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mistergoneo7
Answered question
2022-07-03
Proof ? Define
Assume I have proven that is one-to-one and therefore has an inverse Define as:
Now, if you have no other notion of exponentials, or logarithms, how could define what means and show that its the inverse of ? You are allowed to assume the logarithmic product and quotient property. Thanks for the help.
Answer & Explanation
Hayley Mccarthy
Beginner2022-07-04Added 19 answers
Writing for and for its inverse, you can show easily that is infinitely differentiable and that . This gives you the Taylor series . After that, everything follows from the classical analysis of that is performed in every elementary real variables text (see Rudin's Real & Complex Analysis, for example). As I recall, the introductory "Chapter 0" of that text is a marvel of succinct mathematics that fully constructs the exponential function from scratch. It's really a pleasure to read and I'm always awed at his insight every time I read it.
logiski9s
Beginner2022-07-05Added 1 answers
Full disclosure: this is essentially a rewrite of MPW's answer. Defining as makes sense, in a way it's the most fundamental/general definition because it can be applied to any system for which addition, multiplication and scaling are defined. Reals, complex numbers, quaternions, matrices, etc. Now, from calculus we have this result:
By fundamental theorem of calculus we obtain as , hence:
It follows (formally by induction) that the th derivative of is and hence the th derivative at is Thus we get the Taylor series: