Dedication

This book is dedicated to the late Miss Jussawala, professor of

English in the Elphinstone College, Bombay, India where the
author studied mathematics and English literature in the late 1950s.
She was fair of skin and gifted with an impressive physique, yet
the lasting impression she created was one of a shy and sensitive
person, the very soul of courtesy. Her voice, husky yet melodious,
bespoke an inner harmony of mind, heart and spirit. She taught the
class Shakespeare’s great tragedy, King Lear. She told her students
that the theme of the play was a “deep commotion in the moral
world”.

God, was there no commotion in the moral world when this sweet
gentle soft-spoken lady was murdered?..... By a burglar-killer who
could never be caught?

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_____________________________________________________
 Preface

The question most likely to spring to your lips as you begin to read
this book is : ‘What is this equation about?’

The answer is : It is about the five basic numbers of mathematics,

namely 1,0,  , i and e. The first three of these are surely familiar to
you. The last two will be introduced in the first four chapters of the
book.

The next question which is bound to occur to you as you begin to

read this page is perhaps this: ‘Why should I read this book?’

The answer depends on who you are.

If you are a person in the 15-16 age-group the answer is easy: you
should read this book because you are likely to benefit
considerably from its reading. You’ll become familiar with a host
of ideas which are likely to play an important role in your study of
mathematics in the next two year period. Presumably you are
standing on the threshold of what is called High School in the West
and Junior College in India. You have learnt the basics of algebra
and geometry and have had a nodding acquaintance with
trigonometry and coordinate geometry. About calculus you are
more or less in the dark. If that is the situation then this book will
bring the essentials of the mathematics of the next two or three
years to your doorstep in a form which is both compact and, I
daresay, interesting. Besides, it achieves this end in a focussed
manner, constantly urging you, leading you towards a summit
whose ascent will, I’m sure, leave you breathless with wonder and
happiness. For such indeed was my experience when I got there for
the first time.

On the other hand if you are anywhere in the 17-plus age group
and are studying or have studied science and mathematics beyond
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the High School/Junior College stage then you are already familiar
with the topics touched upon in the various chapters of this book,
have already traversed the terrain over which I have chosen to
travel, and need only to breeze through the book to arrive at its
conclusion. Even there I feel the reading of this book will prove
well worth the trouble because you will get the benefit of the
insights which I have developed through having taught every topic
some 200 to 300 times – some as often as 400 times. In certain
places you will see old ideas in a new light. And when you reach
the conclusion, when you become familiar with what I have
described as ‘the most beautiful equation in mathematics’ you will
have, in all probability, gained a deeply satisfying intellectual
experience. You will have experienced, I daresay, an ‘Aha!’
moment.

I have to justify some of the statements made above. I have to state

my credentials for writing this book. I can only do so by saying a
few things about myself. I became a college teacher in 1964, after
obtaining two master’s degrees in mathematics from the University
of Bombay, India. Due to circumstances and personal preferences,
I drifted from Senior College to Junior College and joined Agrawal
Classes in 1966. It was, since its inception in 1953 till its closure in
2011, the best known class for private coaching in mathematics
and science in Bombay.

An incident which happened before my eyes will give the reader

some idea of the esteem in which the class was held by students
and their parents.

A lady approached the counter where Sarathy, our office-manager

was sitting.

“Please, sir, may I have an admission form for my son?”

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“Sure, madam. But please tell me, how many marks has he got in
maths and science at the tenth exam?”

“284 out of 300.”

“Sorry, madam. You know our cut-off is 285 out of 300.”

“I know, sir. But please consider. My son has got just one mark
less.”

“Sorry, madam. We cannot admit your son.”

For a few seconds the lady was silent. Evidently she found it hard
to swallow the bitter draught. When she found speech again she
said,

“Couldn’t you put him on the waiting list at least?”

“Sorry, madam. Even the waiting list is closed.”

Incredulous, the lady repeated the words, as though wishing to

confirm whether she had heard correctly or not.

“Even the waiting list is closed?”

“Yes, madam. There are 150 students on the waiting list. All have
284 marks out of 300.”

Another long silence. Then the lady turned to go away. She walked
with leaden feet, chagrined, crestfallen.

I watched the incident from the sidelines, so to speak. I was part of

the team of teachers on the staff of Agrawal Classes. What made
the class so famous, so very much sought after, was the spectacular
results it produced year after year. Just one example should be
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sufficient. Coaching was given for a statewide exam held at the
end of standard XII and also for a countrywide exam held shortly
thereafter, called the Joint Entrance Exam for the Indian Institutes
of Technology, (IIT JEE for short), believed to be one of the most
difficult exams teenagers appear for, worldwide. When the class
was limited to Bombay city our students got first or second all-
India rank at IIT JEE every year except one from 1962 to 1976.

(That a single city from an extremely populous country gets the

topmost ranks year after year after year is, by any standard, by any
standard whatever, an extremely remarkable achievement. It was
attained due to two factors: Bombay students were highly
intelligent, hard-working and Mr Agrawal had marvellous
organizing ability.)

When the class started its correspondence course in 1977, flinging

its net countrywide, the results were even more dazzling, even
more spectacular – usually 80 odd students out of the top 100 all-
India ranks.

(In 1994 the Proprietor’s son closed the IIT division following
medical advice – a day called by Mr. Agrawal, “the saddest day in
my life.”)

I taught mathematics in Agrawal Classes for 30 years. The students

I coached probably numbered 50,000. Each student received
coaching from me for approximately 40 hours.

If teaching 100 students directly, without the aid of an electric or

electronic device, for one hour counts as 100 student-hours, then I
can legitimately claim that I have teaching experience amounting
to 2 million student-hours. I believe this easily makes me, among
teachers of pre-university mathematics the world’s most highly
experienced teacher. This is my first credential for writing this
book.
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My second credential is that I love numbers – both like a child and
like a grown-up. ‘Like a child’ means I love to play around with
the digits of a number. When I come across a six or eight digit
telephone number my first reaction is to try and discover some
connection between the digits. In the 1970s Bombay city had six
digit telephone numbers. A student told me that his telephone
number was 451128. “That’s easy to remember,” I said, “because
the average of 45 and 11 is 28.” His eyes glistened with wonder
and a joyous smile suffused his face. A friend told me that his
telephone number was 24307653. This proved a hard nut to crack.
For several weeks I struggled with it and almost gave up, almost
concluded that it was an ugly number. Then one fine morning the
pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fell in place and I realized it was a
beautiful number. I sent my friend this sms:

“2430 is ten times a power of three and 76 plus 5 is also a power of

3.” (meaning, 2430  10  35 and 76  5  34 )

It goes without saying that my friend was delighted to read my

sms.

More than the relations between digits what fascinates me in

mathematics is the interplay of ideas. I was probably 16 when I
first heard about Einstein’s famous equation, E  mc 2 . Like
everyone else I regarded it as an incredibly beautiful result. That
mathematics had nothing equally beautiful to show was a thought
that filled me with deep dismay. For 16 more years I carried this
lump-in-the-throat experience deep within, rarely revealed, seldom
articulated.

Then I met Professor Huzurbazar.

He was professor and head of the department of mathematics in the

Institute of Science at Bombay. His enthusiasm for teaching
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mathematics and for putting across mathematical ideas to anyone
who cared to listen was astonishing. He had written some papers
which were received with approbation in high-level circles of
mathematicians. They were the outcome of six years spent in
Moscow – years which made him a more fierce and vitriolic critic
of the Russian regime than any deep-dyed American. He was a
distant relation and a friend of the family. When he visited my
house the conversation naturally turned to mathematics. It was then
that he acquainted me with the equation that this book is all about.
I was fascinated, enthralled. The jealousy, the mortification which
Einstein’s equation had engendered in me vanished instantly, like
the morning mist when the sun rises. “At last, at last, mathematics
has something equally beautiful, equally splendid to show the
world,” I said to myself.

The equation is usually taught to students of standard XIII (in

India, I mean). I tried to explain it to students of standard XII in
Agrawal Classes. This involved going beyond the scope of the
syllabus – a mortal sin in the eyes of students hell-bent on a career
in engineering. But I took the risk. At least a few students were
fascinated that an equation wherein the five basic numbers of
mathematics – namely 1, 0,  , i, e – could come together did exist.
Their fascination, the gleam of understanding in their eyes
electrified me. It became a passionate desire with me to
communicate the idea involved in the equation to students who had
just finished standard X, assuming of course that they were keenly
interested in mathematics.

There were hurdles en route. Like explaining how the number ‘e’
came into existence, how infinite series can have a finite sum, how
derivatives were a much-awaited and badly needed idea and so on.
One by one they were overcome. The last hurdle, perhaps the most
difficult, was explaining the derivatives of cos  and sin  . When
that was overcome the way to the summit was clear and smooth. It
was then that I knew I could write this book.
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My third credential for writing this book is that I love words as
much as I love numbers. Most students who become graduates in
mathematics reach that destination via the science faculty. I came
to mathematics via the arts faculty. I was the only mathematics
teacher in Agrawal Classes with the M.A. degree. All others had
M.Sc. degrees. They studied physics and chemistry before entering
graduate class. I studied Sanskrit, world history and Shakespeare.
That is how I developed an equal love for words as for numbers.
And, pardon me if this amounts to self-praise, I did not let this love
of language wither after 18. I could cite many instances, much
evidence in support of this statement, but what little modesty I
possess forbids me to do so.

One thing however I will say with all the emphasis at my

command: for writing a book like this love of numbers is not
sufficient. Love of words too is essential, if the reader’s interest is
to be created and maintained till the end. I know mathematicians
regard words as useless baggage, look upon them as something the
dog brought in, want to kick them out and replace them with
symbols. Yet even they will concede that words have their uses.
What mathematician ever wrote a love-letter strictly using + – < =
> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0?

Consider this.

All civilizations, ancient or modern, Oriental or Occidental, look

upon childhood as the happiest part of our lives. Here’s how a
mathematician declares it:

‘It has been observed that grown-up people smile about 17 times a
day. For children the number is close to 300.’

And here’s how a poet chants it:

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 Trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison house begin to close
Upon the growing boy.

They say the same thing – one with amazing exactitude, the other
with sublime beauty. Who can say one man did it better than the
other?

Having stated the credentials which entitle me to write this book I

now turn to a few thoughts and ideas which may appear random
and mixed-up to the reader. To my mind however they are neither
random nor mixed-up. They are significant and relevant to the
endeavour whose outcome is in your hands.

A few lines back I said something about modesty. It reminds me of

an incident. It’s not just an incident. It’s a story with a powerful
moral.

A guide written for students preparing for the IIT JEE contained
the following problem:

The six faces of a cube are painted with six different colours. How
many such cubes can there be?

Deceptively simple, isn’t it?

The answer given in the guide was ‘one’.

Seems right, of course. Whichever way you turn a cube – upside

down, clockwise, anti-clockwise – it looks the same. So there can
be only one such cube.

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“Logical. Reasonable. Fair and square. What?” the guide’s author
seemed to say.

I did not agree.

My own answer was, there would be 15 such cubes.

A friend said, ‘720’.

We turned to an umpire: Professor Sharad Sane, who has a Ph.D.

from I.I.T., Bombay, in Combinatorics – just the branch of
mathematics that deals with such problems. It made him an
eminently qualified judge. He assured me that my answer was
correct, that the guide’s author and my friend were both wrong.

Consider why.

With respect to any one face of a cube we find that one face is
opposite to it while four faces are adjacent to it. For instance if you
place the cube on a table then with reference to the horizontal face
at the top the horizontal face at the bottom is the opposite face,
while the other four faces, which are vertical, are the adjacent
faces.

Also, the top horizontal face has no edge in common with the
bottom horizontal face. But it has one edge in common with each
vertical face which is adjacent to it. It’s the edge in which the
planes of the faces, one horizontal and the other vertical, meet or
intersect with each other.

(To institute a human comparison it is as if a man should have one

wife but four girl-friends.

To stretch the analogy a little further, the wife is not so close to

him, not so ‘adjacent’, as the girl-friends.
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In all sincerity I wish to apologize to feminists who smell male
chauvinism in the above comparison.)

Call the six faces, east west north south up and down.

Take two cubes. Paint any one face of each with the red colour.

Call it the ‘up’ face.

Now paint the opposite face, the ‘down’ face, with green in one
cube and blue in another cube. Paint the east west north south faces
any which way you like.

Then you have two cubes, one with red opposite green, the other
with red opposite blue.

How can they be identical?

To drive home the point with still more emphasis, I’ll ask you to
consider an example ‘nearer home’ so to speak. You have seen a
die with points one, two, three, four, five, six on its faces. You
have probably used one yourself in children’s games. Imagine one
die with 1 opposite 2, and another with 1 opposite 6. How can they
be identical?

So the answer ‘one’ is surely wrong.

(To know why 720 is wrong and also to know why 15 is right see
Appendix A)

And now comes the twist in the tale.

The author of the guide was no ordinary person, no second-rate

scribe or a halfpenny-per-word hack. He was a gold-medallist of a
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famous university, and author of forty books on mathematics, none
of which was meant for beginners. In fact they were meant for
graduate or post-graduate classes. Just imagine what a
mathematical scholar he must have been. The guide in which this
cube-problem occurred ran to 1780 magazine-sized pages. It
weighed two kilograms!

The powerful moral I spoke of is this: if such a learned man, such a

scholarly titan could go wrong what of humble folks like you and
me?

Let’s remember then that we are at the door of a temple of

learning. Let’s remember to take off the shoes of pride and
arrogance and wear the mantle of modesty, the hood of humility.
Let’s seek the reason why Hindu temples invariably have doors
which are only five feet in height. Or even less.

I have depended on young readers’ intuition in certain places. For

example when I wrote

  
lim sin      sin   0 
 0
 2 

I knew I was bringing in the concept of continuity by the back

door. But I had to do it or else the hurdle would never have been
surmounted. Intuition does help in such matters, in such places.

I have taken the liberty of writing statements like

n
4
lim    
 
n 3

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knowing full well that ‘   ’ should be changed to ‘does not exist’.
Wherever I had to choose between simplicity and rigour (which
means severe exactness) I have opted for simplicity. I daresay the
nature of this book demands simplicity rather than rigour.

A bibliography is conspicuous by its absence. The reason is not far

to seek. The field of mathematics abounds with books in which the
authors’ scholarship shines forth like the noonday sun. Set against
them mine would appear to be a book of children’s stories. Surely
books of children’s stories do not carry a bibliography.

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 PART ONE

THE PLAYERS

CHAPTER ONE

WHY MINUS TIMES MINUS IS PLUS

The equation this book is all about contains the five basic numbers
of mathematics, namely, 1, 0,  , i, e.

It is reasonable to assume that the reader is familiar with the first

three of these. I shall therefore proceed to introduce the fourth
player in the game – the number i. This chapter is, however, only
a curtain-raiser, a preparation for that event. The actual
introduction will take place in the second chapter.

A question which baffles every student of elementary algebra is the

one which is highlighted in the title of this chapter. Neither
teachers nor textbooks seem to be able to provide a satisfactory
explanation for it – at least in India. They simply state the rules:

()  ()  
(  )  ( )  
( )  (  )  
( )  (  )  

as though they were axiomatic and get on with their job.

Page 1 of 231
I have never been a school-teacher. I have absolutely no
experience of teaching ten or twelve year old children the basics of
algebra. So when I was confronted with the problem of offering a
justification for the above rules my predicament was indeed quite
serious.

I quizzed an experienced teacher. His reply was, “I’ll give you a

sentence. You tell me what it means in plain words.”

He scribbled a few words on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

I read, “It cannot be said that trains in India do not run on time.”

“It means ‘Trains in India run on time’,” I said.

“There you are! Two negatives make a positive, don’t they? It’s
the same in mathematics. Minus times minus is plus!” he said,
eyes gleaming with triumph.

“Does this explanation satisfy your pupils?” I asked, somewhat

hesitantly.

He was bursting with self-confidence. “You bet it does! It always

does. Their faces brighten with the light of understanding. Come
to my class and see for yourself.”

I declined the invitation. His explanation may have satisfied

twelve year old boys and girls. It can scarcely be said that it
satisfied me.

I had two options: Ask Google or work out my own explanation. I

chose the latter course of action. The outcome of my efforts is

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presented in the pages which follow. Whether the explanation is
satisfactory or not is for you to judge.

(After writing out my own explanation I looked up Google. Our

explanations tally, but that is a coincidence. Besides, I have given
two examples to reinforce the argument.)

To begin with let me ask you four questions. They involve the
most elementary arithmetic. Even an eight year old can answer
them correctly. So I am confident you will have no difficulty
whatever in answering them. Correct answers will ensure that you
will understand the concept involved in this chapter with
consummate ease.

Imagine a snail crawling along a line 20 metres long, marked with

numbers –10, –9, –8, ......., through 0, ....... to 8, 9, 10. Suppose the
speed of the snail is 2 metres per hour. Further suppose that the
snail is at 0 when the time is 12 noon. (It may have started from
one end or the other.) The length of the snail may be ignored.

Here are the four questions:

If the snail is crawling towards the right

i) where would it be at 3 p.m.?
ii) where was it at 9 a.m.?

(Fig. 1.1)

If it is crawling towards the left

iii) where would it be at 3 p.m.?
iv) where was it at 9 a.m.?

Page 3 of 231
 (Fig.1.2)

If your answers are +6, –6, –6, +6 respectively then you are
perfectly right. (If you got one or more answers wrong I’d urge
you to think again.)

Now consider what happens when signs are applied to the speed
and the time. In physics a combination of speed and direction is
called ‘velocity’. Let the right direction be taken as positive and
the left direction be taken as negative. So when the snail is
crawling towards the right its velocity is +2 metres per hour and
when it is crawling towards the left its velocity is –2 metres per
hour.

