AQA Core 3 Differentiation

Section 3: The exponential and log functions

Notes and Examples
These notes contain subsections on:
Natural logarithms
Graphs of the exponential and natural logarithm functions
Solving equations using natural logarithms and exponentials
The derivative of exponential functions
The derivative of ln x

Natural logarithms
You have already met logarithms in C2. You learnt that logarithms are related
to indices:
ab c log a c b
and that logarithms satisfy the following rules:

log c a log c b log c ab

a
log c a log c b log c
b
n
log c a n log c a
In this section you are looking at natural logarithms, which are logarithms to
base e, where e is a particular irrational number (e = 2.71828. to 5 decimal
places). Working with natural logarithms is quite straightforward: they obey
exactly the same rules as all other logarithms, so you already know quite a lot
about them. Your calculator will be able to work out natural logarithms you
should have a button marked ln (note that this is ln not In; some people get
confused about this!)
You may be wondering (quite reasonably) what is so special about this
number e, and why logarithms to this particular base are so useful. In fact, this
number has very many interesting properties, some of which you will learn
about in this module and in others:

You will learn more about the exponential function e x in your work on
differentiation: one of its interesting characteristics is that the gradient
of the graph of y e x is equal to the value of e x at all points (see later
in these notes).
In the work on Integration in C3 you will see how natural logarithms are
1
related to the area under the curve y .
x
In C4 you will learn to form and solve simple differential equations and
you will see that many real-life situations (for example, population
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growth; the temperature of a hot object in a cool room) can be
modelled using exponential functions.

If you go on to study Further Maths A level, you will find that the
x 2 x3 x 4
x
number e can be written as the infinite series 1 x ...
2! 3! 4!
(try working out the sum of the first 10 or so terms of this series for x =
1 on your calculator, and see how close you get to the value of e).

But for now, all that is necessary is to accept that e, like , is a special and
useful number, and that this means that logarithms to base e are also
particularly useful.

Graphs of the exponential and natural logarithm functions

Since the exponential and natural logarithm functions are inverses of each
other, their graphs are reflections of each other in the line y = x.

y ex

y=x

y ln x

Solving equations using natural logarithms and exponentials

Most of the work in this chapter involves the same techniques as you used
when studying logarithms in C2. You need to use the same rules of
logarithms, applied to natural logarithms:

ln a ln b ln ab
a
ln a ln b ln
b
ln a n n ln a
Also remember that since the log a a 1 for any value of a, then

ln e 1
This means that you can use natural logarithms to solve equations involving
exponentials, as in Example 1.

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Example 1
Solve the equation e13 x 5 .
Solution
Take natural logarithms of both sides:
Using the laws of logarithms:
Since ln e = 1:

ln e13 x ln 5
(1 3x) ln e ln 5
1 3x ln 5
1 ln 5
x
0.203
3

Similarly, the relationship between exponentials and logarithms

a ln b ea b
allows you to solve equations involving natural logarithms.

Example 2
Solve the equation ln(2 x 1) 3 .
Solution
ln(2 x 1) 3 2 x 1 e3

e3 1
9.54
2

In Examples 1 and 2 above, you are using the fact that the exponential
function and the natural logarithm function are inverses of one another, in the
same way that squaring and the square root function are inverses of one
another. In Example 1 you are undoing an exponential function by using
natural logarithms, and in Example 2 you are undoing a natural logarithm by
using an exponential.
The inverse nature of these two functions can be summed up as follows:

ln e x x
eln x x
You can try some similar problems using the interactive questions Modelling
population growth.
You can also solve more complicated expressions involving exponentials.
Sometimes it is more convenient to use a substitution, as shown in the next
example.

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Example 3
Solve the equation e x 2e x 3 .
Solution
e x 2e x 3
Substitute y e x :
Multiply through by y:

y 2 y 1 3
y2 2 3y
y2 3y 2 0
( y 1)( y 2) 0
y 1 or y 2

e x 1 x ln1 0
e x 2 x ln 2

The derivative of exponential functions

You can explore the gradient function of exponential functions by looking at
the Flash resource The gradient graph of y = ax or the Geogebra resource
Differentiating y = ax. Change the value of a and look at the relationship
between the gradient and the value of y try to make this as close as possible
to 1.
You can also learn something about the derivative of exponential functions
like y a x by trying to differentiate using first principles:
Suppose x is increased by a small change x, resulting in a small change in y
y:
y ax

y y a x x
Subtracting:

y a x x a x
a x a x a x
a x (a x 1)

Dividing by x:

y a x (a x 1)

x
x

a x 1
dy
x
ka where k is the limit of the expression

as x 0.
x
dx
y
Putting x = 0 into the expression for
tells you that k is actually the gradient
x
of the graph y a x at the origin.
It follows that if you can find a value for a so that this gradient is 1 then, for
dy
= a x . This value is just the constant e = 2.718, which is
this value of a,
dx

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the base of natural logarithms. You can verify this result numerically in your
e0.0001 1
calculator, by finding the value of
.
0.0001
It follows that:

y = ex

dy
ex
dx

This result can be extended to differentiate y ekx , where k is a constant,

using the chain rule:
y e kx

Let u kx
y eu

du
k
dx

dy
eu
du

Using the chain rule:

dy dy du

dx du dx
keu

ke kx

y ekx

dy
kekx
dx

Example 4
Differentiate
(i) y xe

2x

x2
(ii) y
1 2e3 x

(iii)

y ex

Solution
(i)
Using the product rule with u = x and v = e2x
du
u x
1
dx
dv
v e2 x
2e2 x
dx
dy
du
dv
v u
dx
dx
dx
2x
x 2e 1 e 2 x .

(2 x 1)e 2 x
(ii)

Using the quotient rule with u = x2 and v = 1 + 2e3x,

du
u x2
2x
dx
dv
v 1 2e3 x
6e3 x
dx

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du
dv
v u
dy
dx 2 d x
dx
v
(1 2e3 x )2 x x 2 6e3 x

(1 2e3 x ) 2

(iii)

2 x 4 xe3 x 6 x 2e3 x
(1 2e3 x ) 2

Using the chain rule with u x 2

du
u x2
2x
dx
dy
y eu
eu
du
dy dy du

dx du dx
eu 2 x

2 xe x

The derivative of ln x
The Geogebra resource Differentiating ln x allows you to explore the
relationship between the gradients of the graphs of ex and ln x.
You can differentiate y ln x by remembering that it is the inverse function of
y ln x x e y
y ex :
dx

ey
dy
dy 1 1

.
dx e y x
dy 1
y ln x

dx x

Example 5
Differentiate:
(i)

x ln x

(ii)

ln x
1 ln x

(iii) ln(1 x3 )

Solution
(i)
Using the product rule with u x and v ln x
1
du 1 12
1
u x x2
2x
dx
2 x

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dv 1

dx x
dy
du
dv
v u
dx
dx
dx
1
1
x
ln x
x 2 x
1
ln x

x 2 x
2 ln x

2 x

v ln x

(ii)

Using the quotient rule with u ln x and v 1 ln x

du 1
u ln x

dx x
dv 1
v 1 ln x

dx x
du
dv
v u
dy
dx 2 dx
dx
v
1
1
(1 ln x) ln x
x
x

2
(1 ln x)
1 ln x ln x

x(1 ln x) 2
1

x(1 ln x) 2

(iii)

Using the chain rule with u 1 x3

du
u 1 x3
3x 2
dx
dy 1
y ln u

du u
dy dy du

dx du dx
1
3x 2
u
3x 2

(1 x 3 )

You can also look at the Differentiating logs and exponentials video.

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