> 00:26:33,800 So this is e^w times dw/dx, which is 1. 419 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:44,730 And so finally, dw/dx = 1 / e^w . 420 00:26:44,730 --> 00:26:47,080 But what is that? 421 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:48,250 It's x. 422 00:26:48,250 --> 00:26:50,740 So this is 1/x. 423 00:26:50,740 --> 00:26:53,140 So what we discovered is, and now I 424 00:26:53,140 --> 00:26:57,000 get to put another green guy around here, 425 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:01,870 is that this is equal to 1/x. 426 00:27:01,870 --> 00:27:16,710 So alright, now we have two companion formulas here. 427 00:27:16,710 --> 00:27:20,210 The rate of change of ln x is 1/x. 428 00:27:20,210 --> 00:27:24,830 And the rate of change of e^x is itself, is e^x. 429 00:27:24,830 --> 00:27:30,729 And it's time to return to the problem 430 00:27:30,729 --> 00:27:32,770 that we were having a little bit of trouble with, 431 00:27:32,770 --> 00:27:37,690 which is somewhat not explicit, which is this M(a) times x. 432 00:27:37,690 --> 00:27:44,090 We want to now differentiate a^x in general, not just e^x . 433 00:27:44,090 --> 00:27:47,140 So let's work that out, and I want 434 00:27:47,140 --> 00:27:50,732 to explain it in a couple of ways, 435 00:27:50,732 --> 00:27:52,440 so you're going to have to remember this, 436 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,530 because I'm going to erase it. 437 00:27:55,530 --> 00:28:01,780 But what I'd like you to do is, so now I 438 00:28:01,780 --> 00:28:03,570 want to teach you how to differentiate 439 00:28:03,570 --> 00:28:17,530 basically any exponential. 440 00:28:17,530 --> 00:28:31,580 So now to differentiate any exponential. 441 00:28:31,580 --> 00:28:37,941 There are two methods. 442 00:28:37,941 --> 00:28:39,440 They're practically the same method. 443 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:41,480 They have the same amount of arithmetic. 444 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:45,610 You'll see both of them, and they're equally valuable. 445 00:28:45,610 --> 00:28:48,150 So we're going to just describe them. 446 00:28:48,150 --> 00:28:55,940 Method one I'm going to illustrate on the function a^x. 447 00:28:55,940 --> 00:29:00,020 So we're interested in differentiating 448 00:29:00,020 --> 00:29:04,280 this thing, exactly this problem that I still didn't solve yet. 449 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:05,080 Okay? 450 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:06,950 So here it is. 451 00:29:06,950 --> 00:29:08,080 And here's the procedure. 452 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:17,190 The procedure is to write, so the method is to use base e, 453 00:29:17,190 --> 00:29:20,350 or convert to base e. 454 00:29:20,350 --> 00:29:22,430 So how do you convert to base e? 455 00:29:22,430 --> 00:29:27,660 Well, you write a^x as e to some power. 456 00:29:27,660 --> 00:29:29,020 So what power is it? 457 00:29:29,020 --> 00:29:34,980 It's e to the power ln a, to the power x. 458 00:29:34,980 --> 00:29:40,730 And that is just e^(x ln a). 459 00:29:40,730 --> 00:29:44,870 So we've made our conversion now to base e. 460 00:29:44,870 --> 00:29:46,810 The exponential of something. 461 00:29:46,810 --> 00:29:50,410 So now I'm going to carry out the differentiation. 462 00:29:50,410 --> 00:29:59,270 So d/dx of a^x is equal to d/dx of e^(x ln a). 463 00:29:59,270 --> 00:30:05,970 And now, this is a step which causes great confusion when 464 00:30:05,970 --> 00:30:06,870 you first see it. 465 00:30:06,870 --> 00:30:10,920 And you must get used to it, because it's easy, not hard. 466 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,450 Okay? 467 00:30:13,450 --> 00:30:18,660 The rate of change of this with respect to x is, 468 00:30:18,660 --> 00:30:23,040 let me do it by analogy here. 469 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:27,520 Because say I had e^(3x) and I were differentiating it. 470 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,600 The chain rule would say that this is just 3, 471 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:36,330 the rate of change of 3x with respect to x times e^(3x). 