1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:01,940 ANNOUNCER: The following content is provided under a 2 00:00:01,940 --> 00:00:03,690 Creative Commons license. 3 00:00:03,690 --> 00:00:06,630 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue to 4 00:00:06,630 --> 00:00:09,990 offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:09,990 --> 00:00:12,830 To make a donation, or to view additional materials from 6 00:00:12,830 --> 00:00:16,760 hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare at 7 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:18,010 ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:32,196 --> 00:00:33,680 PROFESSOR: Hi. 9 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:38,210 Our lesson today is called the 'Inverse Logarithm'. 10 00:00:38,210 --> 00:00:41,970 And what it will do, among other things, is give us a 11 00:00:41,970 --> 00:00:46,450 very nice chance to revisit inverse functions in general, 12 00:00:46,450 --> 00:00:50,050 only now applied specifically to the natural logarithm 13 00:00:50,050 --> 00:00:53,230 function that we talked about last time. 14 00:00:53,230 --> 00:00:55,950 So I call today's lesson, as I say, 'Inverse Logarithms'. 15 00:00:55,950 --> 00:00:59,030 And to see what's coming up here, simply recall that last 16 00:00:59,030 --> 00:01:02,980 time, we invented, so to speak, a new function called 17 00:01:02,980 --> 00:01:04,620 the 'natural log of x'. 18 00:01:04,620 --> 00:01:06,070 This had nothing to do with exponents. 19 00:01:06,070 --> 00:01:06,810 It was what? 20 00:01:06,810 --> 00:01:11,290 This was the function whose derivative with respect to 'x' 21 00:01:11,290 --> 00:01:15,460 was '1/x' and passed through the point (1 , 0). 22 00:01:15,460 --> 00:01:18,320 That uniquely defined this particular function. 23 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:19,920 The point being what? 24 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:22,650 That this particular function, since the domain is for 25 00:01:22,650 --> 00:01:25,640 positive 'x', '1/x' is positive. 26 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:28,880 The curve is always rising, which means that the function 27 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:31,020 itself must be one to one. 28 00:01:31,020 --> 00:01:34,030 And because the function is one to one, it means that the 29 00:01:34,030 --> 00:01:35,640 inverse function exists. 30 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,970 This is no different from any other example of forming f 31 00:01:38,970 --> 00:01:42,650 inverse, given a one to one function called 'f'. 32 00:01:42,650 --> 00:01:44,590 So what we do is now, and remember how 33 00:01:44,590 --> 00:01:46,000 you invert this function. 34 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,160 If you want to do this thing in slow motion, you first 35 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:53,400 rotate this through 90 degrees, then flip it over. 36 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:59,410 If you want to do it faster, the inverse graph of this is 37 00:01:59,410 --> 00:02:03,940 the reflection of this curve with respect to the line 'y' 38 00:02:03,940 --> 00:02:04,880 equals 'x'. 39 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:09,000 In any event, if we do this, we find that the graph of the 40 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,590 function 'y' equals 'inverse log x' is 41 00:02:12,590 --> 00:02:14,530 this particular curve. 42 00:02:14,530 --> 00:02:16,740 And notice the correspondence. 43 00:02:16,740 --> 00:02:20,560 If this is the point (1 , 0) on the log curve, the inverse 44 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:22,890 point is (0 , 1). 45 00:02:22,890 --> 00:02:27,880 In other words, the inverse log of 0 is 1. 46 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:28,840 OK. 47 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:30,470 Now, the idea is something like this. 48 00:02:30,470 --> 00:02:33,880 Just to have a review, again, of how-- 49 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:35,930 see, the punchline I want to make for today's lesson, right 50 00:02:35,930 --> 00:02:39,490 at the beginning, is that the nice thing about studying 51 00:02:39,490 --> 00:02:43,510 inverse functions is that once you know the function of which 52 00:02:43,510 --> 00:02:46,670 you're taking the inverse, you automatically get all the 53 00:02:46,670 --> 00:02:49,350 mileage you want out of the inverse function. 