Assume that the number of hours after 12 noon shall be positive

and the number of hours before 12 noon shall be negative.

distance
Recall the elementary formula velocity = from which it
time
follows that distance = velocity  time.

Therefore if the snail is crawling towards the right (i.e. its velocity
is +2 metres per hour) then at 3 p.m. (i.e. when the time is +3
hours) it should be at the mark showing +6 as you pointed out
yourself. Briefly,

(+2)  (+3) = +6

Page 4 of 231
If it is crawling towards the right (velocity +2 metres per hour)
then at 9 a.m. (when time is –3 hours) it should be at –6, as you
said yourself. Briefly

(+2)  (–3) = –6

If it is crawling towards the left (velocity –2 metres per hour) then

at 3 p.m. (when time is +3 hours) it should, according to you, be at
–6. Briefly

(–2)  (+3) = –6

Finally if it is crawling towards the left (velocity –2 metres per

hour) then at 9 a.m. (when time is –3 hours) it should, by your own
lights, be at +6. Briefly,

(–2)  (–3) = +6

In these four equations ignore the numbers and focus your

attention on the signs. As is usually done, omit the multiplication
sign also. What do you observe?

(  )(  )  
(  )(  )  
( )(  )  
( )(  )  

These results are of very great importance in elementary algebra.

We shall therefore consider one more example in order to drive
home the point and ensure that it is deeply, firmly embedded in
your minds. This is of supreme importance because the conclusion

Page 5 of 231
we derive from it is going to be the cornerstone of a huge and
impressive mathematical edifice.

In this example money is involved. So we shall introduce an

imaginary unit of money. We’ll call it “astro”. There are two
reasons for doing so. One is that the value of a real unit of money
like the rupee or the dollar falls over the years. For example when
I started my career as a college teacher, back in 1964, the pay was
300 rupees per month. So precipitous has been the decline in the
value of the rupee that today the starting salary of a college teacher
is 30,000 rupees per month. It is the same with the dollar. There
was a time a hundred years ago, when dime and nickel stores
flourished all over the US. Today they will go out of business in
no time because a dime or a nickel can buy precious little. A
mathematician finds this situation quite irksome, accustomed as he
is to constancy of values. For him 2 plus 2 must always make 4
whether in Hong Kong or in Hammerfest, whether in times of
Caesar or of Churchill. So, an imaginary unit of money is called
for. It would serve the purpose well.

The second reason is that money has emotional overtones. If I

mentioned in my class that so-and-so received 500 rupees per week
as pocket money at least some students would turn green with envy
while at least one other student with father’s income equal to that
of Mr Lodge, (father of Veronica Lodge of Archie Comics fame)
would smile in derision. Such a situation must be avoided. So,
once again, an imaginary unit of money will do quite well.

So let’s think of a young man whose pocket money is 100 astros a

week. His ambition is to own a motorbike, for nothing delights
him so much as hearing the squeal of tyres on the asphalt or the
squeals of his girlfriend riding behind him when he goes way
beyond the speed limit. He’s been riding his father’s bike but is

Page 6 of 231
fed up with the old jalopy. A new bike costs 5,000 astros. His
father has told him, “I’ll give you half of that money if you’ll save
the other half”. So our young man – let’s call him Neil – begins to
save 50 astros a week. Assume that his bank balance (his mother
is acting as the banker) on New Year’s Day is zero. Answer two
questions:

i) What will be his bank balance after ten weeks?

ii) What was his bank balance ten weeks ago?

Now assume the opposite. Neil already has the bike but has met
with an accident, injured a senior citizen in the bargain, brought his
father’s wrath on his head and finds that his bike has been
ruthlessly impounded by the Paterfamilias. He vents his frustration
by living beyond his means. If he is overspending at the rate of 50
astros a week, answer two more questions:

iii) What will be his bank-balance after ten weeks?

iv) What was his bank balance ten weeks ago?

Your answers are correct if you said +500, –500, –500 and +500,
respectively.

Now count money saved as + and overspent as –. Count future as

+ and past as –.

If he is saving at the rate of 50 astros a week (which means +50)

then after ten weeks (which means +10) his bank balance will be,
as you said, +500 astros. Briefly,

(+50)  (+10) = +500

Page 7 of 231
(In plain language, avoiding signs, he started at 0 and went on
adding 50 astros a week, so in ten weeks he had got 500 astros in
the kitty.)

If he is saving at the rate of 50 astros a week (which means +50)

and his bank balance today is zero then ten weeks ago (which
means –10) it must have been, as you said, –500 astros. Briefly,

(+50)  (–10) = –500

(In plain language, without signs, if he was saving 50 astros a

week, and has zero balance today, then 10 weeks ago he must have
had a debt of 500 astros. In one week that debt fell to 450 astros,
in two weeks it fell to 400 astros and in ten weeks it came down to
zero.)

If he is overspending at the rate of 50 astros a week (which means

–50) then ten weeks down the line (which means +10) his bank
balance would be, as you correctly predicted, –500 astros. Briefly,

(–50)  (+10) = –500

(In plain language if he is at 0 astros today and overspending at the

rate of 50 astros a week then after 10 weeks he will have run up a
debt of 500 astros.)

Finally if he is overspending at the rate of 50 astros a week (which

means –50) and today he is at 0 astros then ten weeks ago (which
means –10) his bank balance must have been, as you correctly
pointed out, +500 astros. Briefly,

(–50)  (–10) = +500

Page 8 of 231
(In plain language if he is overspending at the rate of 50 astros a
week and is at 0 astros today, meaning empty pockets but no debt,
then in the past 10 weeks he has overspent 500 astros. Where did
they come from? They surely didn’t fall from the sky or grow out
of the ground. They must have been already there in the bank. In
one week 500 became 450. In two weeks it became 400. After
one more week it became 350, and so on. In ten weeks’ time it fell
to 0.)

Now ignore the numbers, concentrate only on the signs, and note
the four observations.

(  )(  )  
(  )(  )  
( )(  )  
( )(  )  

These rules – for that is exactly what they are, rules for multiplying
quantities which bear signs – have an extraordinary consequence.
Consider how.

Suppose x is a number different from zero. As such it is positive

or negative.

(We use the words ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ outside mathematics,

and frequently too. We urge a friend to ‘think positively’. When
we try to do something and fail we tell others ‘The result was
negative’. As a result of such uses we tend to lose sight of the
mathematical meaning of these words. So I hope I am not far
wrong if I presume that you have forgotten what the words mean in
mathematics. No problem. It’s my job to explain: positive means
‘greater than zero’ and negative means ‘less than zero’. Negative

Page 9 of 231
numbers always bear the minus sign. Positive numbers bear the
plus sign or no sign, it being understood that no sign means plus
sign.

Read on, but keep uppermost in your mind the four rules stated
above.)

Think of a non-zero number x. This means x  0 . As such x is

positive or negative.

If x is positive then x2, being the product of x with x, i.e. of positive

with positive, must be positive. By the first rule of signs stated
above.

If x is negative then x2, being the product of x with x, i.e. of

negative with negative, must again be positive. By the fourth rule
of signs stated above.

In short whatever x may be x2 must always be positive. Briefly, in

symbols:

If x  0 then x 2  0

And what if x is equal to zero?

Then surely x2 will also be zero, for x 2  x.x  0.0  0

Combining the two statements (when x  0 and x  0 ) we get:

If x is any number then x 2  0 or x 2  0

Page 10 of 231
In other words, the third possibility, x 2  0 , is in reality
impossible. To put it a little differently, an equation like x 2  1
can never be true.

Such an equation was therefore looked upon as sheer nonsense,

meaningless gibberish. For it went against the rule stated above –
ironclad rule, as inexorable as the laws of nature, like fire burns or
poison kills.

That was the situation from the times of Pythagoras to about the
middle of the second millennium A.D., a span of roughly two
thousand years. Nobody could think of an exception to the rule. It
was simply unimaginable, utterly inconceivable.

Until Giovanni came along.

Page 11 of 231
 CHAPTER TWO

WHAT GIOVANNI DID

He was a young lad, a stripling of a mere fifteen years. His father

was the headmaster of a school in Ravenna, a town on the east
coast of Italy. The man had the strength of an ox and the fierce
visage of a lion. He exuded authority from every pore of his being.
Unlike other teachers he seldom used a cane. He didn’t need to.
One hard slap of his hand on the cheek or on the posterior was
sufficient to bring tears to the eyes of his wards and turn them back
to the path of correct behaviour or moral rectitude.

Giovanni had taken after his mother, a sweet and gentle woman of
lovely mien. He was a bright kid, of smiling face and eyes
sparkling with intelligence. He was a keen student too. At times
he had surprised his father by solving a problem in an unexpected
way. His father had taught him all he knew of algebra and
geometry and introduced him to trigonometry a few weeks earlier.
The boy had taken to the subject as a duck takes to water. His
father had explained that the cosine of an angle of a right-angled
triangle was the ratio of the side adjacent to the angle to the
hypotenuse. The boy dutifully wrote in his notebook
opp

adjacent side
Cosine of an angle =
hypotenuse
adj
(Fig. 2.1)

Page 12 of 231
Then, sometime later, father quizzed the boy.

“Why must the cosine of an angle be less than one?”

Promptly the boy had replied, “The cosine of an angle must be less
than one because the adjacent side has to be less than the
hypotenuse.”

The father’s face glowed with satisfaction when he heard the reply.
Later he had introduced the cosine rule to the boy – the rule which
connects the sides of a triangle with the cosines of its angle, viz.

b2  c 2  a2
cos A 
2bc

After the boy had solved the usual questions based on the rule the
father decided to ask a teacher to test the boy.

The teacher put a teaser to the lad.

“Think of a triangle whose sides are 1, 3 and 5.”

“But sir, such a triangle is impossible.”

“Why?”

“Because two sides of a triangle must together be greater than the

third. Here 1 and 3 are together less than 5.”

“Correct,” said the teacher, beaming with pleasure. “Now use

cosine rule to prove that such a triangle is impossible.”

Page 13 of 231
The teacher had expected the boy to be puzzled. Giovanni was
indeed puzzled, but only for a short while. A few minutes went by,
a few calculations were scribbled on paper and his answer was
ready.

“The cosine of one of the angles of the triangle is equal to,” the
teacher read,

“ 52  32  12 25  9  1 25  8 33 11
     1 1
253 253 10  3 10  3 10

and that is clearly impossible because the cosine of an angle of a

triangle must be less than 1. Therefore such a triangle is
impossible.”

“Good” the teacher remarked. Later he spoke in glowing terms to

the boy’s father.

Giovanni’s father was no doubt heartened by the teacher’s report.

He had great hopes for the boy. He had planned the career of a
university professor for him. It was, as might easily be guessed,
his own unfulfilled ambition.

But of late he had begun to have some misgivings. The boy

sometimes revealed a tendency to fly off at a tangent, to indulge in
childish reverie. ‘No harm is done,’ father thought, ‘if the
tendency is kept under control. But what if it gets out of hand?
What if the boy takes after his mother’s brother – a poet, and also a
wastrel. Showed early promise but burnt out. Died young. Must
make the boy work hard. Perseverance! That’s what he needs, in
large doses too!’

Page 14 of 231
The father did what an anxious father and a stern headmaster
would do under the circumstance. He gave the boy scores of
problems to solve. He diligently checked the solutions, corrected
the mistakes which were few and far between, and was on the
whole pleased with the boy’s performance.

Hope surged within his breast.

One of the sets of problems was about quadratic equations. And

one of the problems was

Solve the equation x2 –2x + 2 = 0

The expected answer was:

x2 –2x + 1 +1 = 0

  x  1  1  0
2

Subtract 1 from both sides.

  x  1  1  1  0  1
2

  x  1  1  1  1
2

  x  1   1
2

This is impossible, because a square cannot be negative. Therefore

the equation has no solution.

Page 15 of 231
Giovanni had done exactly what was expected of him. He had
faithfully set down those equations and stated the conclusion. But
his mind would not let the problem go away.

‘If there cannot be a number whose square is negative, if such a

number does not exist, why can’t we imagine it? Don’t we
imagine things that do not exist? Don’t we imagine things like
fairies, elves, imps, ghosts, one-eyed monsters, horses with horns
on their noses, sirens, mermaids and gorgons with snakes growing
out of their heads instead of hair? So why can’t we imagine a
number whose square is negative?’

‘Nonsense!’ Giovanni said to himself. ‘Fairies, ghosts and

monsters are for children. You are not a child any more. Grow up
and think like a man. Besides, you are not telling or listening to
fairy tales. You are doing mathematics, solving real problems like
finding the weight of a sphere or the volume of a pyramid. So stop
imagining things and get down to business.’

The debate raged fiercely within Giovanni’s little mind, leaving

him nonplussed for a while. But the idea would not leave him,
would not let him go. He was like a man possessed.

‘Why not? Why not?’ he repeatedly asked himself. Finally he

dared to put down his ideas on paper. He decided to imagine a
number whose square is –1. ‘I’ll call it i,’ he said to himself. ‘It’s
right because i stands for imaginary.

i2  1

Now  x  1   1
2

Page 16 of 231
 becomes  x  1  i 2
2

Therefore x  1   i

 x = 1 i

 x  1+i or 1  i

‘Yeah!’ he almost yells with delight. ‘Like all other quadratic

equations this one too has two solutions. I must show this to
Father.

‘No! Wait! Don’t do that! Don’t be hasty. First check whether

the solutions are right. Father told me again and again, when you
solve an equation correctly and you put that value back into the
equation in place of x and calculate, you find that the equation is
satisfied, meaning you get a true result like 0  0. You don’t have
to worry whether you are right or wrong. The equation itself will
tell you that. So –

x2  2x  2  0

Put x  1  i

(In what follows question marks indicate that the truth of the
statement is being checked.)

1  i   2 1  i   2  0
2
(?)

1  2i  i 2  2  2i  2  0 (?)

Page 17 of 231
 1  2i  i 2  2  2i  2  0 (?)

1  2i  i 2  2i  0 (?)

1  2i  i 2  2i  0 (?)

1+i 2  0 (?)

1  1  0 (?)

1  1  0 (?)

0  0 ()

Yeah! It works! It works! IT WORKS!’

Giovanni is beside himself with joy. But like a young man who is
wise for his years he controls his excitement. ‘The other root is yet
to be tested. Don’t forget that,’ he cautions himself. So again

x2  2x  2  0

Put x  1  i

1  i   2 1  i   2  0
2

 1  i   2  2i  2  0
2
(?)

1  2i  i 2  2  2i  2  0 (?)

Page 18 of 231
 1  2i  i 2  2  2i  2  0 (?)

1  2i  i 2  2i  0 (?)

1  2i  i 2  2i  0 (?)

1+i 2  0 (?)

1  1  0 (?)

1  1  0 (?)

0  0 ()

Now he can throw all constraints to the winds and dance for joy.
He can scarcely hold back his excitement. He wants to show his
invention to his father. But there he is in for a crushing
disappointment. No sooner he says, “Let’s imagine that there is a
number whose square is –1. Let’s call it ‘i’” than his father
explodes in fearful wrath. “I will imagine no such thing. We are
learning mathematics, not telling fairy tales. There is no scope
here for imagining crazy things. My father never imagined
anything like what you say, nor his father, nor his father’s father.
We all got by without your fancy ideas. Your uncle told you lots
of fairy tales when you were young. I used to worry, will any good
come out of it. Now I know. The Devil has taken hold of your
mind. Go away before I raise my hand to beat him out of your
brains.”

Giovanni is devastated. He goes inside the house and sits at the

kitchen table. Tears run down his cheeks and stain the book in
front of him. His mother’s heart goes out to him. She goes and

Page 19 of 231
sits on a chair beside him and tries to comfort him. “I am sorry for
you, mon ami, I really am. But don’t be angry with your father.
‘A wise youth accepts his father’s rebuke’ doesn’t the Good Book
say?”

“Oh, Mother! So you too are on father’s side. You always are!
You never understand me. Oh God! Would that uncle was here!
He would have understood. God! Why did you have to take him
away so early?”

She holds his head close to her bosom, strokes it gently and asks,
“What happened? Tell me.”

He tries to explain but is thwarted by her inability to comprehend.

“Oh, Mother! You won’t understand,” he exclaims, flinging down
the pen in frustration.

Iron enters the mother’s soul. She resolves that her child would
get justice – at least a fair hearing.

But how?

What does a woman do when her mind is torn between love for her
child and fear of her husband?

She talks the matter over with a friend.

“Don’t worry,” the friend assures her. “I know a gentleman who is

Professor of mathematics in the University of Ravenna. I’ll try to
get him to look into the matter.”

Page 20 of 231
They have to wait till the boy’s father is out of the picture. He is
taking a team of schoolboys to an athletic meet in another town
two weeks thence. This is their chance.

They are ushered into the Professor’s study – the two ladies and
the boy. The Professor stands up to receive them, keeps standing
until the ladies are seated. There and then he wins the boy’s heart.

“Well, what can I do for you, young man,” the professor asks with
mock-respectfulness. His eyes twinkle with admiration. Already
the smartly turned out boy, his face shining with intelligence, has
made a good impression on him.

Just for a moment, Giovanni is tongue-tied.

“Is it a difficulty that you want me to solve?” the Professor asks,

gently prodding the boy to speak.

For the briefest moment, for a fraction of a second the mother’s

heart sinks. Will her child remain speechless, awestruck by the
august presence? Will the battle be lost even before it had begun?

But the boy finds speech. The sigh of relief which escapes his
mother’s lips is almost audible.

“It’s not exactly a difficulty, sir. I have thought of a new idea. But
I wonder if it is right.”

“Really?” the professor asks in mock-seriousness. “Show me.” A

smile of amusement plays on his lips.

Again the mother’s heart sinks.