472 00:30:36,330 --> 00:30:41,060 The rate of change of e to the u with respect to u. 473 00:30:41,060 --> 00:30:43,500 So this is the ordinary chain rule. 474 00:30:43,500 --> 00:30:47,610 And what we're doing up here is exactly the same thing, 475 00:30:47,610 --> 00:30:50,270 because ln a, as frightening as it 476 00:30:50,270 --> 00:30:54,690 looks, with all three letters there, is just a fixed number. 477 00:30:54,690 --> 00:30:55,860 It's not moving. 478 00:30:55,860 --> 00:30:57,170 It's a constant. 479 00:30:57,170 --> 00:31:01,080 So the constant just accelerates the rate of change 480 00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,980 by that factor, which is what the chain rule is doing. 481 00:31:04,980 --> 00:31:11,830 So this is equal to ln a times e^(x ln a). 482 00:31:11,830 --> 00:31:17,390 Same business here with ln a replacing 3. 483 00:31:17,390 --> 00:31:19,790 So this is something you've got to get used to in time 484 00:31:19,790 --> 00:31:21,789 for the exam, for instance, because you're going 485 00:31:21,789 --> 00:31:25,360 to be doing a million of these. 486 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:27,810 So do get used to it. 487 00:31:27,810 --> 00:31:29,230 So here's the formula. 488 00:31:29,230 --> 00:31:33,770 On the other hand, this expression here was the same 489 00:31:33,770 --> 00:31:34,730 as a^x. 490 00:31:34,730 --> 00:31:39,200 So another way of writing this, and I'll put this into a box, 491 00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:41,790 but actually I never remember this particularly. 492 00:31:41,790 --> 00:31:48,650 I just re-derive it every time, is that the derivative of a^x 493 00:31:48,650 --> 00:31:51,100 is equal to (ln a) a^x . 494 00:31:51,100 --> 00:31:56,930 Now I'm going to get rid of what's underneath it. 495 00:31:56,930 --> 00:32:01,970 So this is another formula. 496 00:32:01,970 --> 00:32:05,500 So there's the formula I've essentially finished here. 497 00:32:05,500 --> 00:32:11,190 And notice, what is the magic number? 498 00:32:11,190 --> 00:32:16,089 The magic number is the natural log of a. 499 00:32:16,089 --> 00:32:16,880 That's what it was. 500 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:18,679 We didn't know what it was in advance. 501 00:32:18,679 --> 00:32:19,470 This is what it is. 502 00:32:19,470 --> 00:32:21,450 It's the natural log of a. 503 00:32:21,450 --> 00:32:26,740 Let me emphasize to you again, something about what's 504 00:32:26,740 --> 00:32:34,510 going on here, which has to do with scale change. 505 00:32:34,510 --> 00:32:44,290 So, for example, the derivative with respect to x of 2^x is (ln 506 00:32:44,290 --> 00:32:47,290 2) 2^x. 507 00:32:47,290 --> 00:32:49,080 The derivative with respect to x, 508 00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,730 these are the two most obvious bases that you might want 509 00:32:51,730 --> 00:32:56,760 to use, is ln 10 times 10^x . 510 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,470 So one of the things that's natural about the natural 511 00:32:59,470 --> 00:33:02,860 logarithm is that even if we insisted 512 00:33:02,860 --> 00:33:07,410 that we must use base 2, or that we must use base 10, 513 00:33:07,410 --> 00:33:11,360 we'd still be stuck with natural logarithms. 514 00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:12,540 They come up naturally. 515 00:33:12,540 --> 00:33:14,780 They're the ones which are independent 516 00:33:14,780 --> 00:33:20,079 of our human construct of base 2 and base 10. 517 00:33:20,079 --> 00:33:21,620 The natural logarithm is the one that 518 00:33:21,620 --> 00:33:25,360 comes up without reference. 519 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:27,210 And we'll be mentioning a few other ways 520 00:33:27,210 --> 00:33:31,110 in which it's natural later. 521 00:33:31,110 --> 00:33:34,750 So I told you about this first method, 522 00:33:34,750 --> 00:33:41,730 now I want to tell you about a second method here. 523 00:33:41,730 --> 00:34:05,700 So the second is called logarithmic differentiation. 