3.9 Derivatives of exponential and logarithmic functions

So far, we have learned how to differentiate a variety of functions, including trigonometric, inverse, and implicit functions. In this section, we explore derivatives of exponential and logarithmic functions. As we discussed in Introduction to Functions and Graphs , exponential functions play an important role in modeling population growth and the decay of radioactive materials. Logarithmic functions can help rescale large quantities and are particularly helpful for rewriting complicated expressions.

Derivative of the exponential function

Just as when we found the derivatives of other functions, we can find the derivatives of exponential and logarithmic functions using formulas. As we develop these formulas, we need to make certain basic assumptions. The proofs that these assumptions hold are beyond the scope of this course.

First of all, we begin with the assumption that the function $B\left(x\right)=b^x,b>0,$ is defined for every real number and is continuous. In previous courses, the values of exponential functions for all rational numbers were defined—beginning with the definition of $b^n,$ where $n$ is a positive integer—as the product of $b$ multiplied by itself $n$ times. Later, we defined $b^0=1,b^{\text{−}n}=\frac{1}{b^n},$ for a positive integer $n,$ and $b^{s\text{/}t}=(\sqrt[t]{b}{)}^s$ for positive integers $s$ and $t.$ These definitions leave open the question of the value of $b^r$ where $r$ is an arbitrary real number. By assuming the continuity of $B\left(x\right)=b^x,b>0,$ we may interpret $b^r$ as $\underset{x\to r}{\text{lim}}{b}^x$ where the values of $x$ as we take the limit are rational. For example, we may view $4^{\pi }$ as the number satisfying

As we see in the following table, $4^{\pi }\approx 77.88.$

We also assume that for $B\left(x\right)=b^x,b>0,$ the value $B^{\prime }\left(0\right)$ of the derivative exists. In this section, we show that by making this one additional assumption, it is possible to prove that the function $B\left(x\right)$ is differentiable everywhere.

We make one final assumption: that there is a unique value of $b>0$ for which $B^{\prime }\left(0\right)=1.$ We define $e$ to be this unique value, as we did in Introduction to Functions and Graphs . [link] provides graphs of the functions $y=2^x,y=3^x,y={2.7}^x,$ and $y={2.8}^x.$ A visual estimate of the slopes of the tangent lines to these functions at 0 provides evidence that the value of e lies somewhere between 2.7 and 2.8. The function $E\left(x\right)=e^x$ is called the natural exponential function    . Its inverse, $L\left(x\right)={\text{log}}_{e}x=\text{ln}x$ is called the natural logarithmic function .

For a better estimate of $e,$ we may construct a table of estimates of $B^{\prime }\left(0\right)$ for functions of the form $B\left(x\right)=b^x.$ Before doing this, recall that

for values of $x$ very close to zero. For our estimates, we choose $x=0.00001$ and $x=\mathrm{-0.00001}$ to obtain the estimate