Page 21 of 231
Timidity deserts Giovanni. Boldness takes its place. Self-
confidence asserts itself. He realizes that this is his one and only
opportunity. He must seize it, make the most of it. It’s now or
never!

“My father gave me this equation to solve. I solved it the usual

way, sir. These are the steps, right sir?”

The professor glances at the steps and at the conclusion drawn

from them (‘The equation has no solution’) and pronounces
judgement: “Yes.”

The two ladies exchange glances. Giovanni’s mother is dead

serious, but her friend smiles faintly.

The boy has done a clever thing. He has written the five steps
from

x2  2x  2  0 to

 x  1
2
 1

and the conclusion derived from them on one page. But his own
invention, the number i, he has hidden away on the next page.
Now he turns the page and reveals his hand.

“Everybody says there cannot be a number whose square is –1.

Such a number does not exist. But I say, if it does not exist why
not imagine it? Why not imagine a number whose square is –1?
That is what I have done, sir,” the boy speaks excitedly. His voice
is faintly tremulous, but confidence exudes from every fibre of his

Page 22 of 231
being as he explains his solutions and how testing shows that they
are indeed correct.

The smile vanishes from the Professor’s lips.

The boy has played his cards well. He had realized that reference
to fairy tales would be foolish, that for a man of learning
arguments about monsters and gorgons hold no water. He has
taken care to leave them out. The professor seems impressed. He
stares at the boy.

Giovanni stares back at him, unabashed. Their stare lasts a trifle

too long.

Deep sinking feeling in the pit of the mother’s stomach.

“Suppose I give you another equation. Will you solve it your

way?” the Professor asks with only the faintest trace of challenge
in his voice.

“I’ll try,” Giovanni responds.

“Here you are,” the professor says. He writes down an equation on

the boy’s notebook:

x2 – 6x + 13= 0

Giovanni stares at it for just a fraction of a second and then starts

writing with a flourish.

x2 – 6x + 13= 0

 x2  6 x  9  4  0

Page 23 of 231
   x  3  4  0
2

  x  3  4  4  0  4
2

  x  3   4  4  4
2

  x  3   4
2

  x  3  4  1
2

  x  3  4i 2
2

 x  3  2i

 x  3  2i

 x  3  2i or x  3  2i

He hands the book back to the Professor.

“Check your solution,” the Professor commands.

“I will, sir,” Giovanni responds.

x2 – 6x + 13= 0

Put x = 3 + 2i

Page 24 of 231
   3  2i   6  3  2i   13  0
2
(?)

 9  12i  4i 2  18  12i  13  0 (?)

 9  12i  4  1  18  12i  13  0 (?)

 9  4  18  13  0 (?)

 9  13   4  18   0 (?)

 22  22  0 (?)

0  0 ()

Put x = 3 – 2i

  3  2i   6  3  2i   13  0
2
(?)

 9  12i  4i 2  18  12i  13  0 (?)

 9  12i  4  1  18  12i  13  0 (?)

 9  4  18  13  0 (?)

 22  22  0 (?)

0  0 ()

The professor reads it carefully. Then he stares at the boy again.

Giovanni stares back at him. A faint smile hovers on his lips. He

Page 25 of 231
has a secret which he will never tell the Professor. He knew the
equation which the Professor gave him beforehand. At home he
had tried out his idea on a number of equations. One of them was
just what the Professor gave him. So he had come to the battle
forearmed with preparation. But the Professor must not know this.

It is the professor’s turn to speak. Caution possesses him. He

knows from experience that imaginative ideas, fanciful solutions
don’t always work out in practice. Many of them hit a stumbling
block and come down with a crash. Then those who promote them
with enthusiasm become the butt of ridicule, are filled with
chagrin. And ridicule is what he can hardly afford considering his
hoary age and the dignity that attaches to his position. So he has to
proceed warily, take time, be circumspect. Perhaps the boy
himself would reveal a chink in his armour. He has to invite him
to speak.

“Is there anything else you want to tell me?” he asks.

“Yes sir,” Giovanni responds. “You remember the trigonometric

identity cos 2 A  sin 2 A  1 ?”

“I do.”

“Well, consider a triangle whose sides are 1, 3, 5….”

“But ............ But such a triangle – ”

“I know sir. I know it doesn’t exist. But let’s apply the cosine rule
to it all the same. The result is interesting.”

“Go on.”

Page 26 of 231
“The cosine of one of its angles is
2
5  3 1
2 2
25  9  1 33
   1.1 . Right, sir?”
2.5.3 30 30

“Yes.”

“Let’s find the sine of the same angle.

sin 2 A
 1  cos 2 A
 1  1.1
2

 1  1.21
 0.21

 sin A
 0.21
 ( 1)(0.21)
 1 0.21
 i 0.21

Do you notice sir, the triangle is impossible, the sine of its angle is
imaginary. Isn’t that interesting, sir?”

The ladies are watching. Intently, almost breathlessly.

“Didn’t you show all this to your father?” the Professor asks.

“He did, sir” the friend speaks. “But his father refused even to
look at it. He said it’s nonsense.”

Page 27 of 231
The Professor looks at the boy’s mother. She is looking down. A
few seconds go by. She looks up. Long face. Deep sadness. Tears
......... He turns his gaze away, looks at Giovanni. The boy’s lower
lip is quivering. ‘Quick. Say something. Do something,’ his mind
tells him.

He takes a deep breath before he finds speech. “Nonsense is not

the right thing to say. Young people need encouragement.
Anyway, give me a week’s time. Please come back next week.”

Out of desperation the mother finds the courage to speak. “The

boy’s father is out of town, sir. So we came to see you without his
knowledge. He’ll be back by Sunday. Next week will not be
possible, sir.”

“All right. Give me two days. Just two days. I need time to look
at the idea from all angles. I hope you understand.”

Two days later the two ladies visit the professor with Giovanni in
tow. They find another gentleman beside the Professor.

“My friend Professor Carlo Pinetta ....... We both teach

mathematics at the University ......... Well, I have good news for
you madam. Very good news in fact. As soon as you left I sat
down with a book of algebra, applied your son’s idea to solve
certain equations which were without any solution. In each case I
found two solutions. I verified each solution and found it to be
correct. I was thoroughly impressed. I sent word to my friend
asking him to come over and look at the whole lot. He did. We
were both convinced that your son has hit upon a great idea. Then
we looked for harder equations. In some cases only one solution
was available but the problem indicated three solutions. Your

Page 28 of 231
son’s method gave us the two solutions which had eluded
everybody. Then we went higher. Four solutions indicated but
only two found. Your boy’s method supplied the missing two.
Then harder equations. Four solutions indicated, none found.
Your son presented us with all four. We have been working on
this idea day and night for the past ‒ What happened madam? Are
you all right madam? Forgive me if I said something wrong. Did
I, madam?”

“You didn’t, sir!” the friend speaks. “You surely didn’t! It’s the
tension, sir. Before we came here my poor friend here believed the
worst. That you too would dismiss the boy as some sort of a crank.
The relief has been immense, sir. Too great for her to bear. So she
fainted. But she’ll be all right. Trust me, she’ll be all right.”

The maid brings a glass of water. With trembling hands

Giovanni’s mother helps herself. Then she wipes her eyes with a
handkerchief.

“Forgive me madam for making you cry. I didn’t mean to. I swear
by all that is holy, all that is godly .......”

Giovanni’s mother crosses herself, then smiles through her tears.

‘Mother looks so beautiful,’ Giovanni thinks.

“Your words are like music to our ears, sir,” the friend speaks.
“Please go on. Please don’t blame yourself, sir.”

Feeling relieved, the professor goes into more details. But the
ladies are out of their depth. The boy has a dim idea that what he
has done is something marvellous. He is thrilled but doesn’t know
what to say.

Page 29 of 231
“Forgive me sir,” Giovanni’s mother says when she finds speech.
“I’m a poor woman, uneducated, ignorant. I can hardly explain all
this to the boy’s father. Will you ......” her voice quivers with
emotion. “Will you please ...... write it down ...... for me, sir?”

“I have written it down, madam. I already have. Everything is

here, in this letter. Please ask your husband to read it. We are all
praise for your son. Both Professor Pinetta and I. He too has
signed the letter.”

After thanking the two men profusely the ladies take their leave. It
need hardly be said that Giovanni glided homeward like a skylark
in spring.

“I dare not tell my husband what we’ve done. I fear his anger so.
Will you stand by my side when I show him the letter?”
Giovanni’s mother pleads with her friend.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be there. I know how to deal with people like
him. My husband is no different. The brute!”

Both women bask in the warm sunshine of righteous indignation at

menfolk’s domination.

The day of reckoning arrives.

“I have something to tell you, sir” the friend speaks, when they
confront the headmaster. Her voice has an edge, her eye a steely
glint. The man recognizes authority when he sees it.

“While you were away sir, we, meaning your wife and I, did
something which won’t be to your liking. We knew it, yet we did it
because we had to.”

Page 30 of 231
“I don’t understand.”

“We went over your head.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“We went to a person of superior authority, as far as mathematics

is concerned. We went to Prof ...... of the University of Ravenna.
We showed him the idea developed by little Giovanni. He had
showed it to you first, like any dutiful son, with filial piety in his
breast. He did. But you crushed it underfoot.”

“Did I? I don’t remember.”

“It is quite natural for you to forget, sir. But your wife didn’t. She
told me all about it. So we decided to approach the professor.”

“What did he say?”

“He says it’s a great idea. One of the most remarkable ideas he’s
ever seen. He says the boy has a great future. He’s put down
everything in a letter addressed to you.”

“Where’s the letter?”

“Here, sir. I hope you will treat it with the respect it deserves.”

The headmaster reads the letter. His hands are trembling when he
finishes it.

“Go call Giovanni” he commands.

Page 31 of 231
“Are you going to beat him?” the mother asks, fearing her
husband’s wrath.

“When will you understand your husband, woman?” he hisses in

anger. “Go call him.”

The boy too is afraid of his father. But one look at his mother’s
friend tells him that she is in command of the situation. Fear
deserts him. He steps forward gingerly.

The thick-set father figure envelops the boy in a bear hug. For a
few moments the boy sways forward and backward, almost losing
his balance. Then the father releases him. The boy sees tears
streaming down the man’s cheeks.

Giovanni wonders why. He has never seen his father cry.

“Forgive me, Father,” the man says, looking heavenward. “I was

unfair to my son.”

“You did no wrong, papa,” Giovanni says.

“What does the letter say?” the friend demands. There is a

peremptory note in her voice. It brings the man back to his senses.

“It says ...... There’s going to be…. a conference of

mathematicians…. from all over Europe ...... in Rome this
summer,” the man speaks, his voice breaking with emotion. “Our
son will be invited…. to read a paper ….before that conference......
Think of it,” he says, turning to his wife, “Think of it, Darling.
Our little Geo, ... not yet sixteen, ...... is going to read a paper
before all those bigwigs, ...... before all those scholars ...... from
Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, ...... our own people too, ...... from

Page 32 of 231
Bologna, Padua ...... before all of them he’s going to read a paper
...... and they are going to listen ...... listen respectfully ...... Come,
my child,” he says, drawing the boy near and embracing him,
“you’ve made us proud. You have ...... You’re going to do what
your poor, blundering father always wanted to do ...... You’re
going to set the Tiber on fire.”

Did all this really happen?

Perhaps it did. More likely it didn’t. If it did, history has no

record of it.

What is recorded in history is the subject matter of the next

chapter.

Page 33 of 231
 CHAPTER THREE

COMPLEX NUMBERS

I have made it out as if the number i arrived on the mathematical

scene with a bang.

It didn’t really happen that way. It came in as unobtrusively as a

poor maid serving finger bowls at the end of a gala dinner.
Wherever it was necessary or convenient mathematicians changed
–1 to i2. If i3 occurred it was split into i 2  i which became  1 i
i.e. –i. If i4 occurred it was changed to good old 1 because
i 4  i 2  i 2   1 1  1 .

This went on for some time, half a century perhaps. Then it began
to dawn upon mathematicians that i, the imaginary unit as it is
called, had altered the number system. Not just altered it but
enlarged it, expanded it. It had created a new class of numbers
called ‘complex numbers’. Like the famous character Jeeves in a
P. G. Wodehouse novel it had come in silently, stood in a corner,
shimmering with intelligence, quiet confidence and genteel
modesty befitting his station in life – and gone on from there to
work out the most incredible solutions to the problems of young
aristocrats and their damsels in distress.

First understand that when a new thing arrives on an old and

familiar scene it becomes necessary to give a name also to the old
thing it has supplanted. This happens all the time. The new
inhabitants of the Americas after Columbus were the Whites or
European settlers. What about the old inhabitants? They needed a
name too. They became Red Indians.

Page 34 of 231
So while the new numbers came to be called imaginary numbers
2
the old, familiar numbers (1, 2, 3, ......,0,… –1, –2, –3, ......, ,
3
3
, ......, 2 , ......, , ......) came to be called ‘Real Numbers’.
4

The definition of a real number is a tricky business. It’s very

difficult. Anyway, we don’t have to worry about it. It’s sufficient
for us to understand the following property:

If x is a real number then x2  0 or x2  0.

(This was made clear at the end of the previous chapter. There x
was called ‘any number’ because the name ‘real number’ had not
been introduced till then.)

In other words the square of a real number is positive or zero –

better, the square of a real number is non-negative.

The imaginary unit i is diametrically opposite of this. Its square is

–1 i.e. it is negative.

A single imaginary unit is sufficient. More are not needed. If the

square of a number is –2 then writing –2 as 2(–1) i.e. 2i2 i.e.
 2i   
2 2
or  2i we can say that the number itself is either 2i
or  2i . Similarly the number whose square is –3 is 3i or
 3i .

(Pardon me for digressing into chemistry. I have to do it because

the analogy it provides us is perfect.)

Page 35 of 231
Have you ever tried mixing water with kerosene? They don’t mix.
Kerosene floats on top of water. The line of separation between
them is clear and distinct. Give the bottle a vigorous shake and
you’ll find the water molecules and kerosene molecules getting
thoroughly mixed. But not for long. They separate in the
twinkling of an eye. It’s once again water below and kerosene
above.

Real numbers and imaginary numbers do likewise. They don’t

mix. They stay apart. So we have combination numbers like 2+3i,
1 3
 i, 2  3 i ......
2 4

(Writing the i part in the second position is customary. You could

very well write the i part first if that is what you like.)

These combination numbers are called ‘complex numbers.’ Thus a

complex number is a number of the form a + ib where a and b are
real numbers.

A real number such as 2 or 2 or  could also be written as

2  i0

or 2  i0

or   i  0 ,

which makes it a complex number also. Therefore real numbers

are included among complex numbers. This is often not
remembered, leading to much confusion, even among teachers. It
happened way back in the 1960’s. Mr. C, a professor from a well-

Page 36 of 231
known college in Bombay, India, set the mathematics paper for the
first year students of Science of the Bombay University. One of
the questions read: “Solve the following equation and state
whether the roots are real or complex.” Afterwards he was
confronted by Mrs. K, a professor from another college.

“What do you mean by asking such a stupid question?” she

demanded. “I have taught my students that a real number is also a
complex number. How do you expect them to answer your idiotic
query?”

To use an exquisite phrase coined by the famous management

guru, Northcote Parkinson, poor C was reduced to “twittering
ineptitude.”

(The proper way to ask the question is: State whether the roots are
real or imaginary.)

To save the reader from such embarrassment, such shameful

discomfiture, the following set of rules is stated as clearly as
possible:

Assume that a and b are real numbers. They combine to form the
complex number a  ib (or a  bi).

If a  0, b  0 then a  ib  0  i0  0 which is the number

zero.

If a  0 , b  0 then a  ib  a which means a non-zero real

number.

If a  0, b  0 then a  ib  ib. This is called a purely imaginary

number.

Page 37 of 231
If a  0 , b  0 then a  ib is called an imaginary number.

All these four types of numbers are known by the name of

‘complex numbers’.

I must answer one question which I can see hovering on your lips:

Are complex numbers of any use, any practical use?

The answer is, ‘Yes’. A loud, thunderous, uproarious,’YES’.

Electrical engineering for instance makes great use of complex

numbers. Its mathematics is heavily dependent on the complex
number system. Aviation engineering too uses complex numbers.
The cross-section of the wings of an airplane has to have a
particular shape so that they offer the least resistance to air. That
shape is determined by a combination of geometry and complex
numbers.

One last question before we move on: Are Complex Numbers the
end of the road as far as the Number System is concerned? Or did
it undergo further development?

The answer is, it did undergo further development. A new kind of

number was indeed developed. It was invented by an Irish
mathematician, called William Rowan Hamilton. It’s a name
which deserves to be taken in the same breath as the names of four
other Irish greats, the military hero known as the Duke of
Wellington, dramatists George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde,
and poet W. B. Yeats.

Page 38 of 231
(To Yeats goes the credit of bringing poet Rabindranath Tagore to
the attention of the West. He was instrumental in India getting her
first Nobel prize. Yeats too had won the Nobel prize for
literature.)

Born in 1805 the boy Hamilton showed signs at early age of

becoming a child-prodigy. According to E. T. Bell, author of short
(and extremely readable!) biographies of famous mathematicians a
scholarly cleric on his father’s side took charge of the boy and
burdened his mind with ‘useless’ languages like Chaldean,
Sanskrit and Hebrew. A lesser intellect than Hamilton’s would
have been crushed. The boy would have become a spent force, a
burnt candle at sixteen. It speaks volumes for the mental resilience
of the teenager that he endured the wretched regimen with fortitude
and went on to become a great mathematician.