54 00:02:49,350 --> 00:02:53,720 Well, by way of illustration, if the function natural log 55 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,835 had the usual logarithmic property, we would suspect 56 00:02:57,835 --> 00:02:59,960 that its inverse should have the 57 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:02,590 usual exponential property. 58 00:03:02,590 --> 00:03:05,980 Now what is the usual exponential property? 59 00:03:05,980 --> 00:03:09,650 The exponential function is characterized by what? 60 00:03:09,650 --> 00:03:14,840 That if you take 'f of 'x1 plus x2'', that's 'f of x1' 61 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:16,470 times 'f of x2'. 62 00:03:16,470 --> 00:03:17,710 So you think of it in terms of the 63 00:03:17,710 --> 00:03:19,880 usual exponential notation. 64 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:24,790 If you have, say, 10 raised to the 'x1 plus x2' power, that's 65 00:03:24,790 --> 00:03:27,810 the same as 10 to the 'x1' power times 66 00:03:27,810 --> 00:03:29,450 10 to the 'x2' power. 67 00:03:29,450 --> 00:03:33,070 In other words, if our ln function is genuinely a 68 00:03:33,070 --> 00:03:36,090 logarithmic function, we would expect the inverse of that 69 00:03:36,090 --> 00:03:39,280 function to be a genuine exponential function. 70 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,560 And just to work with inverses again, let's see if this is 71 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:44,110 indeed true. 72 00:03:44,110 --> 00:03:47,310 Let's see if it's really true that the 'inverse log of 'x1 73 00:03:47,310 --> 00:03:50,530 plus x2'' is the 'inverse log of x1' times the 74 00:03:50,530 --> 00:03:51,890 'inverse log of x2'. 75 00:03:51,890 --> 00:03:53,910 You see, the whole idea is what? 76 00:03:53,910 --> 00:03:55,600 Let's give these things names. 77 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:59,770 Let 'y1' be the 'inverse log of x1' and 'y2' be the 78 00:03:59,770 --> 00:04:01,930 'inverse log of x2'. 79 00:04:01,930 --> 00:04:03,830 Now, since we've already studied the natural log 80 00:04:03,830 --> 00:04:07,290 function, the most natural thing to do here is to invert 81 00:04:07,290 --> 00:04:13,000 these, namely 'y1' equals the inverse 'natural log of x1' is 82 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,529 the same as saying 'x1' is the 'natural log of y1'. 83 00:04:16,529 --> 00:04:19,640 And similarly, this is the same as saying that 'x2' is 84 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,529 the 'natural log of y2'. 85 00:04:21,529 --> 00:04:24,460 And now we add equals to equals, and we get that 'x1 86 00:04:24,460 --> 00:04:29,180 plus x2' is 'natural log y1' plus 'natural log y2'. 87 00:04:29,180 --> 00:04:32,330 But allegedly, we understand the properties of the natural 88 00:04:32,330 --> 00:04:35,020 log, because if we didn't understand those, it would be 89 00:04:35,020 --> 00:04:37,660 kind of futile to be studying the inverse function. 90 00:04:37,660 --> 00:04:39,870 What do we know about the natural log? 91 00:04:39,870 --> 00:04:44,140 We know that the 'natural log of 'y1 times y2', by 92 00:04:44,140 --> 00:04:46,610 definition of a logarithmic function, is 'log 93 00:04:46,610 --> 00:04:48,850 y1' plus 'log y2'. 94 00:04:48,850 --> 00:04:53,020 In other words, 'natural log y1' plus 'natural log y2', by 95 00:04:53,020 --> 00:04:55,920 the property of being logarithmic, is just the 96 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:58,880 'natural log of 'y1 times y2''. 97 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,640 And now, taking this relationship and inverting it 98 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,670 to say this is the same as saying what? 99 00:05:05,670 --> 00:05:10,690 The 'inverse natural log of 'x1 plus x2'' is equal to 'y1' 100 00:05:10,690 --> 00:05:12,050 times 'y2'. 101 00:05:12,050 --> 00:05:16,400 And if we now observe that 'y1' was the 'inverse natural 102 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:20,890 log of x1', and 'y2' is the 'inverse natural log of x2', 103 00:05:20,890 --> 00:05:24,290 we have the result that we claimed we would have at the 104 00:05:24,290 --> 00:05:25,700 beginning here. 105 00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:29,680 Now again, here's one example where it's not the result that 106 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:31,210 I'm not interested in. 107 00:05:31,210 --> 00:05:35,230 But I'm interested in showing, again, what we meant when we 108 00:05:35,230 --> 00:05:39,100 said that once we learn a new concept, we can bring to it 109 00:05:39,100 --> 00:05:41,240 all of our old knowledge. 