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Euler’s Formula
The Most Beautiful Mathematical Equation

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Jun 24, 2020 · 10 min read

In this post we will explore Euler’s Formula, explain what it is, where it comes
from, and reveal its magic properties.
What is Euler’s Formula?
Euler’s Formula, coined by Leonhard Euler in the XVIIIth century, is one of
the most famous and beautiful formulas in the mathematical world.

It is so, because it relates various apparently very distinct elements like

the irrational number e, imaginary numbers, and trigonometrical functions.

Lets see what it looks like:

Euler’s Formula

As we can see, we have our precious number e on the left, the cosine and
sine trigonometrical functions on the right, and our imaginary
correspondent i on both sides.

Before we dive into what this formula is telling us, both from a calculus and
a geometric perspective, lets first see where this crazy relationship comes
from.

The History of Euler’s Formula

In the year 1714 British physicist and mathematician Roger Cotes
established in one formula the relationship between logarithms,
trigonometrical functions and imaginary numbers.

Twenty years later, Leonhard Euler reached the same formula but using
exponential functions instead of logarithms. Cote’s formula is the
following:
 Roger Cotes Formula

To go from Cotes formula to Euler’s we just have to apply exponentials to

both sides. To go from Euler’s Formula to Cotes we reverse this process,
using logarithms.

Curiously enough, that none of the authors of the respective formulas

saw the geometrical connotation, which is one of the most fascinating
insights that can be derived from them. The following figure shows the
complex plane, the place where we will see these geometrical connotations.
 The complex plane, with a unit 1 circumference

Before that, you should know that if we particularise Euler’s formula to the
value of θ= π we get the famous Euler’s Identity. Lets quickly see it.

Euler’s Identity
As mentioned before, if we set the value of θ the probably most famous
number of all times, π, Euler’s Formula becomes Euler’s Identity.

Euler’s Identity

If you want to see why Euler’s Identity is so intriguing, check out the
following post where I explain all about it.

Euler’s Identity
The Most Beautiful Mathematical Formula
medium.com

Awesome, now that we know what Euler’s Formula and Euler’s Identity are,
lets break the former into its individual elements and explore why it is
such an amazing equation.

Cosine and Sine

The sine and cosine are periodic trigonometrical functions with a period of
2π. This means that every 2π radians they go back to having the same value.
The following figure shows these functions.

Sine (Left) and Cosine (Right) functions

If we look at a triangle with 90º on one of their angles, the sine and the
cosine of the angle θ can be calculated using the lengths of the sizes of the
sides of such triangle, like shown in the following figure:

Calculating the values of the sine and cosine of θ using the lengths of the sides of a right angle triangle

Imaginary numbers
Initially, numbers were invented to keep track of the count of entire objects.
This is how natural numbers were conceived. Then, a mechanism was
needed to keep track of when somebody owed someone else an entire
object. Integer numbers were born, which were an extension of the
previous natural numbers to the negative side.

After this, the need to keep track of fractions, or parts of entire objects
arose, giving birth to the rational numbers. Finally, numbers that describe
fractions whose decimals go on forever (like π) were found in mathematics,
and thus irrational numbers were born. All of the previous kind of
numbers fall under the category of real numbers.

But imaginary numbers are something of a completely different

nature.

At their birth, imaginary numbers were conceived as a mathematical tool

for being able to operate with squared roots of negative numbers, and the
term ‘imaginary’ was kind of derogatory. i, the letter denoting imaginary
numbers, is equivalent to the square root of -1.

Value of the imaginary number i

It wasn’t until our beloved Euler showed up, that the square root of -1
was given this letter as a representation, and started being considered
useful. After this, it naturally appeared in all kinds of problems from physics
like the laws of electricity and magnetism, or wave dynamics.

The irrational number e

The mathematical constant e is one of the most important numbers in
mathematics. This constant, despite getting its name from Euler, and
sometimes known as Euler’s number, was discovered before this famous
mathematician popularised it.

Specifically, it was first coined by the prodigious Jacob Bernuilli in 1683 in

the study of the compound effect and different calculations regarding the
exponential increases of an investment with time. From this point of view,
our famous number e was calculated as:

Calculation of number e

where this limit converges and takes the value we all know for this number
of 2,71828.

Despite of this constant being very important, the magic of Euler’s Formula
does not come from this precise value, but from the function that this
letter’s name has come to steal: the exponential function. Lets check it
out.

The exponential function

Euler’s Formula and Real numbers
The general concept that we have for an exponential function is that of
repeated multiplication:
 exponential as repeated multiplication

However, what happens when we think about exponentials whose

exponent is a square root, a negative number, a fraction, or an imaginary
number? The concept of repeated multiplication breaks down. It only
holds then the exponent (x in this case) is a positive, integer number.

Exponential functions are more precisely defined by the following series,

one of the famous Taylor Series, which we will call exp(x):

Again, despite seeming infinite this series converges, as the denominator of

each fraction grows much faster than the numerator, and the function itself
has some amazing properties that allow us to explain the value of
fractional and negative exponentials.

The value of 2,71828 that we know number e for, is the value we get when
we input x = 1 into this exponential function, so, for now, we will say
exp(1) = e.

The fundamental and most amazing property of this function is that

multiplication in the inputs is equal to the addition of the outputs.
Adding the inputs (the number in parenthesis, the x in exp(x)), is the same
as multiplying the outputs (the number returned by exp(x)):
 Adding the inputs is equal to multiplying the outputs

Try it out yourself. Get a calculator and calculate the following:

exp(3) = 20.0855

epx(4) = 54.5981

exp(3)exp(4) = 1096.6331

exp(3 + 4) = exp(7) = 1096.6331

Cool right? Adding the inputs of the exponential functions (3 and 4) is the
same as multiplying the individual outputs (exp(3) and exp(4)).