His contribution to the theory of electromagnetics has made

history. What concerns us here is another remarkable achievement
of his – the expansion of the number system. The system invented
by him is known as Quaternions. It’s based on three imaginary
units which he called i, j, k. He had been thinking about the
relations between them, off and on, for fifteen years. Still the
desired equations eluded him. Then all of a sudden the whole set
of equations became clear to him as it were in a blinding flash of
lightning. He was in a town somewhere in the British Isles
walking across a bridge with his wife, on a fine summer morning.
He saw the equations clearly, vividly, and wanted to write them
down, but feared that his memory might be clouded over and the
equations lost sight of if he waited to reach his hotel and there set
them down on paper. He had to do something quickly, urgently.
He saw a slab of wet cement on the bridge and a fantastic idea
occurred to him. Taking out a pen-knife he bent down and etched
the equations on the slab.

Page 39 of 231
 i 2  j 2  k 2  ijk  1

This done, his heart was rest. Back in Dublin he developed the
idea of Quaternions and presented it in a paper to the Royal
Society. It was received with sincere admiration in mathematical
circles. We can do little more than skim the surface to grasp the
idea. A quaternion is a set of four real numbers x0, x1, x2, x3 linked
together by the numbers i, j, k in the following form

x0 + x1i + x2j + x3k

Real numbers are included among quaternions because the real

number x0 can also be written as

x0  0i  0 j  0k

Complex numbers are also included among quaternions because

the complex number a  ib can be thought of as

a  ib  0 j  0k

So a quaternion becomes a sort of super-complex number. The

quaternion number system was indeed looked upon as an
expansion of the complex number system and much of nineteenth
century physics was “couched in the language of quaternions” (to
quote the authors Birkhoff and Maclaine). Hamilton basked in the
glory of his achievement.

Unfortunately for him however, Quaternions lost their relevance,

their raison detre, in about fifty years’ time when new and easier

Page 40 of 231
methods were developed. Undergraduates are familiar with them.
They are known as ‘Vector methods’.

Glamour turned into glimmer for Hamilton. The lights were

dimmed. But they were not completely put out. A famous
theorem by another mathematician, Frobenius, was based on
Quaternions.

Hamilton died a deeply saddened man. First his mathematical

powers waned, almost deserted him. Then his wife, a companion
of thirty years, died, leaving him an emotional wreck. A profound
gloom settled on him. In the last few years of his life his study
used to be in shambles, with books gathering dust, papers started
but not finished, letters received but not opened, plates of food
half-eaten, ......

He died at the age of 60.

What happened to the slab of wet cement with Hamilton’s

equations carved on it?

The civic authorities of the town had the good sense to realize that
their city had witnessed an exceedingly remarkable event. They
have preserved the slab. They look upon it with pride and consider
it the chief glory of the town, their ticket to the Hall of Fame.

It is still there on the bridge.

Page 41 of 231
 CHAPTER FOUR

A MILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION

The word ‘sequence’ occurs frequently in mathematics. Its

mathematical definition is as follows:

A sequence is a set of numbers in one-to-one correspondence with

the set of natural numbers.

The set of natural numbers (N) is well-known: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, …..

So a set of numbers in one-to-one correspondence with N will

appear as
a1,a2,a3,a4, ......, an , ......

You can thus arrange the terms of a sequence in such a way that
you can say with justification, ‘This is the first term of the
sequence, this is the second, this is the third, this is the fourth’ and
so on. You can thus state, again with justification, a formula for
the n th term of the sequence. Further you can then state the tenth,
the fortyfifth, the hundred and sixteenth terms of the sequence if
asked to do so.

For example if the sequence is

1 1 1 1
1, , , , ,.......
2 3 4 5

1
then its n th term is i.e.
n

Page 42 of 231
 1
an 
n

1 1 1
then the terms mentioned above would be , , and .
10 45 116

If the sequence comes to an end, if there is a term in it which could

justifiably be called the last term then the sequence is called a
‘finite sequence’. If it is endless, if every term is followed by
another then it is called an ‘infinite sequence’.

The whole sequence is denoted by the symbol  an  .

A few examples of infinite sequences are as follows:

 n 2  :1,4,9,16, 25,.......

 n 3  :1,8,27,64,125,....

n 1 2 3 4 5
  : , , , , ,....
n 1 2 3 4 5 6

 2n  : 2,4,6,8,10,....

 2n  1 :1,3,5,7,9,.....

The last two are easily recognisable. They are, respectively, the
sequence of even integers and the sequence of odd integers.

The sequence which interests us in particular in this chapter is the

infinite sequence

Page 43 of 231
 a n  : a1 , a 2 , a 3 , a 4 , a 5 ,...

which is the sequence of powers of a number ‘ a ’. It is assumed

here that a is positive.

(The first term a1 is usually written without the index 1.)

Three cases arise with regard to this sequence, the first of which is
trivial but the other two are significant.

Case I: a  1

In this case

 a n   1,12 ,13 ,14 ,15 ,....

= 1,1,1,1,1,…….

Every term of this sequence is equal to 1. The sequence is

considered trivial because it does not lead to any remarkable
discovery.

Case II: a  1

2
If for example a  then the sequence is
3
2 3 4 5
2 2 2 2 2
,   ,   ,   ,   ,....
3  3  3  3  3

2 4 8 16 32
i.e. , , , , ,....
3 9 27 81 243

Page 44 of 231
In decimals, up to four places,

0.6667, 0.4444, 0.2963, 0.1975, 0.1317,……

It is obvious that these numbers go on decreasing. For example the

tenth term of the sequence is 0.0173 and its twentieth term is
0.0003. The decreasing goes on ceaselessly, indefinitely. The
numbers in the sequence, it may therefore be said, come nearer and
nearer to zero as n increases indefinitely.

This is expressed by saying:

n
2
  tends to zero as n tends to infinity;
 3

or, using symbols ,

n
2
   0 as n   ,
 3

Or, if we may use the word ‘limit’, (shortened to ‘lim’),

n
2
lim   = 0 (1)
n
 3

The equality sign does not mean that any number in the sequence
is actually zero. This can never happen. If you had an extremely
powerful calculator, capable of giving you the thousandth term of
the sequence, you would find in its decimal expression a long

Page 45 of 231
string of zeroes after the decimal point. But at the end of the string
a non-zero digit is sure to appear.

The same thing will happen if we took another value of a which is

4
less than 1, say . In this case the sequence is
5
2 3 4 5
4 4 4 4 4
,  ,  ,  ,   ,....
5 5 5 5  5

4 16 64 256 1024
i.e. , , , , ,....
5 25 125 625 3125

In decimals, up to four places,

0.8000, 0.6400, 0.5120, 0.4096, 0.3277,….

Here too the numbers go on decreasing, a bit more slowly than

before, but decrease the surely do. The tenth term of the sequence
is
1048576
9765625

which is 0. 1074 and its twentieth term is 0.0115.

Here too then one can conclude that

n
4
   0 as n  
5

Page 46 of 231
 n
4
or, lim    0 (2)
 
n 5

99
What if the number is close to 1, for example ? To put it a
100
little differently would

n
 99 
   0 as n   ?
 100 

99
The answer is, ‘Yes, it would.’ The first five powers of are, up
100
to four places of decimals,

0.9900, 0.9801, 0.9703, 0.9606, 0.9510.

Its tenth power is 0.9044 and its twentieth power is 0.8179. The
tending to zero is happening, very slowly no doubt, but happen it
surely does – inevitably, inexorably, unstoppably. Thus

n
 99 
   0 as n  
 100 

n
 99 
or, lim   0 (3)

n 100


Page 47 of 231
These examples constitute illustrations (not proofs) of the
statement

If 0  a  1 then lim a n  0 .
n 

We now turn to the remaining case.

Case III: a  1

4
If for example a  then the sequence is
3
2 3 4 5
4 4 4 4 4
,  ,  ,  ,   ,....
3 3  3  3  3

4 16 64 256 1024
i.e. , , , , ,....
3 9 27 81 243

In decimals, up to four places,

1.3333, 1.7777, 2.3704, 3.1605, 4.2140,….

It is obvious that these numbers go on increasing. For example its

tenth term is 17.7577 and its twentieth term is 315.3369. The
increasing goes on and on. The numbers in the sequence, it may
therefore be said, increase beyond any limit as n increases
indefinitely.

This is expressed by saying

Page 48 of 231
 n
4
  tends to infinity as n tends to infinity,
 3

or, using symbols

n
4
    as n  
 3

n
4
or lim     (4)
n
 3

The same result will be obtained if ' a ' is given a different value
6
greater than 1, say . In this case the sequence is
5
2 3 4 5
6 6 6 6 6
,  ,  ,  ,   ,.....
5 5 5 5 5

6 36 216 1296 7776

i.e, , , , , ,....
5 25 125 625 3125

In decimals, up to four places,

1.2000, 1.4400, 1.7280, 2.0736, 2.4883,….

It is obvious that these numbers go on increasing. Their tenth term

is 6.1917 and the twentieth term is 38.3376. Here also the
increasing goes on and on. In other words the numbers in the
sequence increase beyond any limit as n increases to infinity. In
symbols

Page 49 of 231
 n
6
    as n  
5

n
6
or lim     (5)
 
n 5

What if we take a value of ‘ a ’which is greater than 1 but close to

101
1, say ? In other words, will
100
n
 101 
    as n   ?
 100 
The answer is the same as before: Yes, it will. The first five
101
powers of are, up to four places of decimals,
100

1.0100, 1.0201, 1.0303, 1.0406, 1.0510,

The tenth term of this sequence is 1.1046 and the twentieth is

1.2202.These numbers also increase beyond any limit, albeit
slowly. We therefore conclude that

n
 101 
    as n  
 100 

n
 101 
or lim    (6)

n 100


Page 50 of 231
These examples constitute illustrations (again, not proofs) of the
statement:

If a  1 then lim a n  
n 

The six results mentioned above can be written somewhat

2 4 99 1 1 1
differently if we change , , to 1  ,1  ,1  and
3 5 100 3 5 100
4 6 101 1 1 1
, , to 1  ,1  ,1  :
3 5 100 3 5 100

n
 1
lim  1    0 (1*)
n
 3
n
 1
lim  1    0 (2*)
n
 5

n
 1 
lim  1   0 (3*)
n
 100 

n
 1
lim  1     (4*)
n
 3

n
 1
lim  1     (5*)
n
 5

n
 1 
lim  1    (6*)
n
 100 

Page 51 of 231
We may summarise these results as follows :

lim(1  c ) n  0 (7)
n 

lim(1  c )n  0 (8)
n 

1 1 1
where c  , , .
3 5 100

These results were known to mathematicians right since the times

of Pythagoras to the beginning of the 1700s, the century in which
Britain lost America but gained India and France became a
republic.

The new discovery which mathematicians made occurred when

they tinkered with the properties of the number c in results (7) and
(8).

What are those properties?

1 1 1
Look at the values which we chose for c : , , . What are
3 5 100
their attributes?

First, they are small. All are less than one. Their decimal values
(0.3333, 0.2, 0.01) all have zero before the point.

Page 52 of 231
Second, they are positive, which means greater than zero. None
bears the minus sign which is the mark of a negative number.

Third, they are constant. Their values remain the same throughout
our discussion.

What happens if we change these attributes of c one by one?

First, let’s change ‘small’ to ‘large’. Let’s put c equal to 100, say.
Thus

1  c 
n
 (1  100) n
 ( 99) n
 99,9801, 970299,96059601, ….

These numbers swing violently from a negative number of large

magnitude to a positive number of even larger magnitude and vice
versa. They do not lead us toward a new discovery. It’s best if we
ignore them. Next

(1  c ) n  (1  100) n
 101n
 101,10201,1030301,104060401,...

These numbers go hurtling, zooming, skyrocketing to infinity. So

what happened in (4), (5), (6) is happening again, that too with
incredibly greater force. In short we learn nothing new.

Next let’s change ‘positive’ to ‘negative’. In other words let’s

change  c to  c which also means  c to  c .

Page 53 of 231
What happens?

Nothing.

(7) changes to (8) and (8) to (7).

So again no new idea comes forth.

The three attributes of ‘ c ’ were: small, positive, constant. The

opposite of ‘small’ is ‘large’. The opposite of ‘positive’ is
‘negative’. What is the opposite of ‘constant’?

‘Variable’ of course.

So let’s change ‘ c ’ to a small positive variable. What small

positive variable can we associate with n ?

Try to answer the question. Think fast. Shoot from the hip.

‘The small positive variable associated with n is its reverse… no, I

mean its converse… no, I mean its inverse… What’s the word?...
Got it. The reciprocal of n .’

You are absolutely right. The simplest small positive variable

1 1
associated with n is its reciprocal . Since n is large is small.
n n
1 1 1
(For example if n is 1000 is ). Since n is positive is
n 1000 n
1
also positive. Since n is variable is also variable.
n

Page 54 of 231
 1
So let’s ask what happens if we replace c by .
n

Our question may be put in symbolic form as follows:

n
 1
lim  1    ?
n 
 n

n
 1
lim  1    ?
n 
 n

To simplify matters I’ll ask you to ignore the first of these

questions. We’ll come back to it in a later chapter. Concentrate
your attention on the second question. We’ll repeat it here:

n
 1
lim  1    ?
n 
 n

This is the question that led mathematicians to a remarkable

discovery. This is the million dollar question mentioned in the title
of the chapter.

Its answer will be found in the next chapter.

Page 55 of 231
 CHAPTER FIVE

THE NUMBER ‘e’

What is ‘e’?

I’ll answer that question in a few moments. First allow me to

present a few stories and facts.

This happened some 40 years ago.

My colleague and I were both about 30. He taught physics and I

taught mathematics in Agrawal Classes, the best-known private
coaching class in Bombay, India.

Looking back it seems we both were vain and stupidly boastful.

We were arguing about the relative merits of our subjects.

I knew how heavily physics depends on mathematics. I decided to

rub it in.

‘Mathematics can live without physics but physics cannot live

without mathematics,’ I pontificated.

My colleague seemed stymied for an argument. But only for a

moment. His face brightened as he remarked, ‘I would like you to
remember that there is a Nobel Prize for physics but none for
mathematics.’

His remark was received with all-round cheer. That seemed to

clinch the argument. You cannot argue against a fact.

Page 56 of 231
‘Why did Alfred Nobel not institute a prize for mathematics?’ I
have often wondered. So have many others, I presume.

Everyone knows the importance of mathematics. Physicists are the

first to acknowledge it. They are not even being sporting or
grateful when they admit the importance of mathematics to
physics. They are just stating the plain truth. Einstein, the greatest
physicist ‒ or scientist ‒ of the last century, (according to ‘Time’
magazine the greatest man of the twentieth century) was actually a
mathematical-physicist. He proved his theory of Relativity by
mathematics rather than by making experiments. Verification by
experiments came later.

Yet the fact remains that more than a hundred Nobel Prizes have
been awarded for physics but none for mathematics.

Many reasons have been put forward for this anomalous situation.

‘Nobel hated mathematics,’ is one. He was a chemist by

profession, inventor of the gunpowder. That invention brought
him a vast fortune and enabled him to institute the prizes which
bear his name. He may have developed a dislike for mathematics
at an early age.

‘Mrs Nobel had an affair with a mathematician’ is another ‒ said

more in jest than in earnest. Scientists and mathematicians are
engaged in the pursuit of truth. Truth and morality go hand in
hand. So it is hard to believe that a mathematician would be guilty
of an immoral act like making love to another man’s wife.

This doesn’t mean that mathematicians do not have romantic

inclinations. One of the greatest mathematicians, Rene Descartes
(1596-1650) once took a lady of the evening to a public place,

Page 57 of 231
heard a snide remark about her, challenged the man who made it to
a duel, felled him, and although entitled by the laws of
seventeenth-century France to kill him, spared his life because the
sight of blood and gore would have offended his companion.

But on the whole people believe that mathematics is such a serious

business that there cannot be much room for romance in the life of
a mathematician.

Be that as it may the undeniable fact is that there is no Nobel Prize

for mathematics.

Yet there have been inventions in mathematics which can be

deemed worthy of a Nobel Prize. The number ‘e’ which is the
subject of this chapter and the previous one is one such invention. I
admit that ‘e’ was invented in the 1700’s while Nobel Prizes were
first awarded in 1901, so historically a statement linking ‘e’ with a
Nobel Prize has got to be anachronistic, inaccurate, even absurd.
Yet I wish to make it simply to emphasize the importance of ‘e’.

What is ‘e’?

It’s the answer to the question which was posed at the end of the
previous chapter, namely,

n
 1
lim 1    ? (5.1)
n
 n

Most people give ‘1’ as the answer. Their thinking goes like this:

1
n   means 0
n

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 n
 1
So 1    1  0 


 n

n
 1
 1    1


 n

Since 1 raised to anything is 1, the answer is 1. Right?

Wrong! First of all they shouldn’t make a shabby, grungy

statement like ‘1 raised to anything is 1’. They should say, ‘1
raised to any number is 1’. But therein lies their mistake. They
forget that infinity is not a number. It’s something bigger than any
number you can think of. So, to think that 1 equals 1 is wrong.


The truth is different. We instinctively believe, we intuitively

draw the conclusion that the answer to (5.1) is 1. But the truth is
contrary to your beliefs, contrary to your expectations.

The truth is counterintuitive.

That’s a beautiful word : ‘counterintuitive.’

Beautiful, because it holds the key to a wonderful new idea.

But first a story, to illustrate the meaning of ‘counterintuitive’.

At a temperance rally the speaker was trying to persuade his

audience to give up alcoholic drinks. He decided to hold a
demonstration. He took two glasses, poured water into one and gin
into the other. Gin being transparent the two glasses looked alike.

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Then he took a packet, took out a long worm from it and dropped it
in the glass of water. The worm squirmed and wriggled for a whole
minute. Then he took it out and dropped it in the glass of gin. The
worm squirmed and wriggled for about ten seconds and then fell to
the bottom of the glass. Then the speaker looked around
triumphantly and said, “What conclusion do you draw from this?”