524 00:34:05,700 --> 00:34:07,770 So how does this work? 525 00:34:07,770 --> 00:34:10,930 Well, sometimes you're having trouble 526 00:34:10,930 --> 00:34:17,640 differentiating a function, and it's easier 527 00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:21,780 to differentiate its logarithm. 528 00:34:21,780 --> 00:34:23,830 That may seem peculiar, but actually we'll 529 00:34:23,830 --> 00:34:26,640 give several examples where this is clearly the case, 530 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:28,560 that the logarithm is easier to differentiate 531 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:30,830 than the function. 532 00:34:30,830 --> 00:34:34,090 So it could be that this is an easier quantity to understand. 533 00:34:34,090 --> 00:34:39,470 So we want to relate it back to the function u. 534 00:34:39,470 --> 00:34:44,170 So I'm going to write it a slightly different way. 535 00:34:44,170 --> 00:34:47,270 Let's write it in terms of primes here. 536 00:34:47,270 --> 00:34:51,060 So the basic identity is the chain rule again, 537 00:34:51,060 --> 00:34:52,730 and the derivative of the logarithm, 538 00:34:52,730 --> 00:34:54,920 well maybe I'll write it out this way first. 539 00:34:54,920 --> 00:35:01,720 So this would be d ln u / du, times d/dx u. 540 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:10,110 These are the two factors. 541 00:35:10,110 --> 00:35:12,040 And that's the same thing, so remember 542 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,140 what the derivative of the logarithm is. 543 00:35:14,140 --> 00:35:17,820 This is 1/u. 544 00:35:17,820 --> 00:35:23,570 So here I have a 1/u, and here I have a du/dx. 545 00:35:23,570 --> 00:35:28,850 So I'm going to encode this on the next board here, 546 00:35:28,850 --> 00:35:31,290 which is sort of the main formula you always need 547 00:35:31,290 --> 00:35:39,530 to remember, which is that (ln u)' = u' / u. 548 00:35:39,530 --> 00:35:42,610 That's the one to remember here. 549 00:35:42,610 --> 00:35:47,320 STUDENT: [INAUDIBLE]. 550 00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:51,870 PROFESSOR: The question is how did I get this step here? 551 00:35:51,870 --> 00:35:58,500 So this is the chain rule. 552 00:35:58,500 --> 00:36:02,150 The rate of change of ln u with respect to x 553 00:36:02,150 --> 00:36:04,610 is the rate of change of ln u with respect u, 554 00:36:04,610 --> 00:36:07,730 times the rate of change of u with respect to x. 555 00:36:07,730 --> 00:36:18,560 That's the chain rule. 556 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:22,840 So now I've worked out this identity here, 557 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:30,730 and now let's show how it handles this case, d/dx a^x. 558 00:36:30,730 --> 00:36:31,740 Let's do this one. 559 00:36:31,740 --> 00:36:39,570 So in order to get that one, I would take u = a^x . 560 00:36:39,570 --> 00:36:51,460 And now let's just take a look at what ln u is. ln u = x ln a. 561 00:36:51,460 --> 00:36:55,010 Now I claim that this is pretty easy to differentiate. 562 00:36:55,010 --> 00:37:00,200 Again, it may seem hard, but it's actually quite easy. 563 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:04,590 So maybe somebody can hazard a guess. 564 00:37:04,590 --> 00:37:11,530 What's the derivative of x ln a? 565 00:37:11,530 --> 00:37:14,870 It's just ln a. 566 00:37:14,870 --> 00:37:18,400 So this is the same thing that I was talking about before, which 567 00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,420 is if you've got 3x, and you're taking 568 00:37:21,420 --> 00:37:24,804 its derivative with respect to x here, that's just 3. 569 00:37:24,804 --> 00:37:26,220 That's the kind of thing you have. 570 00:37:26,220 --> 00:37:30,110 Again, don't be put off by this massive piece of junk here. 571 00:37:30,110 --> 00:37:33,260 It's a constant. 572 00:37:33,260 --> 00:37:38,220 So again, keep that in mind. 573 00:37:38,220 --> 00:37:42,460 It comes up regularly in this kind of question. 574 00:37:42,460 --> 00:37:46,980 So there's our formula, that the logarithmic derivative is this. 575 00:37:46,980 --> 00:37:50,360 But let's just rewrite that. 576 00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:58,600 That's the same thing as u' / u, which is (ln u)' = ln a, right? 