Neutronics 551 Extra Credit

Homework I

Brian Hallee
October 2, 2011

Deciphering the Mystery of Eulers # in the Integral of 1/x

In elementary calculus classes, the fact that integrating the natural logarithm function presents a function with the inverse of its contents (Eqn. 1) is treated as an axiom. However, the widespread application of the natural logarithm, and more importantly Eulers constant e in physics and engineering gives rise to the need for some discussion on how this property truly comes about. ( ) (Eqn. 1)

We will start with some basic properties of calculus that will lead into graphically proving the equation above. Firstly, it is far more convenient to utilize the notion of a derivative in the arguments that follow. Thus, we will start with the following law of calculus: ( ) ( ) (Eqn. 2)

Also, we wish to make use of the limit definition of the derivative, usually developed in an introductory calculus course: ( )
( ) ( )

(Eqn. 3)

In order to use Eqn. 3 for our benefit, we will transform Eqn. 1 so that we may prove the following: ( ( )) (Eqn. 4)

Using the limit definition of Eqn. 3, we re-write the derivative of Eqn. 4 as follows: ( )
( ) ( )

We can use some sleight of hand to pull out a 1/x in the above function. The reasoning for such actions will be demonstrated shortly. ( ) * ( ) ( )+

Neutronics 551 Extra Credit

Homework I

Taking a close look, this is the same function as before. Now, we can use the properties of logarithms to clean up the limit a bit as shown below: ( ) * ( )+ * ( )+

To make life a little simpler, we can use the following substation considering the fact that x does not have an effect on our limit:

Thus, ( ) * ( )+

We can use one last property of the natural logarithm to make our equation as compact as possible: ( ) [ (( ) )]

Now, all of the variables constrained by the limit are located within the natural logarithm. The benefit in doing this is that we now have the option to solely work with the limit of the function inside (). While it may be possible to work out the limit analytically, we can save ourselves a headache by allowing computational software to compute the limit for us graphically.

What do you know? Using Wolframs Mathematica software the graph depicts the function ( ) reaching roughly 2.75 as goes to zero. (The imaginary part is of no importance to this argument.) Specifically, the exact value as hits zero is 2.71828 This is precisely Eulers number! Therefore, as the limit goes to zero, the function becomes ( ). However, it is known that the natural logarithm, ( )simply resolves to 1. Finally, we have proved (denoted ln(x), as opposed to log(x) ), is base e. Thus, the following:

Neutronics 551 Extra Credit

Homework I ( ) [ ( )] ( )

As such, we can separate the variables in this separable differential equation and prove Eqn. 1 as follows: ( ) ( ) ( )

Thereby, we have shown why Eulers constant winds up in the solution of an integral involving seemingly nothing to do with logarithms or e. The very definition of a logarithm is that it returns the power needed to raise its base to the values inside the parentheses. Thus when solving the differential equations in class, we utilize Eqn. 1 to bring about a logarithm of base e, and invert the logarithm in order to present the e value that so mysteriously cropped up.