110 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:43,510 You see, all of these things come from our basic 111 00:05:43,510 --> 00:05:44,300 definition. 112 00:05:44,300 --> 00:05:46,230 Well, let's carry on one step further. 113 00:05:46,230 --> 00:05:48,670 You see, this was an arithmetic property. 114 00:05:48,670 --> 00:05:51,480 Let's see if we can get some calculus properties about the 115 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:55,390 inverse natural log based on our knowledge of the natural 116 00:05:55,390 --> 00:05:56,260 log itself. 117 00:05:56,260 --> 00:06:00,350 Well, for example, in a course of this type, the most natural 118 00:06:00,350 --> 00:06:03,600 thing to do, I guess, is given any function, we would always 119 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,270 like to be able to talk about its derivative, provided, of 120 00:06:06,270 --> 00:06:08,970 course, the function is differentiable. 121 00:06:08,970 --> 00:06:12,580 So for example, a typical question that one might ask is 122 00:06:12,580 --> 00:06:17,780 find 'dy dx', if 'y' is 'inverse natural log x'. 123 00:06:17,780 --> 00:06:21,130 Again, this works the same way as it did for the inverse trig 124 00:06:21,130 --> 00:06:24,230 functions, for the inverse of everything that we've done so 125 00:06:24,230 --> 00:06:25,390 far in this course. 126 00:06:25,390 --> 00:06:28,480 We start with this particular relationship and right away 127 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,390 translate it into that which we're more familiar with, 128 00:06:31,390 --> 00:06:35,770 namely we translate 'y' equals the 'inverse natural log of x' 129 00:06:35,770 --> 00:06:38,890 into 'x' equals 'natural log y'. 130 00:06:38,890 --> 00:06:41,960 Now you see again, since I know how to differentiate 'log 131 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,180 y' with respect to 'y', the derivative of 'natural log y' 132 00:06:45,180 --> 00:06:48,400 with respect to 'y' was by definition '1/y'. 133 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:50,900 From this relationship here, I can find 134 00:06:50,900 --> 00:06:55,050 that 'dx dy' is '1/y'. 135 00:06:55,050 --> 00:06:58,950 And knowing that 'dx dy' is '1/y', using my inverse 136 00:06:58,950 --> 00:07:02,650 function general theory that tells me that to find the 137 00:07:02,650 --> 00:07:07,120 derivative of 'y' with respect to 'x', all I have to do is 138 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:10,210 invert the derivative of 'x' with respect to 'y', I wind up 139 00:07:10,210 --> 00:07:13,890 with the fact that 'dy dx' is equal to 'y' itself. 140 00:07:13,890 --> 00:07:17,410 In other words, the 'inverse log x' function is 141 00:07:17,410 --> 00:07:21,100 characterized by the fact that it's its own derivative. 142 00:07:21,100 --> 00:07:23,610 In other words, it's a non-destructible type of 143 00:07:23,610 --> 00:07:26,320 function with respect to differentiation. 144 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:29,000 This is a rather powerful property. 145 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:30,010 You see what this thing says? 146 00:07:30,010 --> 00:07:31,890 It says that the derivative of 'y' with respect 147 00:07:31,890 --> 00:07:34,640 to 'x' is 'y' itself. 148 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,720 By the way, just as an aside, we can do the converse of this 149 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:39,830 particular problem. 150 00:07:39,830 --> 00:07:43,120 You see, we started with 'y' equals 'inverse log x' and 151 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,030 showed that this particular equation was satisfied. 152 00:07:46,030 --> 00:07:48,710 Notice that if we start with this particular equation, 153 00:07:48,710 --> 00:07:53,190 starting with 'dy dx' equals 'y', separate the variables, 154 00:07:53,190 --> 00:07:58,940 and lo and behold, we wind up with 'dy over y' equals 'dx'. 155 00:07:58,940 --> 00:08:02,360 And without carrying out the details, I leave this to you, 156 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:04,030 because it is straightforward. 