This is not at all trivial, and is probably something nobody would have
guessed by just looking at the polynomial Taylor Series. However, it is an
awesome property which allows us to answer some of the previous
questions.

1. Exponentiating a number to 1/2 means calculating the squared root of

that number. How can this be? Lets work it out with the previous
property of the exponential function.

Exponential fraction

exp(1/2 + 1/2) is equal to exp(1) which is e. exp(1/2 + 1/2) is also equal to

exp(1/2)exp(1/2). So exp(1/2) squared is equal to e and therefore exp(1/2)
is equal to the squared root of e. Fantastic.
2. Exponentiating a number to 0 is equal to 1. We know this thanks to the
polynomial Taylor Series when x = 0.

3. Exponentiating a number to -1 is equal to dividing 1 by that number.

This can be easily derived from knowing that exp(0) = 1.

Exponential of a negative number

Now, what happens when we take the exp function and insert an
imaginary number in it?

Euler’s Formula and Complex numbers

To see the results of doing this, we need to go back to the complex plane.
Lets evaluate complex numbers that exist on the unit circle, painted in pink.
 The complex plane

Imagine we have the previous imaginary number, described by Euler’s

formula and represented in the complex plane by the orange dot.

Euler’s Formula

What happens in our exponential function, if we give it an imaginary

number as an argument? What is exp(i θ)?

First four elements of the exponential function of iθ

Lets pick an specific value for θ and see what comes out of there. If we take
θ = 1, and calculate the first 20 elements of exp(i) we get the complex
number 0.5403 + 0.8414i. This is the same value that we get from Euler’s
Formula, using the cosine and the sine.

It is quite interesting, however, to see how by adding more and more

elements in the Taylor series, this calculation becomes more precise,
and how this is done geometrically. The following list shows how the value
of exp(i) becomes more and more accurate as we take into account more
and more elements of the previous series.

exp(i) with 1 element in the Taylor series: 1

exp(i) with 2 elements in the Taylor series: 1 + i

exp(i) with 3 elements in the Taylor series: 0.5 + i

exp(i) with 4 elements in the Taylor series: 0.5 + 0.83333i

exp(i) with 5 elements in the Taylor series: 0.541666 + 0.83333i

exp(i) with 6 elements in the Taylor series: 0.541666 + 0.841666i

exp(i) with 7 elements in the Taylor series: 0.5402777 + 0.841666i

exp(i) with 8 elements in the Taylor series: 0.5402777 + 0.841468i

exp(i) with 9 elements in the Taylor series: 0.5403025 + 0.841468i

Cool right? Now, lets see something even cooler. The following figure
shows the plots of the values of exp(i) as we increase the number of
elements considered in the Taylor Series. Each yellow line ends at the value
of the complex number calculated with that many elements, and represents
an extra addition to the previous one.
The complex plane and the values of exp(i) as we add more and more elements of the polynomial series. In the
end, after adding 5 elements we can see that we are really close to the real value, which is on top of the unit
circle.

As we can see, a kind of spiral is formed, that gets closer and closer to
the final value of the exponential that we can verify with Euler’s Formula.
This is awesome, and it tells us something really beautiful about
exponentials.

Independently of the value of θ, if we use enough elements of the

polynomial series exp(iθ) always ends up in the unit circle, with a rotation
around it of θ radians.

This is shown in the following figures, where the same plot as before has
been created for different values of θ.
As we can see from the previous figures, exp(iθ) always ends up in the unit
circle if enough elements from the series are used. For any value of theta
that we use, if we take enough elements of the polynomial series this
always happens, just by adding, rotating and multiplying these yellow
lines that represent an additional element of the series.

Also, you might have noticed already, but in the last figure (θ = π) what
we are plotting is Euler’s Identity. Lets recover the formula, because this
last plot also contains some beautiful insights:
 Euler’s Identity

If we plug in (θ = π), we get Euler’s Identity, which mathematically and

geometrically tell us this: by raising a constant(e) to iπ, we walk a distance
of π around the unit circle, and we arrive at the point -1, with no imaginary
part, which is also the right side of the formula.

Euler’s Identity

Geometrically, as we’ve seen, this all happens by rotating vectors and

multiplying their lengths.

This is completely baffling!

One of the main reasons that this comes to be, is what happens in the
complex plane when we multiply a number by i. Multiplying by i implies a
90º rotation from the origin around the unit circle, like shown in the
following figure.
 exp(i) and exp(i)*i, which leads to a rotation of 90º around the unit circle.

Conclusion
Euler’s formula is one of the most beautiful formulas of our days. It beautifully
connects many different elements, and its geometrical interpretation and
origin are something completely wonderful.

It is like nature is trying to tell us something with it.

I hope this post has made you learn and taught you the fascinating insights
behind Euler’s Formula.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter at @jaimezorno. Also, you can take a look
at my posts on Data Science, Maths and Machine Learning here. Have a
good read!

For more posts like this one follow me on Medium, and stay tuned!
 If you wish to learn more, the following Channel has some awesome videos
on Euler’s Formula, Euler’s Equation and the intuition behind complex
numbers.

3Blue1Brown
3blue1brown, by Grant Sanderson, is some combination of math
and entertainment, depending on your disposition. The goal…
www.youtube.com

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