A small boy got up and said, “We should drink a little gin
everyday so we won’t get worms.”

The temptation to tell another story is too strong to resist.

A man lost his hat. So he decided to steal one. He went to church

for it. But there the minister preached a powerful sermon about the
Ten Commandments. So he had a change of heart. After the
sermon was over he went up to the minister and said, “Father, you
saved me from sin.” The minister looked quizzically at him so he
explained. The minister was pleased and asked him, “Which
Commandment appealed to you most? ‘Thou shalt not steal’?”

“No, the other one. ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’. You spoke
those words and I remembered where I had left my hat.”

Even at the risk of being charged with overdoing a good thing I

would like to tell one more story.

A businessman from the Middle East visited a European country.

After finishing his business he took a guide and went about

Page 60 of 231
sightseeing. It was a warm summer day and they were walking past
a cemetery. The man saw a woman in black sitting beside a grave
and fanning it vigorously. He paused and watched her for a while
and, turning to the guide, remarked, “What a devoted wife this
woman must have been! She is trying to make it cool for her
husband even after he is dead!”

The guide laughed. The businessman was annoyed. “Why do

laugh?” he asked.

The guide replied, “I’m afraid you are not familiar with the
customs of our people.”

“What do you mean?”

The guide explained, “In our country there is a custom that if a

woman’s husband dies she should not marry again until the paint
on her husband’s grave has become dry.”

I hope these stories illustrate the meaning of the word

‘counterintuitive’ which is ‘contrary to what your intuition leads
you to believe’ or ‘contrary to your expectations’.

Back to mathematics.

Your intuition leads you to believe that the answer of

n
 1
lim 1    ?
n
 n

should be ‘1’. But it is not.

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To see how the answer is different from 1 do this: try putting n =
1, 2, 4, 16, 256, 65536 which are (from 2 onwards) the first,
second, fourth, eighth, sixteenth power of 2. They are chosen
because they make the use of a calculator easy.

1
 1
To find 1   you don’t need a calculator. Mental calculation
 1
shows it’s 2.

2
 1
Next consider 1   . To find this by using a calculator we have
 2
2
1 
to put it in reverse order:   1 . Now press the following keys:
2 

1  2  1, , sqr

(Screen shows 2.25)

4 4
 1 1 
Next try 1   i.e   1 . Press
 4 4 

1  4  1, , sqr, sqr

(Screen shows 2.44140625)

16 16
 1 1 
Next try 1   i.e.   1 . Press
 16   16 

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 1, ,1,6, ,1, , sqr, sqr , sqr, sqr ,...

(‘How many times should I press ‘sqr’?’ That is what you might
ask. You needn’t ask. Just go on pressing this pair of keys. Stop
as soon as the number on the screen crosses 2. This time the result
is

2.6379284973666.)

Let’s shorten the next steps. You will get

256
 1 
  1  2.71299162425
 256 

65536
 1 
  1  2.71826108990
 65536 

It should be clear now that the limit cannot be 1. For these values
begin at 2 and increase towards 3. In other words they begin at 2
and go away from 1. Therefore the limit cannot be 1.

We repeat the question posed at the end of the previous chapter.

n
 1
lim 1    ?
n
 n

You might ask, a little impatiently perhaps. ‘Okay. So the limit is

not 1. But what is it? Is it infinity?’

The answer is ‘No’.

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Because the values shown above don’t even go as far as 3. They
go only as far as 2.7182818, up to seven places of decimals.

To see this from a different angle, to see it as a graph or a picture

n
 1
let’s calculate 1   for n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ......
 n

n=1

n 1
 1   1 1

 1     1    2  2, as before.
 n   1

n=2

n 2
 1  1
1    1  
 n  2

2
3
 
2

= 2.25 as before.

n=3

n 3
 1  1
1    1  
 n   3

3
4
 
3

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  1.33.....
3

= 2.37037037037…

n=4

n 4
 1  1
1    1  
 n  4

4
5
 
4

 1.25 
4

= 2.44140625

n=5

n 5
 1  1
1    1  
 n  5

5
6
 
5

 1.2 
5

= 2.48832

Page 65 of 231
n=6

n 6
 1  1
1    1  
 n  6

6
7
 
6

 1.1666....
6

= 2.521626371742112…

Now compare these six values. Take them only up to two places
of decimals:

2.00, 2.25, 2.37, 2.44, 2.49, 2.52.

The first increase (or jump) is of 0.25.

The second jump is of 0.12.

The third is of 0.07.

The fourth is of 0.05.

The fifth is of 0.03 .......

The jumps are getting smaller and smaller.

The situation is somewhat like this:

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 0.12 0.07 0.05 0.03

(Fig. 5.1)

This won’t go far.

It’s like a small bird, a fledgling that has fallen from its nest. The
fall has hurt it in one wing. So it cannot fly even if it tried. It does
try, but it falls after a short jump. It tries again, and falls again,
after a shorter jump. A few more jumps, each shorter than the one
before, and it comes to a stop, unable to take off.

‘Where? Where does it stop?’ you might ask.

‘You mean, what is the exact value of the limit’.

‘Yes. That is exactly what I mean.’

‘Well, it can’t be found.’

‘You mean the limit is there ..... but it can’t be .....

found……..reached?

‘Yes.’

‘That’s odd. Very, very odd.’

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‘Indeed it is.’

‘Didn’t they try? Didn’t he try, the mathematician who brought

this limit to light?’

‘He did. But wait. I made a mistake. I said the limit can’t be found.
I was wrong. I should’ve said it can’t be stated.’

‘Stated?’

‘It can’t be stated in digits. It can’t be stated in terms of 1, 2, 3, 4,

5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0.’

‘............?’

‘It’s rather like ‘pi’. They tried to catch it in terms of digits but
failed. So they used a letter for it, the letter which we read as ‘pi’.
This limit is another number of the same kind. So they used
another letter for it. That letter was ‘e’. What I gave before was
only an approximate value ‘e’. It’s 2.7182818 up to seven places
of decimals. But before I tell you more about decimals I must tell
you about the logic behind the use of ‘e’.

‘What logic?’

‘The reasoning behind the statement that the exact value of the
limit can never be found, can never be stated in digits. It isn’t
long. The logic, the reasoning consists of just four steps. But it’s
hard. Hard and brilliant, like a diamond. Some people may not
follow it. They may need a lot more explanation. After all,
mathematics is like whisky. Some people can drink it neat. Others
need to mix it with water or soda.’

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‘Cut the comedy. Give us the steps.’

‘Here you are. Remember we are talking about the values of the
n
 1
expression 1   for different values of n.
 n

Step 1 : Every higher and higher value of n brings the values of the
expression closer to the limit.

Step 2 : There is no end to the sequence of values of n. It goes on

endlessly, to infinity.

Step 3 : Therefore there is no end to the sequence of values of

n
 1
1   . It also goes on and on. It is an infinite
 n
sequence.. Only one thing is certain. The successive
values keep coming closer to the limit.

Step 4 : Therefore the limit will never be reached i.e. its exact
value will never be found.

For if we did reach that exact value for a certain value of n where
would we go for the next value of n?

Since the exact value of the limit can never be found, but exists,
surely exists, we must denote it by a letter. Mathematicians have
done that before ‒ in case of ‘pi’. This time the letter is ‘e’.

‘Why ‘e’?’

‘In honour of the greatest mathematician who came after

Archimedes and Newton. His name began with ‘e’. It was Euler,

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Leonhard Euler. Remember the pronunciation: ‘Oiler’.
Mathematicians honoured him by naming this number after him’.

(A lot of people believe this. So did yours truly. The truth is

otherwise. More about it later.)

‘You said something about the decimal value of ‘e’.’

‘I did. Up to seven places it is 2.7182818. But it is only an

approximate value. The calculation of the approximate value of
‘e’ was carried to 503 places of decimals by a British
mathematician in pre-computer days. Then another mathematician
showed that there was a mistake in the 269th place.’

‘They must be crazy.’

‘Not at all. They were perfectly sane people doing a perfectly

worthwhile job. What they were trying to find was the nature of
the number representing our limit. Was it recurring or non-
recurring? Meaning, did it have a repeating set of numbers which
we call period, or did it not have a period? Just observe the
decimal representation of three fractions:

1
 0.3333333...
3

1
 0.142857142857142857.....
7

1
 0.0909090909......
11

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In each case we observe a repetition of a single digit or a set of
digits. That digit or set of digits is called a ‘period’. The period of
1 1
consists of a single digit, that of consists of six digits, and
3 7
1
that of consists of two digits. If the decimal representation of a
11
number is periodic it means the number is a fraction. In other
words an ordinary number. Then it does not deserve to be taken
seriously. So what those mathematicians were trying to find out
was this: Is the decimal representation of the number ‘e’ periodic?
If it was periodic then they would have converted it into a fraction.
That is not a difficult job. There are ways to do it. But let it pass.
If the decimal representation was indeed periodic then the number
wouldn’t need to be denoted by a letter. Just as, if ‘pi’ was exactly
22
equal to nobody would have called it ‘pi’. Everybody would
7
22
have called it . What the mathematicians found out was that the
7
decimal representation of ‘e’ was not periodic.’

‘You said that they calculated the number up to 503 digits. But
what if the period was one-thousand-digit long?’

‘Very clever question, Very clever indeed. What really happened

was that the mathematicians suspected that the number was not
equal to a fraction. And then they proved it by other means. So it
was established beyond doubt that the number could not be
represented as a fraction. That is what gave it a special status, a
very very special status.’

(The numbers 503 and 269 quoted above occurred in an article

which I happened to read thirty or forty years ago. So I am

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quoting them from memory. The actual figures could be different.
Attempts to trace the article were not successful.)

The whole of the forgoing explanation may yet fail to give you a
clear impression of the importance of ‘e’. In that case I must do
what I often did before my class of XII: resort to literary devices
like simile or imagery.

Think of the equation

n
 1
lim 1    e
n
 n

and transform it into its symbolic form

1  0 

e

Remember the form is symbolic, not real or actual. The numbers

are symbols just as the Red Cross is a symbol. For the ignorant
and the innocent it means two red lines – two short, thick, red,
straight lines at right angles. For the wounded and the dying it
means help, succour, deliverance. So think of 1, 0,  as symbols
invested with special meaning. Do not therefore add 1 and 0 and
reduce them to 1.

Now imagine a tug-of-war between a boy and his kid-brother on

one side and a giant of a man – a man of vast bulk and enormous
strength – on the other. Most people would expect that the
children will be thrown off their feet in a trice and dragged towards
the giant. A few will remember the Bible, the story of David and
Goliath in it, and believe that the children could win, that the giant
could bite the dust.

Page 72 of 231
And what if neither side wins? What if the children, not singly
perhaps but together, prove strong enough to take on the giant?
Then the rope will remain steady. Its centre will move a little
towards the giant probably – after all he’s a very strong man, isn’t
he? But there the rope will hold. It will tremble like a wire
carrying a thousand-volt current. But it will not move towards
either end. The centre-point on the rope, marked red or black, will
come to rest at a certain fixed place.

If that boy is the number ‘one’, the kid brother is the number
‘zero’, and the giant is ‘infinity’, then that fixed place where the
centre point comes to rest in dynamic equilibrium, the rope
thrumming and vibrating like a high tension wire, that point is the
number ‘e’.

With this the chapter on the number ‘e’ comes to the end. So does
the first part of this book. Its aim was to explain the genesis of two
of the five numbers involved – ‘players’ as I have preferred to call
them. The reader must first understand these five numbers, their
nature, and their significance in the whole scheme of things – that
was my aim, the object of my endeavour. In all humility I wish to
express the hope that I have succeeded.

Our next task is to understand how these five numbers – namely 1,

0, π, i, e come together, interact, mingle and mesh, connect with
one another and amalgamate to create what has been called ‘the
most beautiful equation in mathematics’.

Before we go on to the next part I wish to share my feelings with

you. The five chapters so far were devoted to the introduction of
the numbers i and e. The other three numbers which constitute our

Page 73 of 231
equation, 1, 0 and  , were ignored. This was done with good
reason of course, it being assumed that the reader is familiar with
them. However there are many interesting things to say about
them also. I’d like share one such thing with you – a story about
the number zero.

As a person who has loved numbers almost throughout his life I

feel I must do something to dispel the gloom and misery that
surrounds the number zero. When the number stands alone,
unsupported by any other number, it cuts a very sorry figure. It
represents failure. Whether it is a student getting 0 marks in an
exam, a team getting beaten 6-0 in a football match or a batsman
getting out for 0 runs in cricket the number zero represents defeat,
crushing devastating defeat.

The story which I am about to tell you is a story which occurred in

my language textbook when I was a boy of eight years. The
number zero plays an unforgettable role in that story. The story
appealed to me then and appeals to me even today, after a lapse of
seven decades. I must warn you that it is a sentimental story. If
you pride yourself on having a practical nature, if you consider
yourself tough-minded and hard-headed, the story will certainly
not appeal to you. It would be better for you then to ignore it and
turn to the next chapter. On the other hand if the child within you
is not ‘lost’ it will appeal to you also.

The bell rang.

‘Answer the door, Dinu,’ Mother said.

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Little Dinu, all of eight years, opened the door. There was the
grocer’s errand-boy outside. He handed a piece of paper to Dinu.
Dinu took it to his mother. Mother read it, reached for her purse,
counted out the money and gave it to the boy. The boy went away.
Mother closed the door.

Dinu was watching her intently.

‘What was that paper about, mum?” Dinu asked.

‘It was the grocer’s bill.’

‘What’s a bill, mum?’

‘Read it. You’ll understand.’

Dinu read the bill.

Item Quantity Rate Amount

Rice 2 Kg. ₹ 30/- ₹ 60/-
Wheat 5 Kg. ₹ 25/- ₹ 125/-
Tea 1 Kg. ₹ 150/- ₹ 150/-
Sugar 2 Kg. ₹ 40/- ₹ 80/-
Total ₹ 415/-

Some things Dinu did not understand. Mother made them clear to
him.

The idea of a bill appealed to Dinu. All day long he thought about
it.

At night, after everybody had gone to bed, Dinu got up quietly, lit
a table-lamp, took pen and paper and wrote out a bill.

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For taking Mum’s gift to Rima-auntie ₹2
For gathering flowers for Grandma’s garland ₹2
For bringing cabbages and chillies from the
greengrocer ₹ 3
For going to the Doctor to get Grandpa’s medicine ₹ 5
Total ₹12

He tiptoed into Mum’s bedroom and pinned the note on her pillow
while she was asleep. Then he came back and lay on his bed
wondering what he would do with the twelve rupees which he was
sure Mum would give him. Soon he was asleep.

When he woke up the next morning the first thing he remembered

was his bill and the money that was due to him. He found it under
his pillow, two coins of five rupees each and one of two rupees.
He was thrilled beyond measure.

But he also found a note along with the money. He recognized

Mum’s handwriting immediately. He read it.

For giving food to little Dinu – milk, rice and sweets ₹ Zero
For nursing him in his illnesses ₹ Zero
For teaching him letters and numbers ₹ Zero
For telling him stories at bedtime ₹ Zero
For putting him to sleep with lullabies ₹ Zero
Total ₹ Zero

The note dropped out of Dinu’s hand. Tears welled up in his eyes.
He ran to his mother, found her sitting on a chair in the kitchen,
knelt before her, buried his face in her lap and cried ........

........ as only a child can cry.

Page 76 of 231
Page 77 of 231
 PART TWO

THE GAME

CHAPTER SIX

FUNCTIONS

Five numbers constitute the equation which we are aiming to

prove. Three of them – 1, 0 and  – are, presumably, familiar to
the reader. In the first part of the book we saw how the last two of
them – i and e – came into existence.

In this second part of the book we fashion the instruments, we

forge grind and hone the tools which will enable us to create that
equation.

They are four in number:

1. Functions
2. Infinite series
3. Binomial Theorem
4. Derivatives.

The first and last of these are derived from calculus while the other
two are derived from algebra.

‘What’s the difference between algebra and calculus?’ That is a

question which I asked myself oftentimes while teaching
mathematics to students of standards XI and XII. I sincerely
believe that such a question is best answered by mathematicians,
not by mathematics teachers. So it is with considerable hesitation,
not without a certain amount of trepidation, that I venture to put
forth my own conception of the difference.

Page 78 of 231
At the outset I must make one thing clear. When I say ‘algebra’ I
do not mean the higher reaches of the subject ‒ branches like the
theory of equations, the theory of numbers, branches dealing with
groups, rings, fields et al. I only mean elementary algebra, that is,
algebra as taught to average students in the age group 10-16 by a
teacher of average ability in a school of average reputation.

Likewise by ‘calculus’ I mean elementary calculus, which is

usually taught to students in the age group of 16-18 under average
circumstances.

What then is the difference between algebra and calculus? To put

it simply and briefly the difference, in my opinion, is this: algebra
deals with unknown quantities while calculus deals with variable
quantities.

An example should make the point clear. A problem from

elementary algebra goes something like this: Today father’s age is
three times son’s age. After fifteen years father’s age will be
double that of the son. What are their ages today?

Taking father’s age today as x years and son’s age as y years leads
to two equations:

x  3y

x  15  2  y  15 

Their solution shows that their ages today are 45 and 15 (one being
three times the other) and fifteen years later they would be 60 and
30 (one double the other).

Page 79 of 231
Here the unknown quantity is age, which is another name for time.

But age is not just an unknown quantity. It is also a variable

quantity. Your age goes on varying, changing, every year, every
day, every hour, every minute, every second. Calculus is
concerned with this variable nature of time. More specifically it is
concerned with the relation between two variable quantities. If it is
observed that two variables change in such a way that there is
simultaneity and correlation between their changes then we say
that there is a functional relationship between them.