577 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:00,610 So this is our differentiation formula. 578 00:38:00,610 --> 00:38:01,800 So here we have u'. 579 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:07,460 u' is equal to u times ln a, if I just multiply through by u. 580 00:38:07,460 --> 00:38:08,630 And that's what we wanted. 581 00:38:08,630 --> 00:38:16,660 That's d/dx a^x is equal to ln a (I'll reverse the order 582 00:38:16,660 --> 00:38:24,640 of the two, which is customary) times a^x. 583 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,390 So this is the way that logarithmic differentiation 584 00:38:27,390 --> 00:38:27,890 works. 585 00:38:27,890 --> 00:38:32,680 It's the same arithmetic as the previous method, 586 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:34,930 but we don't have to convert to base e. 587 00:38:34,930 --> 00:38:37,829 We're just keeping track of the exponents 588 00:38:37,829 --> 00:38:39,620 and doing differentiation on the exponents, 589 00:38:39,620 --> 00:38:44,330 and multiplying through at the end. 590 00:38:44,330 --> 00:38:49,660 Okay, so I'm going to do two trickier examples, which 591 00:38:49,660 --> 00:39:02,400 illustrate logarithmic differentiation. 592 00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:06,490 Again, these could be done equally well by using base e, 593 00:39:06,490 --> 00:39:07,730 but I won't do it. 594 00:39:07,730 --> 00:39:12,120 Method one and method two always both work. 595 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:15,780 So here's a second example: again this 596 00:39:15,780 --> 00:39:23,220 is a problem when you have moving exponents. 597 00:39:23,220 --> 00:39:25,900 But this time, we're going to complicate matters 598 00:39:25,900 --> 00:39:30,520 by having both a moving exponent and a moving base. 599 00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:34,710 So we have a function u, which is, well maybe I'll call it v, 600 00:39:34,710 --> 00:39:38,640 since we already had a function u, which is x^x. 601 00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:41,670 A really complicated looking function here. 602 00:39:41,670 --> 00:39:44,490 So again you can handle this by converting 603 00:39:44,490 --> 00:39:47,220 to base e, method one. 604 00:39:47,220 --> 00:39:49,750 But we'll do the logarithmic differentiation version, 605 00:39:49,750 --> 00:39:51,110 alright? 606 00:39:51,110 --> 00:39:59,310 So I take the logs of both sides. 607 00:39:59,310 --> 00:40:04,370 And now I differentiate it. 608 00:40:04,370 --> 00:40:06,200 And now when I differentiate this here, 609 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:07,654 I have to use the product rule. 610 00:40:07,654 --> 00:40:09,570 This time, instead of having ln a, a constant, 611 00:40:09,570 --> 00:40:10,980 I have a variable here. 612 00:40:10,980 --> 00:40:12,660 So I have two factors. 613 00:40:12,660 --> 00:40:15,416 I have ln x when I differentiate with respect to x. 614 00:40:15,416 --> 00:40:19,410 When I differentiate with respect to this factor here, 615 00:40:19,410 --> 00:40:21,800 I get that x times the derivative of that, 616 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:26,910 which is 1/x. 617 00:40:26,910 --> 00:40:29,160 So, here's my formula. 618 00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:30,430 Almost finished. 619 00:40:30,430 --> 00:40:34,701 So I have here v' / v. I'm going to multiply these two things 620 00:40:34,701 --> 00:40:35,200 together. 621 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,741 I'll put it on the other side, because I don't want to get it 622 00:40:37,741 --> 00:40:45,340 mixed up with ln(x+1), the quantity. 623 00:40:45,340 --> 00:40:47,100 And now I'm almost done. 624 00:40:47,100 --> 00:41:02,110 I have v' = v (1 + ln x), and that's just d/dx x^x = x^x (1 + 625 00:41:02,110 --> 00:41:04,310 ln x). 626 00:41:04,310 --> 00:41:13,450 That's it. 627 00:41:13,450 --> 00:41:31,989 So these two methods always work for moving exponents. 628 00:41:31,989 --> 00:41:33,530 So the next thing that I'd like to do 629 00:41:33,530 --> 00:41:36,220 is another fairly tricky example. 