THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EQUATION: EULER´S IDENTITY

By: José Santos.

We are going to give a proof for the Euler´s identity, is necessary to mention that there are
another ways to do this proof. The way that we are going to use is maybe the most common.
Then , we are going to express the statement as follow:

If θ = πi then eπi = −1 or eπi + 1 = 0

PROOF:
Suppose that θ = πi.
Now, we are going to do an expansion by Taylor´s Series of the exponential function around
zero, that is:
(θ)n
eθ = ∞
P
n=0 n!
(θ)2 (θ)3 (θ)4 (θ)5
=1+θ+ 2!
+ 3!
+ 4!
+ 5!
− ... (1)

Then, by hypothesis θ = πi, we can write (1) as:

(πi)2 (πi)3 (πi)4 (πi)5

eπi = 1 + (πi) + + + + − ... (2)
2! 3! 4! 5!
Now we know that, by properties of the imaginary unit, the power of i have a value of (+/−)1
or (+/−)i depending if the power is even or odd respectively. This fact we can express as:

i2k = (−1)k (3)

i2k+1 = (−1)k+2 i (4)

Where k = 0, 1, 2, 3...
Then, using (3) and (4) in (2), we can rearrange as:
(π)2 (π)3 i
(π)4 5
eπi = 1 + (π)i − 2!
− 3!
4!
+ (π)5! i − ...
+
2 4 3 5
= 1 − (π)
2!
+ (π)
4!
− ... + (π)i − (π)3! i + (π)5! i − ...
2 4 3 5
= {1 − (π)
2!
+ (π)
4!
− ...} + i{(π) − (π)3!
+ (π)5!
− ...} (5)

What we have done is use a property that allow us express the serie in (2) as the sum of two
series. Furthermore, you can see that the series in the RHS of (5) correspond to the expansion
by Taylor´s Series of the functions cosine and sine respectively, around zero in the value of π.
So, we can rewrite (5) as:
P∞ 2n P∞ 2n+1
n (π) n (π)
eπi = n=0 (−1) (2n)! +i n=0 (−1) (2n+1)!
πi
e = cos(π) + isin(π)
eπi = −1 (6)

Where, we have used the fact cos(π) = −1 and sin(π) = 0 in the second row. It allow us to
express (6) in its most beautiful and powerful form:

eπi + 1 = 0 (7)

That is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL EQUATION IN THE WORLD: EULER´S

IDENTITY .

 Quod Erat Demonstrandum