you that you will do this integral, and it will take just a minute.
Let's turn to a different problem that
we can almost do. This one, coming from ordinary
differential equations. Recall the result with which we began this
course, namely Euler's theorem, that e to the it equals cosine t
plus i times sine of t. Now, we took this as a
given, but we didn't prove it.
How might you give a proof of something like this?
Well, one obvious thing to do is write everything
out in terms of Taylor series and show that the
Taylor expansion for e to the it is equal to
that of cosine t plus i times sine of t.
However, you may recall that we use this result
to derive the series expansions for cosine and sine
so that's a little bit of circular logic. What
else could we do to try? Well, consider the following.
If we let z be equal to e to the it, we're going to think
of z as a function of t. Then, there's an approach
using ordinary differential equations, because the one differential equation that
you know for sure is that e to the constant times t is the
solution to the differential equation z prime equals that constant times z.
In this case, the constant is i square root of negative 1.
Now this shouldn't be too weird.
z of t is just a function. It now has a real and an imaginary
part. Now let's write out the real and the
imaginary parts of z as follows. z of t equals x
of t plus i times y of t, where x and
y are real functions. Now what happens when
we multiply this by i? Well, i times e equals i times x plus
i squared times y. The i squared becomes a negative 1, and we
can reverse the order so that we keep it real part an n imaginary.
Now we know that z prime equals i times z. So what is z prime?
Well, I can use the linearity of the derivative and
say that z prime equals x prime plus i times y prime.
And now my differential equation z prime equals
iz really turns into a system of two differential equations.
One for the real part that says x prime equals negative y
and one for the imaginary part that says y prime equals x.
Now this is a system of two differential equations.
There's no imaginary numbers in here.
These are both real functions but they are not independent, they are coupled.
The x prime depends on y, the y prime depends on x.
We have not learned how to solve systems of
coupled ordinary differential equations.
And you might look at this and say, well, if x were cosine
of t and y was sine of t, then this would work
since the derivative of cosine is minus sine and the derivative of sine is cosine.
That's fine.
But this is not a principled or systematic approach, it's just a guess.
When you do take Multi-variable Calculus, this will be an easy result.
You will learn methods for solving systems of coupled linear ordinary
differential equations from which will follow easily Euler's Theorem.
Let's turn to one last problem that we can't do, this one involving series.
It is a result that we've mentioned several times that the sum over
n of 1 over n squared equals pi squared over 6.
You know that the series converges, you know
how to bound the error for finite approximation.
But how do you show that the exact result is pi squared over 6?
Well, let's give it a try.
We're going to show as much of the proof of this as we can on one
slide. Let's begin with the function u equals arc
sine of x and in a somewhat unmotivated step, we're going to integrate
u du as u goes from 0 to pi over 2.
When we do so, we get, of course, u squared over 2
evaluated at the limits yielding pi square over 8.
Note the presence of a pi squared. That is a critical piece.
Now when we substitute in arc sine of x for u, we get the integral of
arc sine dx over square root of 1 minus x squared.
Changing the limits, this becomes the integral
as x goes from 0 to 1.
Now, we don't want to evaluate this integral, but we already know the answer.
It's pi squared over 8.
What we want to do is substitute in the Taylor series for arc sine of x.
We've run across this once or twice before.
It's an unusual looking series.
The coefficients involve the products of odd numbers and
the numerator, the products of even numbers and the denominator, and an x to
the n over 2n plus 1. Now, this is looking rather complicated.
We can integrate this series term by term, but integrating that
x to the n over square root of 1 minus x squared is highly non-trivial.
That is doable by the methods of this class.
You can do it with integration by parts and a reduction formula.
I'm not going to show you all of those
steps and it wouldn't exactly fit on this slide.
But trust me that when you do so, you will get after a lot of simplification.
The sum
then goes from 1 to infinity of 1 over quantity 2n minus 1 squared.
that's so close to what we were looking for.
This is the sum of the odd numbers in the denominator squared.
Well, again, with just a little bit more of an
argument involving a geometric series, one can show that that
sum is 3 4th of the sum over n of 1 over
n squared. And that sum of 1 over n squared is what
we were looking for knowing that this is really 4 3rds times pi
squared over 8 yields pi squared over 6.
Now, you could certainly ask for a clearer or more complete proof.
The one that I have sketched is due to Euler, the master himself.
And it is, if my research is correct, his fourth published proof of that result.
But it's certainly not easy.
Now, you are going to expect that I'm going to tell you that this is easy
when you learn Multi-variable Calculus. Well, you may see a proof of this
using Multi-variable and it will be easier to follow than the one that I have
sketched out that I am not aware of any proof of this result
that I would call easy. Some mathematical truths are deep.
They are difficult, and they require
an extraordinary amount of effort to ascertain.
Some truths
are right at the boundary between what we can do and what we can't, and they are
worth striving for. And that is the end.
You made it.
Congratulations, you got all the way to the end.
It was a hard, and long, class, but you learned a lot.
Take a moment, relax, prepare for the day of judgment,
otherwise known as the final exam, and enjoy the fruits of your hard work.
>> Cut.
>> Oh, is that it?
Are we done? Yes.
I'm so happy. Oh, thank
God. Oh, good job, Jordan.
>> Thanks. You
too. >> I'm going to take a nap.