157 00:08:04,030 --> 00:08:08,420 Notice that as we look at the left hand side here, we 158 00:08:08,420 --> 00:08:10,650 hopefully will think immediately 159 00:08:10,650 --> 00:08:12,550 of the natural logarithm. 160 00:08:12,550 --> 00:08:14,040 Namely, what do we want here? 161 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:19,240 The function whose derivative with respect to 'y' is '1/y'. 162 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:21,320 Again, you see what I'm saying is notice that if we had 163 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:23,910 started with this particular differential equation, we 164 00:08:23,910 --> 00:08:27,130 could have shown that a logarithm, and hence solving 165 00:08:27,130 --> 00:08:29,560 for 'y' explicitly, would have led to the 166 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:31,020 inverse logarithm also. 167 00:08:31,020 --> 00:08:33,780 But at any rate, notice then that we can find the 168 00:08:33,780 --> 00:08:37,750 derivative of the inverse log just by knowing how to find 169 00:08:37,750 --> 00:08:40,659 the derivative of the natural log itself, which is as we 170 00:08:40,659 --> 00:08:42,549 expect things should be. 171 00:08:42,549 --> 00:08:47,460 Again, and this is a notational thing, we do not 172 00:08:47,460 --> 00:08:50,680 use the language in general "inverse log x." 173 00:08:50,680 --> 00:08:53,500 In other words, it's quite conventional to talk about 174 00:08:53,500 --> 00:08:54,970 'inverse sine x'. 175 00:08:54,970 --> 00:08:58,500 You may notice that sometimes in the text, sometimes in my 176 00:08:58,500 --> 00:09:01,570 lectures I may have used the word 'arcsin x'. 177 00:09:01,570 --> 00:09:07,080 But the general notation is sine to the minus 1. 178 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:09,860 However, when it comes to the natural logarithm function, 179 00:09:09,860 --> 00:09:12,480 the inverse is usually not written as 180 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:14,460 'inverse natural log x'. 181 00:09:14,460 --> 00:09:19,610 It's usually abbreviated, and let me say this, by the symbol 182 00:09:19,610 --> 00:09:21,180 'e to the x'. 183 00:09:21,180 --> 00:09:25,170 Now the reason I say by the symbol is this. 184 00:09:25,170 --> 00:09:28,100 If I wanted to, I can say, look, If I've never heard of 185 00:09:28,100 --> 00:09:31,910 exponents before, let this symbol be an abbreviation for 186 00:09:31,910 --> 00:09:33,550 'inverse log x'. 187 00:09:33,550 --> 00:09:35,430 Does 'inverse log x' exists? 188 00:09:35,430 --> 00:09:38,030 Yes, I even drew the graph of it at the beginning of this 189 00:09:38,030 --> 00:09:39,360 particular lecture. 190 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:43,730 However, again, if you are tempted to use exponents, the 191 00:09:43,730 --> 00:09:48,520 notation 'e to the x' is in keeping in line with the idea 192 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:49,730 of our previous lecture. 193 00:09:49,730 --> 00:09:50,200 I say what? 194 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,460 This matches the identification of 'natural log 195 00:09:53,460 --> 00:09:56,780 x' with the 'log of x' to the base 'e'. 196 00:09:56,780 --> 00:09:59,230 Remember, in our previous lecture, we mentioned that 197 00:09:59,230 --> 00:10:03,030 this particular function exists without having to talk 198 00:10:03,030 --> 00:10:04,160 about a base. 199 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:07,780 But if you wanted to identify it with a traditional 200 00:10:07,780 --> 00:10:11,180 logarithm, the base you would have to pick is the base 'e', 201 00:10:11,180 --> 00:10:14,430 where we showed that 'e' was some number between 2 and 4. 202 00:10:14,430 --> 00:10:17,850 In other words, again, it's just like our 'dy dx' versus 203 00:10:17,850 --> 00:10:21,160 'dy' divided by 'dx' and other symbols that we 204 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:22,460 invented this way. 205 00:10:22,460 --> 00:10:27,230 Namely, if I look at 'e to the x' as being the inverse of the 206 00:10:27,230 --> 00:10:31,100 natural log, or whether I look at it as being 'e' raised to 207 00:10:31,100 --> 00:10:33,870 the 'x' power, where 'e' is that number that's someplace 208 00:10:33,870 --> 00:10:37,720 between 2 and 4, I don't get into any trouble either way 209 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:40,550 because of the natural identification of choosing e 210 00:10:40,550 --> 00:10:42,440 to be the base of my system. 