(Maybe that is a hard statement to understand. Let’s make it

simpler. If two variables change simultaneously and it is observed
that there is some sort of relation between the respective changes
then we say that one variable is a function of the other.)

In particular if x and y are two variables such that y changes if and

only if x changes then we say that y is a function of x. This is
expressed symbolically by writing: y  f  x  . (To be read as, y
equals f of x).

It is very easy to pick holes in the above statement. But it should

be remembered that it is not intended to be a definition of a
function.

In fact a precise and accurate definition of a function was very long

in coming. Mathematicians created, developed and employed
functions without bothering to state an exact definition of a
function. That came some three hundred years later. This may
seem a very surprising statement to make. But the truth is that in
support of my statement I can quote a definition of functions made
by a famous mathematician some two hundred years after
functions were invented, discovered, created, perceived, observed,

Page 80 of 231
discerned, noticed, recognized ......... Going by modern standards
that definition is wrong!

(This may seem inconceivable, yet the truth is that it happened. To

get a glimpse of the how and why of it consider a parallel
illustration. Lots of people drive a car, or use a computer, without
knowing how it works. The same thing happened here. In the
early days of calculus, mathematicians wanted to use functions.
They didn’t care to know how functions actually work. In doing so
they exhibited a perfectly human trait.

You may believe, but your friends may not, that mathematicians
are human beings. But they are, as the above example shows.

It’s a fact that lots of people, are prejudiced against

mathematicians. As a matter of fact a lot of people are prejudiced
against a lot of other people. Among white males in particular
many are narrow-minded. They are prejudiced against women,
against Blacks, against ‘Russkies’, against ‘Chinks’ and what not.
If you know people who are prejudiced against mathematicians
you might tell them the following story. The story will probably
make their prejudice worse, more deep-rooted. But the risk is
worth taking for the amusement and insight the story provides.

The mathematician was sitting in his study, engrossed, deeply

absorbed in solving a problem. His wife had been ill for many
years.

The maidservant rushed in.

“Sir, sir, Missus is doing strangely. Please come.”

No attention.

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After a while, “Sir, sir, Missus can’t bear it. The pain, I mean.”

No attention.

Third time, “Sir, sir, methinks Missus is dying.”

The mathematician was still lost in thought, but this time he raised
his head.

“Ask her to wait.”

The story is probably apocryphal, but such stories don’t go away

easily because they provide salve to hurt egos. And egos are
indeed hurt when people come across an instance of extreme self-
absorption.

One more point. When I was writing about narrow-minded white

males did I have Americans in mind?

Of course I did. It’s evident from the words for the Russians and
the Chinese which I have used. However I cannot help pointing
out to you that the description does not apply to all Americans. In
fact the average American is far from narrow-minded. Just
observe what he has achieved. Just observe one single
extraordinary fact. In 1814 he kept Blacks as slaves, in the
southern parts of his country. In 1914 he had made them free but
looked down upon them, called them ‘niggers’. In 2014 he had
made a half-Black man President. That too, for the second time.

Let’s give the devil his due.)

What then is a function?

Page 82 of 231
A reasonably accurate definition, based on the general case (i.e
ignoring exceptional cases, special cases etc.) is as follows: if x
and y are two variables such that every value of x is connected with
a unique value of y then we can say that y is a function of x.

As soon as this definition is stated it gives rise to confusion in the

minds of students. That has been my observation, my experience.
The source of the confusion is this: students imagine that the
definition means that functions can be, must be, of one type only.

When the teacher points out to them that the definition leaves
scope for two types of functions they demur. They hesitate to
believe him. They are not fully convinced. Their faces remain
clouded with doubt.

To overcome this obstacle I started using an example from outside

mathematics. I told them that the two types of functions are called
‘one-one’ and ‘many-one’. Further, both are exemplified by the
child-mother relation.

The child-mother relation is a clear instance of a function because

every child has a unique mother. If x denotes a child and y denotes
its mother then y  f  x  should be understood to mean ‘y is the
mother of x’.

Depending on the situation the child-mother function exemplifies

both types of functions, ‘one-one’ and ‘many-one’.

But what is a ‘one-one’ function’ and what is a ‘many-one

function’? The definitions are, I believe, simple and easy to
understand.

Page 83 of 231
If different x’s connect with different y’s then the function is ‘one-
one’.

On the other hand if two or more x’s connect with the same y then
the function is ‘many-one’.

The child-mother function is one-one when applied to children in a

class where all children come from different families, where there
are no siblings, because then different children have different
mothers.

The child-mother function is many-one when applied to children in

a class where there are siblings, where some children come from
the same family, because then two or more children have the same
mother.

Yet another non-mathematical illustration is worth considering. It

concerns a ship’s voyage and the destination of that voyage. To
keep matters simple, to make the argument easily intelligible, let’s
follow the k.i.s.s. rule (‘Keep it simple, stupid!’). Let’s ignore
double-destination voyages like Bombay-Singapore-Sydney. Let’s
suppose that every voyage has strictly one destination.

Then the voyage-destination relation is a clear case of a function

because every voyage has a unique destination.

Now suppose that the voyages are

Bombay ‒ London
New York ‒ New Orleans
Singapore ‒ Tokyo
.
.

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 .

Here the voyage-destination function is one-one because different

voyages have different destinations.

On the other hand consider the voyages.

Bombay ‒ London
Cape Town ‒ London
New York ‒ New Orleans
.
.
.

Here the voyage-destination function becomes many-one because

two voyages have the same destination.

To take a mathematical example let’s consider the function y = x2.

If x takes the values 1, 2, 3 then y takes the values 1, 4, 9. This
situation is usually represented by the following diagram:

y
1 1
2 4
3 9
. .
. .
. .
. .
(Fig. 6.1)

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Since different x’s connect with different y’s this function is one-
one.

But if x takes the values 0, 1, ‒1 then y takes the values 0, 1, 1 or

rather 0, 1. (repetition is to be avoided when we write the elements
of a set). The diagram representing the function becomes

y
0 0
1 1
-1 .
. .
. .
. .
. .
(Fig. 6.2)

Since two x’s connect with the same y this function is many-one.

Thus, depending on the values that x and y take, the same function
can be one-one or many-one.

How do functions arise?

Functions arise out of the perceived necessity of giving expression

to a mathematical concept.

We are familiar with the formula for the circumference of a circle

of radius r, namely,

C  2 r (6.1)

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and the formula for the area of a circle

A   r2 . (6.2)

(Two circles which have equal radii should be looked upon as

identical. That a figure can be drawn, which shows them as distinct
from one another, is not a matter of any significance here.)

Since different circles, (meaning circles of different sizes), have

different radii, different circumferences and different areas it is
clear that r, C, A are variables. It is also clear from the formulae
above that C and A are functions of r.

The formulae for the surface area and volume of a sphere afford
another instance of a function. If r is the radius of a sphere, S its
surface area and V its volume then

S = 4r2 (6.3)

4
V   r3 (6.4)
3

All these are examples of functions of one variable. The formulae

for the surface area and volume of a right-circular cylinder, namely

S  2 rh (6.5)

V   r 2h (6.6)

afford instances of functions of two variables, namely base-radius r

and height h.

Page 87 of 231
The formula for the area of a triangle whose base is b and height h
is

1
  bh (6.7)
2

This is another example of a function of two variables.

One need not go far to seek examples of functions of three

variables. Consider the area of a trapezium having parallel sides a,
b and having h as the distance between them (in other words,
having height h).

a
(Fig. 6.3)

The formula for the area is

1
A a  b h (6.8)
2

This is clearly a function of three variables.

Mathematicians who lived before Pythagoras, whose names are

unfortunately lost to antiquity, had long observed that a triangle
with longer sides has larger area, as the figure below shows.

Page 88 of 231
 (Fig. 6.4)

(This is generally true. Exceptions exist but let’s ignore them.)

The conclusion is unavoidable that the area of a triangle ABC is a

function of its sides a, b, c. However it took mathematicians a
long, long time to give expression to this concept ‒ a thousand
years possibly. The formula for the area of a triangle in terms of
its sides could only be brought to light when trigonometry became
a highly developed branch of mathematics. The formula

1
  a  b  c  a  b  c  a  b  c  a  b  c  (6.9)
4

is one of the most beautiful results in geometry. Beautiful because

of the symmetric juxtaposition of the letters a, b, c.

(The formula is usually stated as

a bc
  s( s  a )( s  b)( s  c ) where s  )
2

Beautiful though the formula is, it is also quite a complicated

formula. Its creation, therefore, is an achievement of heroic

Page 89 of 231
proportions. Apt indeed was the name of its creator: Hero. He
lived in the first century B.C.

Clearly  is a function of three variables a, b, c.

(By the way, like ‘Evelyn’ and ‘Vivian’, the name ‘Hero’ seems to
be common to males and females. One of Shakespeare’s heroines
is named ‘Hero’.)

If money is given out at compound interest the amount A at end of

n years when the principal amount is P and the rate of interest is r
per cent per year is given by

n
 r 
A  P 1   (6.10)
 100 

Here again A is a function of three variables P, r, n.

It should not be supposed that functions occur in algebra, geometry

or arithmetic only. They occur in every branch of knowledge
where mathematics finds application. Consider physics. Suppose
a stone is dropped from the top of a cliff, (not thrown with force
but simply released, let fall). Then the distance s, measured in feet,
covered by it in t seconds, is given by the formula

1 2
s gt
2

Since the value of g, the constant of acceleration due to gravity, is

32ft/sec2 over most parts of the surface of the earth the above
formula may be written more simply as

Page 90 of 231
 s  16t 2 (6.11)

Here s is a function of the variable t.

My purpose in quoting these examples of functions is to show that

the idea of a function is in reality old and familiar although the
name ‘function’ may seem, to the beginner in calculus, new and
unfamiliar.

What are the different ways of representing a function?

There are many. Graphs are one of the most popular. Arrow-
diagrams, like the ones shown before (6.1), is another. Algebraic
equations, like those which appeared in (6.1) through (6.10) are yet
another. In fact they are the most common ways of showing a
function, and most effective too. In a chapter which follows shortly
we shall see how an infinite series can be used to represent a
function.

We shall close this chapter with a curious illustration. We shall

see how a limit can be used to represent a function.

Recall the question which we had posed in the middle of chapter 4:

lim 1  c   ?
n

n

There ‘c’ was supposed to be a small positive constant. We

tinkered with it in the hope of obtaining a new result. We found
that changing ‘small’ to ‘large’ or changing ‘positive’ to ‘negative’
did not lead to new results. So we asked whether changing
‘constant’ to ‘variable’ would help. The ideal small positive

Page 91 of 231
 1
variable with which to replace ‘c’ turned out to be . Thus at the
n
end of the chapter we posed the question

n
 1
lim 1    ?
n
 n

In chapter 5 we found that the answer to the question was a new

number which was named ‘e’. Its approximate value was
2.7182818.

1
Now let’s vary the question. Instead of what happens if we put
n
2
?
n
2
After all has all the necessary qualifications. It’s small, it’s
n
positive, it’s variable. In symbols our question is

n
 2
lim 1    ?
n
 n

The answer is found by using a simple device: substitution. Put

1
n  2m . This means m  n . Since n   it is clear that m  
2
too. (For example if n is two billion m would be one billion.)

The left hand side now becomes

Page 92 of 231
 2m
 2 
lim 1  
m
 2m 

2m
 1
 lim  1  
m
 m

m m
 1
 lim  1  
m
 m

m m
 1  1
 lim  1    1  
m
 m  m

 by the index law 

 mn 
a  am  an 

 ee

 e2

In short,

n
 2
lim 1    e 2
n
 n

Page 93 of 231
 3
Similarly if we replace ‘c’ by then the substitution n  3m leads
n
3m
 1
to the limit of 1   . Writing the index as m  m  m leads to
 m
e  e  e . Therefore

n
 3
lim 1    e3
n
 n

Generalizing,

n
 x
lim 1    e x (6.12)
n
 n

Is it safe to generalize from just two examples? Frankly, no. But

since the process is ironclad, since the logic is inexorable, the
result is always going to be the same. So maybe the generalization
is justified.

However we should note that we had first put x = 2 and then,

second time we had put x = 3. Both values are positive integers.
What happens if we try a negative integer, say ‒1? In other words
1
what happens if we put x  1 in (6.12) and write e 1 as ?
e

We get the following result:

n
 1 1
lim 1    ? (6.13)
n
 n e

Page 94 of 231
Would this be a true result?

Let’s check.

1
First, what is ? To find its approximate value use 2.7182818 in
e
place of e. On your calculator press the following twelve keys
1, , 2, , 7, 1, 8, 2, 8, 1, 8, 

The result is, up to four places of decimals,

0.3679

This means we are trying to test the result

n
 1
lim 1    0.3679
n
 n

Now put n = 1. No need to use a calculator. The answer is zero.

2
 1
Next put n = 2. If you start to calculate 1   by pressing the
 2
keys 1, ‒, 1 you’ll go wrong because the result will be zero. So
2
 1 
reverse the order. Calculate    1 . Press the following seven
 2 
keys. ,1, ,2, ,1, sqr. The result, as might be expected, is 0.25.
Without calculator we can see that

2 2
 1  1 1
   1      0.25
 2  2 4

Page 95 of 231
 4 4
 1  1 
Next try n = 4. 1       1 is found by pressing the
 4  4 
following keys

,1, ,4, ,1, , sqr , sqr .

The answer is, up to four places of decimals, 0.3164.

Go on trying n = 8 16, 32, 64, ....... For example, to find

1024 1024
 1   1 
 1   i.e.    1  press the following nine keys :
 1024   1024 
, 1, , 1, 0, 2, 4, +, 1 and then repeatedly press the pair sqr,
sqr,..

Stop when 3 appears after the decimal point. The result is 0.3677.

If we try to calculate for n = 4096 the result is 0,3678

So the result is fairly close to our goal which is 0.3679. Therefore

the formula seems to hold for n = ‒1.

1
Try x  i.e. check whether
2

n
 1
 2  1
lim  1    e 2
n 
 n
 

Page 96 of 231
 n
 1 
i.e lim 1    e
n
 2n 

Recall that e is approximately 2.7182818. So to get the right hand

side press the following ten keys: 2, , 7, 1, 8, 2, 8, 1, 8, . You
get 1.6487. So our aim is to check whether

n
 1 
lim 1    1.6487 (6.14)
n
 2n 

1024 1024
 1   1 
Try n = 1024 i.e. try to find 1   or   1 . Press
 2048   2048 
1, ,2,0,4,8, ,1, , sqr , sqr,... , ..... Go on pressing sqr until 6
appears after the decimal point. You get 1.6485. Further
calculations are unnecessary because 1.6485 is close to the target
shown in (6.14). So we may presume the conclusion stands
justified.

Thus we find that the formula

n
 x
lim 1    e x
n
 n

1
holds for n  1, 2, 3,  1, .
2

(We have verified the formula. We have not proved it.

What is the difference between ‘verification’ and ‘proof’?

Page 97 of 231
When we verify a formula we use particular values of the variable
involved. If the formula turns out correct for (say) five values
there are chances that it is a true formula. If it turns out correct for
ten or twenty values the chances are stronger. But it cannot be said
with absolute conviction that the formula must be true, for a single
contrary example, a single example which shows that the formula
is incorrect can destroy the whole structure built up by us. What is
needed is ‘proof’, that is results derived from ‘first principles’ i.e.
from statements which have been assumed to be true or which
have been proved earlier.

Proof of the above statement is, I’m afraid, beyond the scope of
this book.)

The formula stated above shows that the function e x can be

represented as a limit. This is yet another way of stating a
function, different from graphs, diagrams and equations.

In chapter 7 we shall learn about yet another way of representing

functions.

And a very important one too.

Page 98 of 231
 CHAPTER SEVEN

CAN HUMOUR AND MATHEMATICS MIX ?

The hoarding declared that the Bank would give 10.10 per cent
interest on deposits.

“That’s more than what most banks are giving,” I said to myself.
“I must find out more.”

I entered the bank and approached the lady at the counter. Before
putting my question to her I did what any mathematics teacher
worth his salt would do. I reduced 10.10 to 10.1. As everyone
knows the two figures have the same value.

“Is it true that your bank is giving 10.1 per cent interest on fixed
deposits?” I asked.

Her eyes glistened with pride. She leaned back in her chair, smiled
sweetly, and, voice brimming with confidence, told me, “No sir.
Our bank is giving 10.10 per cent interest!”

Her remark kept me amused for a whole week. It was a rare

instance of mathematics getting mixed with humour.

My grandson, all of twelve years, once asked me, “Grandpa, if two

is company and three is crowd what’s four and five?”

“?”

“Nine.”

Page 99 of 231
Trust a child to bring together humour and mathematics ‒ two
ingredients which are otherwise almost impossible to mix.

Consciously, that is. Unconsciously one may mix anything with

anything, of course. Examples of unconscious humour occur in
mathematics also. Here’s a story of how it happened.

Some ten years ago a publisher of educational books in Bombay

commissioned teachers of mathematics to write a book of multiple
choice questions. Such a book is not easy to write. Every question
must have four options, one right and three wrong. The wrong
options must not be obviously wrong for then the dumbest
candidate can select the right option with ease and thereby defeat
the purpose for which the exam is held. At least one wrong option
must seem right, temptingly right. It takes time to construct such
options. The publishers did not have the time. A book of 1000
questions had to be written, printed and marketed in 60 days flat to
beat the competition. So they had no choice but to goad, harry and
hurry the writers ‒ twist their tails so to speak. Driven to
desperation the writers hit upon a fantastic idea. If the correct
option was x the four options would be

1 1
x, , x,
x x

One of the questions in the book went thus:

Five boys and a certain number of girls sit in a row. If the

3
probability that the girls are all together is then the number of
28
girls is

Page 100 of 231

 1 1
(A) 3 (B) (C) 3 (D)
3 3

Comment is superfluous.