630 00:41:36,220 --> 00:41:45,880 And this one is not strictly speaking within calculus. 631 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:48,800 Although we're going to use the tools that we just described 632 00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:52,820 to carry it out, in fact it will use some calculus 633 00:41:52,820 --> 00:41:55,990 in the very end. 634 00:41:55,990 --> 00:41:59,530 And what I'm going to do is I'm going to evaluate the limit 635 00:41:59,530 --> 00:42:02,020 as n goes to infinity of (1 + 1/n)^n. 636 00:42:11,430 --> 00:42:16,170 So now, the reason why I want to discuss this is, is it 637 00:42:16,170 --> 00:42:18,460 turns out to have a very interesting answer. 638 00:42:18,460 --> 00:42:23,520 And it's a problem that you can approach exactly 639 00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:24,490 by this method. 640 00:42:24,490 --> 00:42:28,580 And the reason is that it has a moving exponent. 641 00:42:28,580 --> 00:42:30,840 The exponent n here is changing. 642 00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,570 And so if you want to keep track of that, a good way to do that 643 00:42:33,570 --> 00:42:36,740 is to use logarithms. 644 00:42:36,740 --> 00:42:38,550 So in order to figure out this limit, 645 00:42:38,550 --> 00:42:40,040 we're going to take the log of it 646 00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:41,775 and figure out what the limit of the log 647 00:42:41,775 --> 00:42:43,280 is, instead of the log of the limit. 648 00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:44,990 Those will be the same thing. 649 00:42:44,990 --> 00:42:48,850 So we're going to take the natural log of this quantity 650 00:42:48,850 --> 00:42:56,200 here, and that's n ln(1 + 1/n). 651 00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:06,370 And now I'm going to rewrite this 652 00:43:06,370 --> 00:43:10,960 in a form which will make it more recognizable, 653 00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:20,040 so what I'd like to do is I'm going to write n, 654 00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:24,730 or maybe I should say it this way: delta x is equal to 1/n. 655 00:43:24,730 --> 00:43:29,880 So if n is going to infinity, then this delta x 656 00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:33,700 is going to be going to 0. 657 00:43:33,700 --> 00:43:37,500 So this is more familiar territory for us in this class, 658 00:43:37,500 --> 00:43:38,560 anyway. 659 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:40,370 So let's rewrite it. 660 00:43:40,370 --> 00:43:42,980 So here, we have 1 over delta x. 661 00:43:42,980 --> 00:43:46,680 And then that is multiplied by ln(1 + delta x). 662 00:43:50,150 --> 00:43:54,860 So n is the reciprocal of delta x. 663 00:43:54,860 --> 00:43:58,330 Now I want to change this in a very, very minor way. 664 00:43:58,330 --> 00:44:01,150 I'm going to subtract 0 from it. 665 00:44:01,150 --> 00:44:02,470 So that's the same thing. 666 00:44:02,470 --> 00:44:06,420 So what I'm going to do is I'm going to subtract ln 1 from it. 667 00:44:06,420 --> 00:44:08,260 That's just equal to 0. 668 00:44:08,260 --> 00:44:10,210 So this is not a problem, and I'll 669 00:44:10,210 --> 00:44:14,800 put some parentheses around it. 670 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,080 Now you're supposed to recognize, all of a sudden, 671 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:21,280 what pattern this fits into. 672 00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:25,570 This is the thing which we need to calculate in order 673 00:44:25,570 --> 00:44:30,810 to calculate the derivative of the log function. 674 00:44:30,810 --> 00:44:33,540 So this is, in the limit as delta 675 00:44:33,540 --> 00:44:39,300 x goes to 0, equal to the derivative of ln x. 676 00:44:39,300 --> 00:44:39,890 Where? 677 00:44:39,890 --> 00:44:43,940 Well the base point is x=1. 678 00:44:43,940 --> 00:44:45,710 That's where we're evaluating it. 679 00:44:45,710 --> 00:44:46,730 That's the x_0. 680 00:44:46,730 --> 00:44:49,380 That's the base value. 681 00:44:49,380 --> 00:44:51,000 So this is the difference quotient. 