211 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:44,290 But I just mention that in passing. 212 00:10:44,290 --> 00:10:46,240 Now you see, the rest of today's lecture 213 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:47,990 will go fairly quickly. 214 00:10:47,990 --> 00:10:50,630 And the reason that it will go fairly quickly is that once 215 00:10:50,630 --> 00:10:53,310 we've established what the function is that we're talking 216 00:10:53,310 --> 00:10:56,470 about, every other property of that function is going to 217 00:10:56,470 --> 00:10:59,210 follow from the principles that we've already learned. 218 00:10:59,210 --> 00:11:03,010 For example, in terms of our new notation, since the 219 00:11:03,010 --> 00:11:06,950 derivative of 'e to the x' with respect to 'x' is 'e to 220 00:11:06,950 --> 00:11:09,320 the x' itself, remember, 'e to the x' now can 221 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:10,300 be viewed as what? 222 00:11:10,300 --> 00:11:14,500 'e to the x' power, or, to be on safer grounds, if you want 223 00:11:14,500 --> 00:11:18,280 to be consistent, it's just an abbreviation for 'inverse 224 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:19,590 natural log x'. 225 00:11:19,590 --> 00:11:24,030 But at any rate, if 'u' is now any differentiable function of 226 00:11:24,030 --> 00:11:26,750 'x', notice that to find the derivative of 'e to the u' 227 00:11:26,750 --> 00:11:30,230 with respect to 'x', by the chain rule, I can say what? 228 00:11:30,230 --> 00:11:33,780 It's the derivative of 'e to the u' with respect to 'u' 229 00:11:33,780 --> 00:11:35,400 times 'du dx'. 230 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,310 We've just shown that the derivative of 'e to the u' 231 00:11:38,310 --> 00:11:41,430 with respect to 'u' is 'e' to the 'u' again. 232 00:11:41,430 --> 00:11:43,940 And therefore, the derivative of 'e to the u' with respect 233 00:11:43,940 --> 00:11:47,820 to 'x' is 'e to the u' times 'du dx'. 234 00:11:47,820 --> 00:11:51,070 By the way, this again leads to another interesting thing 235 00:11:51,070 --> 00:11:55,260 that makes integrals tough to handle, in a way. 236 00:11:55,260 --> 00:11:57,510 We've mentioned this before, but here's another nice, 237 00:11:57,510 --> 00:12:01,010 natural environment to bring this problem up in again. 238 00:12:01,010 --> 00:12:04,020 When we discussed the second fundamental theorem of 239 00:12:04,020 --> 00:12:07,090 integral calculus to show how one actually would have to 240 00:12:07,090 --> 00:12:10,500 understand areas to be able to find a function whose 241 00:12:10,500 --> 00:12:14,690 derivative was 'e to the 'minus x squared', we 242 00:12:14,690 --> 00:12:17,920 mentioned, we didn't prove it, we mentioned that there was no 243 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:20,820 familiar function whose derivative with respect to 'x' 244 00:12:20,820 --> 00:12:22,920 was 'e to the 'minus x squared'. 245 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:25,560 So this would be a very difficult problem to handle. 246 00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:27,160 Now, let's look at this one instead. 247 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:31,430 Let's look at integral '2x 'e to the minus x squared' dx'. 248 00:12:31,430 --> 00:12:36,440 To the untrained eye, it would appear that this is even 249 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:37,300 messier than this. 250 00:12:37,300 --> 00:12:39,610 In other words, this is just 'e to the 'minus x squared''. 251 00:12:39,610 --> 00:12:42,900 This one has 'e to the 'minus x squared'' with a '2x' 252 00:12:42,900 --> 00:12:45,720 dangling in front of it, and that looks even tougher. 253 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,780 But notice that if we look at our exponent, 'minus x 254 00:12:49,780 --> 00:12:53,190 squared', the derivative, or the differential of 'minus x 255 00:12:53,190 --> 00:12:54,290 squared' is what? 256 00:12:54,290 --> 00:12:57,180 It's 'minus '2x dx''. 257 00:12:57,180 --> 00:13:01,340 In other words, the '2x dx' is precisely what you need to 258 00:13:01,340 --> 00:13:04,575 reduce this to the form integral ''e to the u' du'. 259 00:13:04,575 --> 00:13:07,340 In other words, working this thing out in more specific 260 00:13:07,340 --> 00:13:11,970 detail, if I let 'u' equal 'minus x squared', 'du' 261 00:13:11,970 --> 00:13:16,570 becomes 'minus '2x dx'', and therefore integral '2x 'e to 262 00:13:16,570 --> 00:13:19,330 the 'minus x squared'' dx' just becomes what? 263 00:13:19,330 --> 00:13:22,940 Well, the 'e to the 'minus x squared'' just becomes 'e to 264 00:13:22,940 --> 00:13:24,140 the minus u'. 