I know of only one instance where a writer consciously – and

successfully – mixed humour and mathematics. The author was
Stephen Leacock, Canada’s best-known writer, a professor of
economics capable of delicious humour. He is better known for
his contribution to literature than to economics. He wrote a book
called ‘Nonsense novels’. Each ‘novel’, no more than four pages
long, was a spoof on cheap novels of romance, mystery and
adventure written by second rate hacks for a semi-literate
readership. One novel began thus:

“It was a wild stormy night on the west coast of Scotland.

“This has nothing to do with the story because the story is set in
the south of England.”

A ‘sea’-novel has the hero describing a shipwreck.

“Our ship struck a rock and developed a gash through which water
began to pour in. On the first day the level of water was one inch;
on the second day it rose by half an inch; on the third day it rose by
one-fourth inch and on the following day by one-eighth inch. It
became clear that the vessel was going to sink so the captain gave
orders to abandon the ship.”

What’s the joke?

A student of eleventh standard will tell you in half a minute maybe

that at this rate the water level will never rise above two inches and

Page 101 of 231

so the vessel would never sink. So there was no need whatever to
abandon ship.

To see this consider the following series:

1  x  x 2  x 3  x 4  ....... (7.1)

The dots indicate that the series goes on and on, never stops, never
ends. Every term is followed by another. In other words it is an
infinite series.

It’s a special kind of infinite series. The speciality is that the first
term is 1 and the second term is obtained by multiplying it by x.
The third is obtained by multiplying the second by x, the fourth is
obtained by multiplying the third by x, and so on.

1
Let’s put x equal to and see what happens. The series becomes
2

1 1 1 1
1     ......
2 4 8 16

 1 1 1 
The terms of this series  1, , , ...  are exactly the same as the
 2 4 8 
increases in the level of water described in Stephen Leacock’s sea-
novel. So, if the sum of the series is the number S it would mean
the level of water would never rise above S inches. If S is 10
maybe the ship will not sink and therefore the crew will survive.

It was stated above that S is only 2 inches. How does one derive
this conclusion? How does one say that the sum of the series is no
more than 2?

Page 102 of 231

Questions, baffling intriguing questions, may arise in your mind.
How can an infinite series have a sum? The sum of a series is
found by adding term after term after term until all the terms are
added. In short it is found when the last term is added. But here
there is no last term. Every term is followed by one more. So the
phrase ‘the sum of an infinite series’ seems a contradiction in
terms, a paradox!

I’d ask you to put such questions aside if you can and concede, for
the sake of argument, that even an infinite series can have a sum.
We call it S, so

1 1 1 1
S  1     ......
2 4 8 16

Multiply both sides by 2.

1 1 1
 2S  2  1     .......
2 4 8

Now subtract. On the right side every term will cancel except 2.
The result is

2S  S  2

 S2

Therefore the level of water in the vessel would never rise above 2
inches, the ship would never sink and the crew never drown.

So, no need to abandon the ship.

Page 103 of 231

That explains Stephen Leacock’s joke.

Pretty heavy humour, I’ll admit.

‘A joke which requires so much explanation is not worth making’,

you might comment. I have no choice but to agree.

A story is told about Queen Victoria, monarch of Great Britain and

ruler of the British Empire (the largest in world history) for 64
years, from 1837 to 1901. A certain person made a tactless remark
in her presence. Feeling that her dignity had been offended she
responded with the proud utterance, “We are not amused.” It is a
magnificent example of the self-restraint for which the British
people are justly famous. A French king in pre-Revolution France
would have jailed that person, the Czar of Russia would have
banished him to Siberia and the Sultan of Arabia would have
ordered him beheaded.

You could emulate Queen Victoria’s example and say, “We are not
amused.”

I’d ask you to be a little more charitable to Stephen Leacock. After

all he was trying to combine two streams of human thought which
are almost impossible to bring together ‒ humour and mathematics.
I have no hesitation in saying that he succeeded remarkably well.

Let’s now come back to the series stated in terms of x, namely

number (7.1) above. Suppose its sum is S. Then

S  1  x  x 2  x 3  x 4  .......

Multiply by x.

Page 104 of 231

 xS  x  x 2  x3  x 4  .......

(I have put x before S instead of the other way around because if I

write Sx the minds of young readers will immediately begin to
wander. Having spent 45 years in their company, don’t I know
their thinking well!)

Subtract.

 S  xS  1

1.S  x.S  1

 1  x  S  1

1
S 
1 x

1
  1  x  x 2  x 3  x 4  ....... (7.2)
1 x

The result is true only for certain values of x. To see this put x  2 .
1 1
The left hand side becomes , that is, which means 1 .
1 2 1
Therefore (7.2) now becomes

1  1  2  4  8  16  ...... (7.3)

This is nonsense. Pure, undiluted, unadulterated nonsense. How

can a sum of positive numbers, infinitely many positive numbers,
infinitely many ever-growing, ever-increasing positive numbers be
equal to a negative number?

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It is clear therefore that (7.3) is an absurd meaningless result. In
other words result (7.2) is false if x  2 .

When is it true, you might ask.

It is true only if x lies between 1 and 1. Or to put it

mathematically, it is true only if

1  x  1 (7.4)

1
It was true for x  because this value of x satisfies the above
2
condition. It does lie between 1 and 1.

I shall ask you to accept result (7.4) without proof. I hope you will
allow me the liberty of saying that I’m not writing a textbook of
mathematics. I’m trying to tempt you into thinking that
mathematics can be interesting. I’m trying to lure you into
believing that mathematics can be beautiful. So I’m sure you’ll
agree that I’m not duty-bound to prove every result, although I
confess I do feel a certain strain in asking you to accept a result
without proof.

Another reason for not trying to prove (7.4) is that an attempt at

proof will take us too far from the main course. We’ll go off at a
tangent in a manner of speaking, or lose the thread of the narrative.

Result (7.2) is highly significant. It deserves to be read forward

and backward. When you read it forward, from left to right that is,
1
it means that the algebraic function can be expanded into an
1 x
infinite series. Expanding a function into an infinite series is a

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skill which is of vital importance for achieving our aim ‒
understanding the so called ‘most beautiful equation in
mathematics’. It’s like a mountain-climber’s skill with ropes.
Without it he cannot hope to reach the summit.

When you read (7.2) backwards it means an infinite series can be

contracted into a compact expression which is called its sum.

It is of course understood that such expansion or contraction is

valid only if 1  x  1 .

Let’s practice the skill on a slightly different series.

1  2 x  3 x 2  4 x 3  5 x 4  ......

The pattern here is obvious. Each term is obtained from the

previous term by multiplying it by x and simultaneously increasing
its coefficient by unity.

Denote the sum of the series by S. Therefore

S  1  2 x  3 x 2  4 x3  ......

Multiply by x.

xS  x  2 x 2  3x 3  4 x 4  .......

Subtract.

S  xS  1  x  x 2  x3  x 4  .......

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 1
By (7.2) S  xS 
1 x

1
 S 1  x  
1 x

1
S 
1  x 
2

1
  1  2 x  3x 2  4 x3  5 x 4  ......
1  x 
2

To enjoy the pleasurable sensation of developing a new skill I

invite you to try it on the series

1  3x  6 x 2  10 x 3  15 x 4  ......

1
Your aim should be to reduce the series to . The method is
1  x 
3

the same.

The name of Stephen Leacock was mentioned above because he

had achieved the almost impossible feat of combining mathematics
with humour. He achieved it in one and the same piece of writing,
which was extraordinary.

Another writer, and a very great one at that, who was very highly
regarded for his mathematics and widely admired for his humour,
was Bertrand Russell. Older readers are sure to know a lot about
him. Some may even have read his books. So I’ll appeal to the

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reader to consider the following lines as addressed to teenage
readers or to those just out of their teens.

Bertrand Russell was born in 1872 and lived to the ripe old age of
97. He was a mathematician, a philosopher and an author of
outstanding merit. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
He came from a family that enjoyed very high status in British
society. (He was a member of the House of Lords). So his family
expected him to make a career in politics, the foreign service, the
judiciary, or the like. So when at a young age he announced to his
parents and siblings that he wanted to study philosophy they were
at first simply aghast. Then they tried to laugh him out of the idea.
They reduced philosophy to an elementary, almost trivial formula:
“What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.”
Bertrand Russell’s comment: “After the quip had been repeated
some fifty times I began to tire of it” is noteworthy for its wry
humour.

In the early part of his career he collaborated with mathematician

A. N. Whitehead to write Principia Mathematica. (Not to be
confused with Newton’s Principia). The book is considered a
landmark achievement in the field of mathematics, sufficient to
secure for its authors a place in the Hall of Fame. But Bertrand
Russell was no ivory tower intellectual. He studied philosophy
and applied its principles to the social and personal lives of men.
He lived through turbulent times ‒ the first half of the twentieth
century when the world experienced the horrors of two world wars,
the extinction of empires and the emancipation of women and the
non-white races. Casting his eye around he found men’s minds
steeped in ignorance, prejudice and irrationality. He strove for all
his life to supplant them with rationality and a sympathetic
intelligent understanding of the world. The outcome of his efforts
was some fifty odd books many of which are highly regarded forty

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years after his death. One of them, the Conquest of Happiness,
was read by me three times ‒ at 20, at 40 and at 60. At the second
and the third reading I had the feeling that I had matured in the
intervening decades. Few books can give the reader this
wonderfully exhilarating sensation.

Throughout his life he had a running feud with Christianity. (One

of his books is entitled ‘Why I am not a Christian’). The noble
thoughts and lofty sentiments expressed in the Bible did not count
for much with him because in the practice of Christianity he found
much that was positively harmful. He brought an incisive mind
and a trenchant wit to bear upon the prejudice and bigotry inherent
in the practice of religion. In doing so he became a modern-day
Voltaire.

Like Voltaire, Bertrand Russell was famous for his wit and
humour.

(Voltaire was the most famous writer of Pre-Revolution France,

renowned especially for his wit. A pompous fool once said to him,
“ I think the world is in need of a new religion now, and I propose
to be its founder. Can you tell how I should go about it?” Voltaire
replied, “Crucify yourself and then rise from the grave.”)

The book ‘Bertrand Russell’s best’ contains selected passages from

his writings. Every page sparkles and coruscates with the
brilliance of diamonds. One of his books bears the title
‘Unpopular Essays’. He was himself no stranger to unpopularity.
In the early 1920’s he undertook strenuous anti-war propaganda
and visited Communist Russia where the Bolsheviks had seized
power from the Czar. For those dreadful ‘sins’ he was branded by
a hostile press as ‘lily-livered bolshie swine’. He took it all in his
stride, being gifted with a delightful sense of humour. One

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passage from that book has remained firmly embedded in my
memory. Slightly paraphrased, it goes thus:

‘I once asked a nun why nuns always wrapped their bodies in a

bathrobe even when they were alone in the bathroom. Her reply,
“Oh, but you can’t forget the good God!”, astonished me. They
seem to think that God is some sort of a Peeping Tom, who, being
all-powerful, can see through bathroom walls but who is foiled by
a bathrobe.’

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 CHAPTER EIGHT

TRIGNOMETRIC FUNCTIONS

Since trigonometry is all about angles let’s set down what we

know about angles.

I’m not going to begin with a definition of angles. Mathematical

definitions are a tricky business. Try to define a mathematical
quantity and, before you realize it, you tie yourself up in knots.
Even reputed lexicographers, scholars who write dictionaries, find
themselves out of their depth when defining a mathematical
quantity or when stating its definition in words. While glancing
through a dictionary published by a highly reputed British
publisher I came across the following gem:

Three : One more than two.

I was intrigued. ‘This would be okay,’ I said to myself, ‘provided

they have given a proper definition of ‘Two’. Let’s find out.’

Turning to the entry at ‘Two’ I came across another gem :

Two : One less than three.

(Other dictionaries do better:

Three : The number 3.

Two : The number 2.)

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We will therefore begin by assuming that you know what an angle
is, and proceed to ask the next question: how do we measure
angles?

The answer is well-known: ‘by degrees’. Taking a right angle as

the basic original undefined self-evident notion we state that a
degree is the measure of one-ninetieth part of a right angle. A
degree is subdivided into sixty equal parts, called minutes. A
minute is further subdivided into sixty equal parts, called seconds.
This system of measuring angles in degrees, minutes and seconds
is called the ‘sexagesimal system’. The word ‘sexagesimal’ is
derived from ‘sixty’ because, as you can see clearly, sixty plays an
important role in the system.

There is another system of measuring angles. It is favoured by

mathematicians because to them it seems ‘natural’. In this system
the unit of measurement is called a ‘radian’. It is defined as the
measure of an angle which is made at the centre of a circle by an
arc whose length is equal to the radius. This is shown in Fig. 8.1
below.

r
c
1
r

(Fig. 8.1)

Radian-measure is also called ‘circular measure’ of an angle, for a

reason, which I guess is obvious. So an angle-measure of one
radian is shown as 1c where the tiny ‘c’ stands for ‘circular’.

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An angle of one radian looks as if it is the same as an angle of 60
degrees. It is not. This is easy to see. We know that a straight line
is the shortest distance between two points. It follows that in Fig.
8.2 below if the distance from point A to point B, measured along
the arc of the circle, is r then the distance from A to B, measured
along a straight line, must be less than r.

B
r
c
1
O r A

(Fig. 8.2)

To put it a little differently, if arc AB  r then chord AB  r.

Further, if chord AB were equal to r then triangle AOB would have

been equilateral, which means the measure of angle AOB would
have been 60 degrees. But chord AB < r. Therefore the measure of
angle AOB is < 60 degrees.

We shall soon see that it is a little more than 57 degrees.

When you measure something in two ways you’ve got to show the
connection between the two systems. We do it in case of weights
(1lb = 454 grams, 1kg = 2.202 lbs) or length (1mile = 1.61kms,
1km = 0.62miles). It is therefore natural to ask: What is the
connection between degrees and radians?

Let’s find out.

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When the arc-length is r the angle is 1 radian.

When it is 2r the angle is 2 radians.

When it is 3r the angle is 3 radians. (See Fig. 8.3).

So when the arc-length is xr the angle is x radians.

2r 3r
r r
3c
r r

(Fig. 8.3)

When it is 2 r the angle is 2  radians.

But 2r is the length of the circumference, which, as is only too

well-known, makes an angle of 360 degrees at the centre.

Therefore 2 radians  360 degrees.

Therefore  radians  180 degrees.

Therefore the required connection is

180 
1 radian  degrees and 1 degree  radians.
 180

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In the former equation let’s use an approximate value of , say
22
.
7

180
1 radian  degrees
22
7

180  7
 degrees
22

90  7
 degrees
11

630
 degrees
11

3
 57 degrees
11

Or, a little over 57 degrees, as stated earlier.

(A closer approximation is 1 radian = 57 degrees 17 minutes 45

seconds. It is obtained by using a value of  which is more precise
22
than .)
7

A little digression if you don’t mind. In the U.S. the units for
measuring length or weight or volume are different from the units
used in India. So a junior editor in an Indian newspaper is often
assigned the task of converting the units in American sources of

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news into corresponding Indian units. (For example, ‘The wrestler
weighed 400 pounds’ becomes ‘The wrestler weighed 180
kilograms’). Such a job calls for a modicum of intelligence. When
that is lacking, when the job is done mindlessly, you get the
following kind of example.

The news was about an aviator who had flown from one end of the
Sahara to the other. ‘In the Sahara desert,’ he reported, ‘you see
nothing but sand for hundreds and hundreds of miles.’

In an Indian newspaper this became, ‘In the Sahara desert you see
nothing but sand for 161 kilometres and 161 kilometres.’

This puts one in mind of what a wise man has said: ‘Intelligence is
finite but stupidity is infinite’.

Turning to trigonometry I presume you are familiar with the

following definitions w.r.t. the acute angle of a right-angled
triangle:

adjacent side  adj 

cosine of an angle =  briefly, 
hypotenuse  hyp 

opposite side  opp 

sine of an angle =  briefly, 
hypotenuse  hyp 

Or w.r.t. Fig. 8.4

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 y


x
(Fig. 8.4)

x y
cos   , sin  (8.1)
r r

On account of these relations cosine and sine were often referred to

in the past as trigonometric ratios, not as trigonometric functions.

The great mathematician Euler (pronounced ‘Oiler’), the greatest

after Newton in the opinion of many knowledgeable people
(although Gauss is regarded as a close rival by many others), takes
the credit for converting ‘ratios’ into ‘functions’. He achieved this
by the simple expedient of replacing r in (8.1) above by unity. In
short he assumed that the length of the hypotenuse is one unit. It
does not mean that the hypotenuse has got to be strictly one inch or
one foot or one centimetre or one metre long. We just draw any
right-angled triangle that suits our liking or one that the available
space permits and assume that the length of its hypotenuse is one
x y
unit. Immediately changes to x and changes to y and
r r
equations (8.1) become

x  cos and y  sin  (8.2)

This has the advantage of making x and y functions of  .

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Euler now faced a problem. He wanted to expand cos  and sin 
into series of powers of  such as  2 , 3 , 4 etc. because he knew
by experience and intuition, he knew almost instinctively, that such
expansions lead to valuable insights. But if  is angle-measure
what is  2 ? The square of an angle is simply inconceivable. The
idea will probably make you exclaim ‘Nonsense!’ in surprise, even
derision. You are perfectly right.