682 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:52,430 That's exactly what it is. 683 00:44:52,430 --> 00:44:57,630 And so this by definition tends to the limit here. 684 00:44:57,630 --> 00:45:01,470 But we know what the derivative of the log function is. 685 00:45:01,470 --> 00:45:03,520 The derivative of the log function is 1/x. 686 00:45:09,110 --> 00:45:17,470 So this limit is 1. 687 00:45:17,470 --> 00:45:18,500 So we got it. 688 00:45:18,500 --> 00:45:19,730 We got the limit. 689 00:45:19,730 --> 00:45:22,050 And now we just have to work backwards 690 00:45:22,050 --> 00:45:34,010 to figure out what this limit that we've got over here is. 691 00:45:34,010 --> 00:45:37,130 So let's do that. 692 00:45:37,130 --> 00:45:38,260 So let's see here. 693 00:45:38,260 --> 00:45:40,570 The log approached 1. 694 00:45:40,570 --> 00:45:45,960 So the limit as n goes to infinity of (1 + 1/n)^n. 695 00:45:49,530 --> 00:45:51,880 So sorry, the log of this. 696 00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:54,320 Yeah, let's write it this way. 697 00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,530 It's the same thing, as well, the thing that we know 698 00:45:57,530 --> 00:46:00,610 is the log of this. 699 00:46:00,610 --> 00:46:04,700 1 plus 1 over n to the n. 700 00:46:04,700 --> 00:46:06,390 And goes to infinity. 701 00:46:06,390 --> 00:46:08,190 That's the one that we just figured out. 702 00:46:08,190 --> 00:46:11,380 But now this thing is the exponential of that. 703 00:46:11,380 --> 00:46:16,550 So it's really e to this power here. 704 00:46:16,550 --> 00:46:19,060 So this guy is the same as the limit 705 00:46:19,060 --> 00:46:21,799 of the log of the limit of the thing, which is the same as log 706 00:46:21,799 --> 00:46:22,340 of the limit. 707 00:46:22,340 --> 00:46:25,268 The limit of the log and the log of the limit are the same. 708 00:46:25,268 --> 00:46:32,260 log lim equals lim log. 709 00:46:32,260 --> 00:46:33,754 Okay, so I take the logarithm, then 710 00:46:33,754 --> 00:46:35,170 I'm going to take the exponential. 711 00:46:35,170 --> 00:46:37,800 That just undoes what I did before. 712 00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:41,910 And so this limit is just 1, so this is e^1. 713 00:46:41,910 --> 00:46:52,000 And so the limit that we want here is equal to e. 714 00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:56,790 So I claim that with this step, we've actually closed 715 00:46:56,790 --> 00:46:58,270 the loop, finally. 716 00:46:58,270 --> 00:47:03,620 Because we have an honest numerical way to calculate e. 717 00:47:03,620 --> 00:47:04,140 The first. 718 00:47:04,140 --> 00:47:05,400 There are many such. 719 00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:07,640 But this one is a perfectly honest numerical way 720 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:08,680 to calculate e. 721 00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:09,950 We had this thing. 722 00:47:09,950 --> 00:47:12,170 We didn't know exactly what it was. 723 00:47:12,170 --> 00:47:14,872 It was this M(e), there was M(a), the logarithm, and so on. 724 00:47:14,872 --> 00:47:15,830 We have all that stuff. 725 00:47:15,830 --> 00:47:18,920 But we really need to nail down what this number e is. 726 00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:20,920 And this is telling us, if you take 727 00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:25,620 for example 1 plus 1 over 100 to the 100th power, that's 728 00:47:25,620 --> 00:47:28,910 going to be a very good, perfectly decent anyway, 729 00:47:28,910 --> 00:47:30,730 approximation to e. 730 00:47:30,730 --> 00:47:36,330 So this is a numerical approximation, 731 00:47:36,330 --> 00:47:39,320 which is all we can ever do with just 732 00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:42,700 this kind of irrational number. 733 00:47:42,700 --> 00:47:46,270 And so that closes the loop, and we now 734 00:47:46,270 --> 00:47:49,452 have a coherent family of functions, 735 00:47:49,452 --> 00:47:51,660 which are actually well defined and for which we have 736 00:47:51,660 --> 00:47:54,550 practical methods to calculate. 737 00:47:54,550 --> 00:47:56,312 Okay, see you next time.