265 00:13:24,140 --> 00:13:28,400 And '2x dx' is just 'minus du'. 266 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:29,650 OK? 267 00:13:33,220 --> 00:13:36,140 I'm sorry, 'u' is 'minus x squared'. 268 00:13:36,140 --> 00:13:37,980 'u' is 'minus x squared'. 269 00:13:37,980 --> 00:13:39,880 So 'minus x squared' is 'u'. 270 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:43,120 So this becomes 'minus e to the 'u du''. 271 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:45,970 And that, of course, is just minus. 272 00:13:45,970 --> 00:13:47,610 See, the minus will come outside. 273 00:13:47,610 --> 00:13:50,200 The integral of 'e to the u' with respect to 'u' is 274 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:51,605 just 'e to the u'. 275 00:13:51,605 --> 00:13:58,900 And since 'u' is equal to 'minus x squared', all we're 276 00:13:58,900 --> 00:14:02,270 saying is that if you differentiate minus 'e' to the 277 00:14:02,270 --> 00:14:05,020 'minus x squared', you wind up with what? 278 00:14:05,020 --> 00:14:08,790 '2x 'e to the 'minus x squared'', the reason being 279 00:14:08,790 --> 00:14:12,390 that you must multiply this by the derivative of the exponent 280 00:14:12,390 --> 00:14:13,320 with respect to 'x'. 281 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:15,650 The root of the exponent is 'minus 2x'. 282 00:14:15,650 --> 00:14:19,180 'Minus 2x' times minus 1 is '2x'. 283 00:14:19,180 --> 00:14:22,870 If you want to see this in more concise differential 284 00:14:22,870 --> 00:14:28,570 notation, you see, what we're saying is that the integral of 285 00:14:28,570 --> 00:14:34,240 'e' to some power with respect to that same power is 'e' to 286 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,060 that power plus a constant. 287 00:14:36,060 --> 00:14:38,550 In other words, the function that one would have to 288 00:14:38,550 --> 00:14:42,610 integrate 'e to the 'minus x squared'' with respect to to 289 00:14:42,610 --> 00:14:45,760 wind up with 'e to the 'minus x squared'' would be 'minus x 290 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:46,860 squared' itself. 291 00:14:46,860 --> 00:14:50,200 And you see, now, in the next step, since this is a true 292 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:53,800 statement, the differential of 'minus x squared' 293 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:55,590 is minus '2x dx'. 294 00:15:01,810 --> 00:15:04,810 And now you see, factoring out the minus sign and multiplying 295 00:15:04,810 --> 00:15:07,890 through by minus 1, we arrive at the same result that we 296 00:15:07,890 --> 00:15:09,180 wound up with before. 297 00:15:09,180 --> 00:15:12,720 But again, this is the kind of material that we can drill on 298 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:16,590 extensively in the exercises in this particular unit. 299 00:15:16,590 --> 00:15:18,020 The technique is what? 300 00:15:18,020 --> 00:15:21,010 That the basic building block of the so-called exponential 301 00:15:21,010 --> 00:15:24,530 function, the inverse natural log, is that when you 302 00:15:24,530 --> 00:15:27,560 differentiate it, you essentially do not destroy it. 303 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,320 In other words, the derivative of 'e to the u' with respect 304 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:34,640 to 'x' is 'e to the u' times 'du dx'. 305 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:37,550 And I thought that in closing today's lesson, I might as 306 00:15:37,550 --> 00:15:42,210 well show you a very powerful application of this particular 307 00:15:42,210 --> 00:15:45,100 result in a non-obvious situation. 308 00:15:45,100 --> 00:15:48,540 And it's something that we call second-order 309 00:15:48,540 --> 00:15:49,570 differential equations. 310 00:15:49,570 --> 00:15:51,770 I've picked out here a differential equation. 311 00:15:51,770 --> 00:15:55,310 Let me just show you what I have in mind over here. 312 00:15:55,310 --> 00:15:58,770 Suppose I tell you that 'y' is a twice-differentiable 313 00:15:58,770 --> 00:16:02,450 function of 'x' that satisfies the following identity, that 314 00:16:02,450 --> 00:16:05,530 the second derivative of 'y' with respect to 'x' minus 5 315 00:16:05,530 --> 00:16:09,140 times the first derivative of 'y' with respect to 'x' plus 6 316 00:16:09,140 --> 00:16:12,150 times 'y' is identically 0. 