The Natural Logarithm
Before this little break, we defined a function on the interval of integration. We proved some properties about the functions we get like this, lining them up against the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. In particular, integrating like this can construct antiderivatives.
Now let’s consider some of the most basic functions of one variable — monomials — and their derivatives. We know that the derivative of is
whenever
is an integer. Let’s try running this backwards by using Riemann integration.
First for we know that
is defined everywhere, so we can consider the function defined for any real
by
Whatever function this is will have as its derivative. We can see that
has this derivative, and we know that any two antiderivatives differ by a constant. That is,
for some real constant
. But we can also tell that
because in that case we’re integrating over a degenerate interval of zero width. This tells us that
, and we’ve determined our constant.
How about for ? Now our integrand
has an asymptote at
so we can’t integrate across it. Let’s start at
and define a function for all positive real
by
Again we know that the derivative will be
, and that
is such an antiderivative. We also know that
, which tells us that
so our constant of integration is
. That is, we’ve defined the function
on the interval
.
Now what happens when we take this exact same procedure and apply it to the function ? There is no monomial whose derivative is a scalar multiple of
, so the above procedure breaks down. Still, there’s some function out there. Indeed, consider the integral
For any positive real number the integrator
is of bounded variation on
(in fact it’s monotone), and
is continuous for positive
, so the integral is indeed defined. Since the integrator is differentiable for all positive values, the integral
must be as well, and
.
That is, this procedure has defined for us an antiderivative of on the interval
. We call this function the “natural logarithm” and denote it
. Tomorrow we’ll start exploring some of its properties.
As a side note, those of you who have been paying close attention will notice that I have yet to use any function more complicated than a rational power of the variable yet. I’m following the pattern of “late transcendentals” in presenting the calculus. The alternative — “early transcendentals” — is to give a hand-waving (but not rigorous) definition of exponentials and logarithms early on to get more examples into the students’ hands. I advocate that position for college-level calculus classes for a number of reasons, but ultimately delaying the transcendentals makes for less unlearning later on.
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