Differentiating logarithm and exponential functions

This unit gives details of how logarithmic functions and exponential functions are dierentiated from rst principles. In order to master the techniques explained here it is vital that you undertake plenty of practice exercises so that they become second nature. After reading this text, and/or viewing the video tutorial on this topic, you should be able to: dierentiate ln x from rst principles dierentiate ex

Contents
1. Introduction 2. Dierentiation of a function f (x) 3. Dierentiation of f (x) = ln x 4. Dierentiation of f (x) = ex 2 2 3 4

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1. Introduction
In this unit we explain how to dierentiate the functions ln x and ex from rst principles. To understand what follows we need to use the result that the exponential constant e is dened as the limit as t tends to zero of (1 + t)1/t i.e. lim (1 + t)1/t .
t0

To get a feel for why this is so, we have evaluated the expression (1 + t)1/t for a number of decreasing values of t as shown in Table 1. Note that as t gets closer to zero, the value of the expression gets closer to the value of the exponential constant e 2.718.... You should verify some of the values in the Table, and explore what happens as t reduces further. t 1 0.1 0.01 0.001 0.0001 (1 + t)1/t (1 + 1)1/1 (1 + 0.1)1/0.1 (1 + 0.01)1/0.01 (1.001)1/0.001 (1.0001)1/0.0001

= = = = =

2 2.594 2.705 2.717 2.718

We will also make frequent use of the laws of indices and the laws of logarithms, which should be revised if necessary.

2. Differentiation of a function f (x)

y , of the x line joining an arbitrary point, A, and a neighbouring point, B , on the graph of f (x). We then y determine what happens to in the limit as x tends to zero. (See Figure 1). x Recall that to dierentiate any function, f (x), from rst principles we nd the slope,

y
f (x + x)

f ( x)

y f ( x)

A
x

x x + x

Figure 1. The derivative, f (x), is then given by f (x) = lim

y is the slope of AB . x

y f (x + x) f (x) = lim x0 x x0 x

Use of this result has been explained at some length in the rst unit on dierentiation from rst principles.

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3. Differentiation of f (x) = ln x
Using the denition of the derivative in the case when f (x) = ln x we nd ln(x + x) ln x f (x + x) f (x) = x x A We proceed by using the law of logarithms log A log B = log to re-write the right-hand side B as rstly 1 1 1 x + x x = (ln(x + x) ln x) = ln ln 1 + x x x x x x , that is, x = xt. (This In order to simplify what will follow we make a substitution: let t = x substitution is made because in the calculations which follow it is the ratio of x to x which turns out to be important. We need not worry about x being zero because we are interested in dierentiating ln x and the logarithm function is only dened for positive values of x.) 1 f (x + x) f (x) = ln(1 + t) x xt 1 Further, using the law n log A = log An we can take the inside the logarithm to give t
1 f (x + x) f (x) 1 = ln(1 + t) t x x

Then

Referring to the general case in Figure 1, this represents the slope of the line joining the two points on the graph of f (x). To nd the derivative we need to let x tend to zero. Because we x substituted t = we need to let t tend to zero. x We have 1 1 f (x) = lim ln (1 + t) t t0 x In this limiting process it is t which tends to zero, and we can regard x as a xed number. So, it can be taken outside the limit to give: f (x) = But we know that
t0
1 1 lim ln (1 + t) t x t0

lim (1 + t) t = e and so f (x) = since ln e = 1. We have shown, from rst principles, that the derivative of ln x is equal to 1 . x 1 1 ln e = x x

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Key Point
if f (x) = ln x then f (x) = 1 x

Exercise 1. Show from rst principles, using exactly the same technique, that if f (x) = log10 x then 1 f (x) = . x ln 10 1 . 2. Show from rst principles that if f (x) = loga x then f (x) = x ln a

4. Differentiation of f (x) = ex
To dierentiate y = ex we will rewrite this expression in its alternative form using logarithms: ln y = x Then dierentiating both sides with respect to x, d (ln y ) = 1 dx dy . dx d dy d (ln y ) = (ln y ) . (This result is obtained using a technique known as the Recall that dx dy dx chain rule. You should refer to the unit on the chain rule if necessary). d 1 Now we know, from Section 3, that (ln y ) = and so dy y The idea is now to nd 1 dy =1 y dx Rearranging, dy =y dx But y = ex and so we have the important and well-known result that dy = ex dx

Key Point
if f (x) = ex then f (x) = ex

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The exponential function (and multiples of it) is the only function which is equal to its derivative. Exercise 1. Show from rst principles, using exactly the same technique, that if f (x) = ax then f (x) = ax ln a.

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