317 00:16:12,150 --> 00:16:15,620 And the question is, if this equation is to be obeyed, what 318 00:16:15,620 --> 00:16:17,360 must 'y' be? 319 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,000 And a very interesting technique for solving this 320 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,650 kind of a problem, you see, this is called a second-order 321 00:16:22,650 --> 00:16:25,310 differential equation because the highest derivative that 322 00:16:25,310 --> 00:16:27,760 appears is the second derivative. 323 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:30,720 OK, a rather powerful technique using the 324 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:34,610 exponential is available to us for problems of this sort. 325 00:16:34,610 --> 00:16:36,290 And the idea hinges on this. 326 00:16:36,290 --> 00:16:40,400 As a trial solution, which I'll call 'y sub t', let's try 327 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,920 'e to the rx', where 'r' happens to be a constant. 328 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:47,410 You see, the whole idea is if I differentiate 'e to the rx' 329 00:16:47,410 --> 00:16:51,460 with respect to 'x', I get 'e to the rx' back again, only 330 00:16:51,460 --> 00:16:55,190 with a factor of 'r', namely the derivative of my exponent 331 00:16:55,190 --> 00:16:56,150 in this case. 332 00:16:56,150 --> 00:16:57,290 See, 'r' is a constant. 333 00:16:57,290 --> 00:17:00,970 The derivative of 'rx' with respect to 'x' is just 'r'. 334 00:17:00,970 --> 00:17:03,720 So notice that the first derivative of 'y sub t' with 335 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,550 respect to 'x' is 'r 'e to the rx''. 336 00:17:06,550 --> 00:17:09,680 The second derivative of 'y sub t' with 337 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:11,339 respect to 'x' is what? 338 00:17:11,339 --> 00:17:12,579 'r' is a constant. 339 00:17:12,579 --> 00:17:14,530 I differentiate 'e to the rx'. 340 00:17:14,530 --> 00:17:17,640 That brings down another factor of 'r' and leaves me 341 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:19,300 with 'e to the rx'. 342 00:17:19,300 --> 00:17:23,970 You see, the whole idea being, notice that 'e to the rx' is a 343 00:17:23,970 --> 00:17:28,580 common factor of 'y sub t', 'y sub 't prime'', 'y sub 't 344 00:17:28,580 --> 00:17:29,620 double prime''. 345 00:17:29,620 --> 00:17:33,030 If I now substitute these results back into my original 346 00:17:33,030 --> 00:17:36,950 equation, look what I wind up with. 'y double prime' becomes 347 00:17:36,950 --> 00:17:39,080 'r squared 'e to the rx''. 348 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:45,230 Minus '5y prime', that's minus '5r 'e to the rx'', plus '6y', 349 00:17:45,230 --> 00:17:46,790 '6e to the rx'. 350 00:17:46,790 --> 00:17:48,650 And that must equal zero. 351 00:17:48,650 --> 00:17:49,880 And here's the key point. 352 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:53,100 'e to the rx' is now a common factor. 353 00:17:53,100 --> 00:17:55,700 I factor that out. 354 00:17:55,700 --> 00:17:59,240 If the product of two numbers is 0, one of the 355 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:01,220 factors must be 0. 356 00:18:01,220 --> 00:18:04,730 But notice from our graph of the exponential, the inverse 357 00:18:04,730 --> 00:18:10,520 logarithm, 'e to the x', 'e to the rx' can never be negative 358 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:12,550 and can never be 0, in fact. 'e to the 359 00:18:12,550 --> 00:18:14,190 rx' is always positive. 360 00:18:14,190 --> 00:18:17,580 Therefore, if 'e to the rx' is always positive, it must be 361 00:18:17,580 --> 00:18:21,100 the other factor which is 0. 362 00:18:21,100 --> 00:18:25,540 But 'r squared' minus '5r' plus 6 is not a second-order 363 00:18:25,540 --> 00:18:26,920 differential equation. 364 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,690 It's a second-degree polynomial equation. 365 00:18:29,690 --> 00:18:32,940 It's a familiar quadratic equation, which I can solve 366 00:18:32,940 --> 00:18:34,010 quite easily. 367 00:18:34,010 --> 00:18:35,550 In other words, I find what? 368 00:18:35,550 --> 00:18:39,300 That 'r' must be either 2, or 'r' must equal 3. 369 00:18:39,300 --> 00:18:43,480 In other words, my claim is that either 'e to the 2x' or 370 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,190 'e to the 3x' must be a solution of 371 00:18:46,190 --> 00:18:47,790 this particular equation. 372 00:18:47,790 --> 00:18:52,440 Of course, we can do more with that, which we will in a later 373 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:57,050 part of calculus, not in this package's work. 374 00:18:57,050 --> 00:18:59,840 But we're not going to study differential equations in 375 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:01,040 great detail here. 376 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:04,340 But for our present purposes, I think this illustrates how 377 00:19:04,340 --> 00:19:08,050 one can use the fact that it's a rather powerful structural 378 00:19:08,050 --> 00:19:11,630 property when the derivative of a function with respect to 379 00:19:11,630 --> 00:19:13,750 'x' is the function itself. 380 00:19:13,750 --> 00:19:17,240 By the way, as a quick check, notice that if 'y' equals 'e 381 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:20,590 to the 2x', 'y prime' is twice 'e to the 2x'. 382 00:19:20,590 --> 00:19:23,850 'y double prime' is '4 e to the 2x'. 383 00:19:23,850 --> 00:19:27,200 And therefore 'y double prime' minus '5y prime' 384 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:29,170 plus '6y' is what? 385 00:19:29,170 --> 00:19:35,430 It's '4e to the 2x' minus '10 e to the 2x', '6 e to the 2x'. 386 00:19:35,430 --> 00:19:39,790 And that, in fact, is genuinely, identically zero. 387 00:19:39,790 --> 00:19:43,400 In a similar way, checking out 'y' equals 'e to the 3x', we 388 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:47,470 get 'y prime' is '3e to the 3x', 'y double prime' is '9e 389 00:19:47,470 --> 00:19:48,610 to the 3x'. 390 00:19:48,610 --> 00:19:54,550 Therefore, '9e to the 3x' minus '15 e to the 3x' plus 391 00:19:54,550 --> 00:19:58,670 '6e to the 3x' is again, identically 0. 392 00:19:58,670 --> 00:20:01,140 And again, you see what this powerful technique is. 393 00:20:01,140 --> 00:20:05,500 In general, if 'a' and 'b' are constants, the substitution 'y 394 00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:09,360 sub t' equals 'e to the rx'. 395 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:13,000 And there'll be a problem in the exercises on this to give 396 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:14,300 you additional drill. 397 00:20:14,300 --> 00:20:17,770 But that substitution transforms the second or the 398 00:20:17,770 --> 00:20:21,700 differential equation, 'y double prime' plus 'ay prime' 399 00:20:21,700 --> 00:20:26,750 plus 'by' equals 0, into an equivalent quadratic equation, 400 00:20:26,750 --> 00:20:30,010 'r squared' plus 'ar' plus 'b' equals 0. 401 00:20:30,010 --> 00:20:32,740 And you see from this equation, using the quadratic 402 00:20:32,740 --> 00:20:36,470 formula, we can find the values of 'r' that satisfy 403 00:20:36,470 --> 00:20:38,400 this, and that gives us a couple of 404 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:40,040 solutions to the equation. 405 00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:43,410 Well, at any rate, I deliberately want this lecture 406 00:20:43,410 --> 00:20:46,710 to stay short to make the most important impact. 407 00:20:46,710 --> 00:20:48,490 And that is again what? 408 00:20:48,490 --> 00:20:51,660 That once we knew what the natural log function was, and 409 00:20:51,660 --> 00:20:55,720 we defined the inverse natural log function, everything that 410 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:59,090 we wanted to know about the inverse natural log followed 411 00:20:59,090 --> 00:21:01,380 from the properties of the log itself. 412 00:21:01,380 --> 00:21:04,200 And this is basically the lesson for today. 413 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,270 We will continue the discussion of exponential 414 00:21:07,270 --> 00:21:08,990 functions from a different point of 415 00:21:08,990 --> 00:21:10,720 view in our next lecture. 416 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:12,850 But until that next lecture, goodbye. 417 00:21:15,780 --> 00:21:18,310 ANNOUNCER: Funding for the publication of this video was 418 00:21:18,310 --> 00:21:23,020 provided by the Gabriella and Paul Rosenbaum Foundation. 419 00:21:23,020 --> 00:21:27,200 Help OCW continue to provide free and open access to MIT 420 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:31,400 courses by making a donation at ocw.mit.edu/donate.