Maybe we could change angle into length because then  2 would

signify area and  3 could signify volume. Connecting length with
angle is easy. In a circle of radius r suppose an arc of length s
subtends an angle of  radians at the centre. Then comparing two
circles in Fig. 8.5 below we observe that arc-length and angle-
measure increase or decrease in proportion. Putting it more simply,
when angle-measure is doubled arc-length is doubled; when angle-
measure is trebled arc-length is trebled; and so on.

Proportionality is shown by equal ratios. If a, b, c, d are in

a c
proportion then  .
b d

Likewise, the statement ‘arc-length and angle-measure are

proportional’ implies ratio of arc-lengths is equal to the ratio of
corresponding angle-measures.

s
r
r
c
r 
r r

(Fig. 8.5)

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 r 1
In symbols  (see Fig. 8.5)
s 

Cross multiplying, s  r , provided  is measured in radians.

For example if a circular park has one-mile radius and a boy walks
from east to west along the boundary what distance did he walk?

East to west is 180 degrees or  radians.

Therefore s  r

 1.



 3.1416 i.e. 3.1416 miles approximately

(Use of s  r is not mandatory. Following older methods, east to

west implies semi-circle. Therefore the length of the path
1
  2 r    r   1    3.1416 miles.)
2

If we assume that r is one unit, as we did in (8.2), then s  r

becomes s   .

Which means in a circle of unit radius an arc of length  units

subtends an angle of  radians at the centre.

Or, what comes to the same thing, the same number serves for arc-
length and angle-measure.

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If  denotes length then  2 denotes area (which is a two-
dimensional concept) and  3 denotes volume (which is three-
dimensional). However  4 cannot denote anything. For, there is
no such thing as the fourth dimension in space. Space is strictly
three dimensional.

Angle cannot be squared.

Length cannot be raised to fourth power.

What is the thing that can be raised to any power?

Only one thing: NUMBER.

Quite right. You can multiply a number by itself as often as you

like. In other words you can raise a number to any degree you like.
You can raise a number to the nth degree and, what’s more you can
let n ‘tend to infinity’. Or, what comes to the same thing, you can
form all powers out of a given number.

‘So can’t we write x  cos and y  sin  and say that  is not an
angle but a number?’ Euler must have mused.

‘We mark numbers along a straight line using a ruler. Can we not
mark numbers along a circle?’

There’s a big difficulty there. A straight line has infinite length. A

circle, or rather the circumference of a circle, is of finite length.

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As a result we will come back to any given point after going round
the circle once, twice, three times, ......... n times, .......... So the
same point will correspond to many different numbers.

‘So what?’ Euler probably asked, a little defiantly perhaps.

But his defiance was justified because he was on the verge of

developing a revolutionary idea.

Let’s draw a circle of unit radius, unit circle for short. Through its
centre O let’s draw the x-axis and y-axis. Let the positive side of
the x-axis cut the circle at A. Let P be a point on the circle such
that the measure of angle AOP is  radians. Then the length of the
arc AP is, as seen above,  units. On a straight line we associate
length with numbers. Do the same here. Call P ‘the point on the
unit circle corresponding to the number  ’. Call its x-coordinate
cos  and its y-coordinate sin  .

B(0,1)
P(cos, sin  )
1 
y
 c

A(1,0) x N A(1,0)

B(0, 1)
(Fig. 8.6)

Therefore x  cos means that cos  is the x-coordinate of the

point on the circle corresponding to number  .

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And y  sin  means that sin  is the y-coordinate of the point on
the unit circle corresponding to number  .

Go round the circle once and come back to P. The circumference

of the circle is 2 r  2 1  2 units. So the length of the arc
ABABAP is   2 . This time P represents point corresponding
to number   2 . So its coordinates are

x  cos   2  y  sin   2 

If we go round the circle once again P becomes the point

corresponding to number   4 and therefore

x  cos   4  y  sin   4 

This can be repeated any number of times. The conclusion is that

cos   cos   2   cos   4   .......

sin   sin   2   sin   4   .......

This means cos  , sin  become functions whose values repeat

themselves at regular intervals.

This phenomenon seems unusual in mathematics but is it unusual

in Nature?

Hardly. The earth’s motion around its axis repeats itself at regular
intervals of 24 hours. To put it a little differently, the motion is
periodic and the period is 24 hours. The same applies to the

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 1
motion of the moon around the earth, period 27 days. It applies
3
1
to the motion of the earth around the sun, period 365 days. It
4
applies to the motion of Halley’s Comet around the sun, period 76
years.

Let’s not confine these ideas to astronomy. Let’s bring them into
mathematics. Let’s say cos  and sin  are periodic functions with
period 2 .

It takes time for a new idea to sink in, but it happens. Euler had
shown conclusively that cos  and sin  could be regarded as
periodic functions of the number  . This enabled him to expand
them into infinite series of powers of  ...........

......... and thereby produce fantastic results.

A word of caution before we conclude this chapter. The angle of

360 degrees was mentioned a few lines before. Be careful how
you use the number. Don’t say, as did Ms. Shobha De, India’s
best-known contemporary novelist in English, when she wrote the
following lines about her father, a man of stern demeanour who
rigidly insisted on discipline:

‘My strong-willed father would behave like a nervous schoolboy in

the presence of his brother, unnerving us all by his 360 degree
switch.’

What she meant was .........

....... a 180 degree switch.

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 BRIEF INTERMISSION

What would you do if you were challenged to jump into a pool of

ice-cold water?

You would take a deep breath, pause to summon courage, to build

up will-power, and then take the plunge.

We’ll do something similar in this mini-chapter, for the next

chapter promises to be about the hardest in the book, very nearly
the most arduous part of the climb to the summit.

There is an elementary theorem in mathematics, known as the

Fundamental Theorem of Counting. It is stated as follows: if one
thing can be done in m ways and, it being done in any one of the m
ways, another thing can be done in n ways then the two things can
be done together in m  n or mn ways.

For example, if you go to a bookstall and ask for books on

mathematics and physics, and if the salesperson puts 2 books on
mathematics and 5 on physics before you then you can select a
book on mathematics and a book on physics in 2  5 i.e. 10 ways.

If the mathematics books are named m1 and m2 and the physics

books are named p1 , p2 , p3 , p4 and p5 then the ten ways are

m1 p1 , m1 p2 , m1 p3 , m1 p4 , m1 p5

m2 p1 , m2 p2 , m2 p3 , m2 p4 , m2 p5 .

While I was explaining the theorem in class a student asked me,

“Why only two books on mathematics and five on physics?”

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“That is because anybody can write a book on physics,” I replied.

That was my way of taking revenge on the professor who had put
my nose out of joint by reminding me that there was no Nobel
Prize for mathematics.

The theorem easily extends itself to three things ‒ the number of

ways would be mnp ‒ or to more than three.

Thus if there are three persons a, b, c and three chairs for them to
sit on (one red, one blue, one green) then the persons will have,
respectively, 3 choices, 2 choices and 1 choice. This means they
can arrange themselves in 3  2  1  6 ways. The six ways are

abc, acb, bac, bca , cab, cba .

(How to get all six triplets i.e. how not to miss any one of them?

Follow a simple rule:

Combine the first letter a with the pairs bc, cb to get abc, acb. Next
combine the second letter b with the pairs ac,ca to get bac, bca.
Finally combine the third letter c with the pairs ab, ba to get cab,
cba.)

For four persons and four chairs (distinguishable by their colours

or by the numbers on them) the number would be 4  3  2  1  24 .
The twenty-four ways are:

(Read columnwise rather than rowwise, for a clearer

understanding)

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 Abcd bacd Cabd dabc
Abdc badc Cadb dacb
Acbd bcad Cbad dbac
Acdb bcda Cbda dbca
Adbc bdac Cdab dcab
Adcb bdca Cdba dcba

(How to get all twenty-four quadruplets without missing out on

any?

Combine the first letter a with the six triplets formed out of b, c, d
in accordance with the method for forming triplets which was
outlined a few lines above. This gives the first column of the above
table.

Similarly combine b with the six triplets formed out of a, c, d to

get the second column;

Combine c with the six triplets formed out of a, b, d to get the third
column;

Finally combine d with the six triplets formed out of a, b, c to get

the fourth column.)

The theorem finds application in the next chapter.

Yet another result which will be needed in the next chapter

concerns the expansion of brackets. Consider the following
formula of elementary algebra:

 a  b  c  d   ac  ad  bc  bd

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It is offered here without proof because the proof is, in my opinion,
exceedingly easy.

Observe that on the left-hand side there are two terms in each
bracket and that the number of brackets is also two. The expansion
contains 2  2  4 terms. Each term has two factors, one of which
is from the first bracket and the other from the second bracket. For
example in the first term ac the factor a is from the first bracket
and the factor c is from the second bracket. The same applies to
the other three terms also as you may easily verify.

Next consider the expression

 a  b  c  d  e  f 
Here also there are two terms in each bracket and the number of
brackets is three. So the expansion will contain 2  2  2  8 terms.
Let’s see what the expansion will be. We will use x as substitute
for  e  f  in the proof.

 a  b  c  d  e  f 

  a  b  c  d  x

  ac  ad  bc  bd  x

 acx  adx  bcx  bdx

 ac  e  f   ad  e  f   bc  e  f   bd  e  f 

Page 128 of 231

  ace  acf  ade  adf  bce  bcf  bde  bdf

Here you will find that each term contains three factors one of
which is from the first bracket, ..... one from the second bracket .....
and one from the third bracket. For example in the last term bdf,
the factor b comes from the first bracket, the factor d comes from
the second bracket and the factor f comes from the third bracket.

We may generalize as follows:

Assume that each bracket contains two terms and the number of
brackets is n. Then

i) The number of terms in the expansion is 2  2  2  ..........  2 n

times i.e. 2n
ii) each term contains n factors and
iii) one of these factors is from the first bracket, one from the
second bracket, one from the third bracket, ......... and one from
the nth bracket. In other words there always is, in each term,
one factor from every bracket but never more than one. Or, yet
again, there is in each term one and only one factor from each
bracket.

Focus your attention on the key words: one and only one.

Allow me to quiz you on these expansions. Consider the

expansion of
 a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h 

Page 129 of 231

Five terms are given below. Three of them occur in the above
expansion but the other two cannot. Can you identify those which
cannot occur?

A) acfh B) bcdg C) adeg D) bdfh E) aefg

For answer turn to appendix A.

Consider once again the result

 a  b  c  d  e  f   ace  acf  ade  adf  bce  bcf  bde  bdf

We derived it by using x for  e  f  and then multiplying out

a  b c  d  and then resubstituting e  f  for x and
multiplying out once by e and once by f.

Suppose we had done it a little differently ‒ by multiplying out all

three brackets simultaneously.

Is it possible?

It is. Just remember the rule: take one and only one term from each
bracket.

But in doing so we would get ace, for example, in six different

ways. Consider how.

ace, aec, cae, cea, eac, eca

For example if we take the same letters a, c, e but choose the

brackets,

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in order 1, 2, 3 we would get ace,
in order 1, 3, 2 we would get aec,
in order 2, 1, 3 we would get cae,
in order 2, 3, 1 we would get cea,
in order 3, 1, 2 we would get eac,
in order 3, 2, 1 we would get eca.

We do not retain all six terms in the expansion. We keep only one
of them and discard the others.

(We could have kept aec and discarded others, or kept cae and
discarded others or ......).

This is because by the commutative law of multiplication, which

says xy  yx , we find that

ace  aec  cae  cea  eac  eca .

The reason for preferring ace over the other five orders is easy to
understand. In the term ace a is from the first bracket, c is from the
second bracket and e is from the third bracket.

Therefore
in ace the order of brackets is 1, 2, 3
in aec the order of brackets is 1, 3, 2
in cae the order of brackets is 2, 1, 3
in cea the order of brackets is 2, 3, 1
in eac the order of brackets is 3, 1, 2
in eca the order of brackets is 3, 2, 1

Of these six orders the easiest to remember is 1, 2, 3. This is the

reason for preferring ace.

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As you know perfectly well, it is called the ascending order.

The rules for multiplying out brackets, each containing two terms,
may now be stated as follows:

i) Take one and only one term from each bracket

ii) In choosing brackets stick to the ascending order.
iii) Multiply the chosen terms to form one term of the expansion;
add all such terms to obtain the expansion.

We can now consider ourselves ready for an assault on the most

formidable bastion of elementary algebra ‒ the Binomial Theorem.

Page 132 of 231

 CHAPTER NINE

THE MOST FAMOUS THEOREM IN ALGEBRA

Perhaps the best-known formula of elementary algebra is

 a  b
2
 a 2  2ab  b 2

This is probably the first formula of algebra that is taught to

students. It is followed, after a suitable interval, by another formula
of the same type:

 a  b
3
 a 3  3a 2b  3ab 2  b3

Further formulae, like the one for  a  b  , are usually not taught,
4

or, are briefly touched upon. I remember asking my teacher to

show me how to expand  a  b  . He showed me the trick, and
4

asked me to derive the expansions of  a  b  ,  a  b  and finally

5 6

a  b
10
. When I showed him the results he checked them, found
all three correct and smiled in approval.

Needless to say, I was thrilled.

The trick which the teacher taught me was none other than the
binomial expansion of  a  b  also known as the Binomial
n

Theorem, the most famous theorem of algebra. Explaining it is a

tough job for me; understanding the explanation is a tough job for
you; but let’s try.

Page 133 of 231

Let’s begin by expanding  a  b  . We’ll make things easier for
4

you. We will change the expression to 1  b  . Remember, ‘a’ is

4

an unknown quantity while ‘1’ is a known quantity. A known

devil is better than an unknown one.

Further we’ll change the expression to 1  x  . In the armada of

4

algebraic symbols ‘a’ and ‘b’ are like cruisers and corvettes, while
‘x’ is like the flagship.

Now 1  x   1  x 1  x 1  x 1  x 

4

To expand this we have to take one and only one term from each
bracket and multiply them. Taking 1 from each bracket we get

1.1.1.1

which is equal to 1. This is the first term of the expansion.

Now take 1 from three brackets and x from the remaining bracket.
The result is

1.1.1.x

1.1.x.1

1.x.1.1

x.1.1.1

These four terms all become x and, when added up, reduce to 4x.
This is the second term of the expansion.

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Now take 1 from two brackets and x from the other two. There are
six possibilities:

1.1.x.x.

1.x.1.x.

x.1.1.x

x.1.x.1

x.x.1.1

Which is the sixth one? .................. Can you guess? ........... For the
answer turn to Appendix A.

All six terms are equal to x 2 and, when added up, reduce to 6x 2 .
This is the third term of the expansion.

Now take 1 from one bracket and x from the remaining brackets.
The result is

1.x.x.x

x.1.x.x

x.x.1.x

x.x.x.1

These give us 4x3 , the fourth term of the expansion.

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Finally take only x from each bracket. The result is

x.x.x.x

which means x 4 . This is the last term of the expansion. Therefore

the complete expansion is

1  x 
4
 1  4 x  6 x2  4 x3  x4

You might want to raise a doubt, a query. “You told us that when
four brackets of two terms each are multiplied together one gets
24  16 terms. How come here we have only five terms?”

The answer is, “The sixteen terms are surely there. To see them
write the above expansion as

1  x 
4
 1 x  x  x  x

 x2  x2  x2  x2  x2  x2

 x 3  x3  x 3  x 3

 x4

Now the number of terms is 1  4  6  4  1  16 ......... Right?”

The above method is okay for 1  x 

4
but not very good for
1  x  1  x 
5 6
or . So let’s seek a short cut. Observe the
following:

Page 136 of 231

 1  x 
2
 1  2x  x2

1  x 
3
 1  3x  3 x 2  x3

1  x 
4
 1  4 x  6 x2  4 x3  x4

Let’s make a small change in the last term of each expansion and
rewrite the expansion

1  x 
2
 1  2 x  1x 2

1  x 
3
 1  3x  3 x 2  1x3

1  x 
4
 1  4 x  6 x 2  4 x3  1x 4

Now, on the right hand side ignore the plus signs. Ignore the x’s
also. What remains?

1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1

Make a triangle out of the above by adding two lines at the top.

Page 137 of 231

 1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1

What’s the pattern here?

It is this. Add any two adjacent numbers in the same row and you
get the number immediately below them.

Add 1, 1. Get 2.
Add 1, 2. Get 3.
Add 2, 1. Get 3.
Add 3, 3. Get 6.

Follow this pattern to get the next line. The new triangle is

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1

The implication is that

1  x 
5
 1  5 x  10 x 2  10 x 3  5 x 4  x5

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If you add the next line the triangle becomes

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1

What this indicates is that

1  x 
6
 1  6 x  15 x 2  20 x 3  15 x 4  6 x5  x 6

If you add four more lines you’ll get the following

1  x 
10
 1  10 x  45 x 2  120 x 3  210 x 4  252 x 5  210 x 6  120 x 7  45 x8  10 x 9  x10

Wanna try?

The above triangle is named after the famous French

mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). In other words it is
called Pascal’s Triangle. It is a useful device for writing down
binomial expansions, but unfortunately it doesn’t take us very far.
One reason is that to write down the expansion of 1  x  we
20

need to write down twenty-one lines. Another, and much bigger

reason is that the numbers increase very fast. For instance the
middle number in the expansion of 1  x 
20
is 184756.

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(If that doesn’t impress you, if like Queen Victoria you are not
amused, then consider what’ll happen when you try to find the
middle number in the expansion of 1  x  .
50
It is
126 trillion, 410 billion, 606 million, 437 thousand, 752.)

So, even Pascal’s triangle fails to give the expansion of 1  x 

n

when the index n is a large number.

What we need therefore is a formula for writing down the

expansion directly. We shouldn’t have to go back to the
beginning, begin with Adam and Eve so to speak.

To discover such a formula all by ourselves, to raise ourselves by

our own bootstraps as the saying goes, we need to begin by writing
out n brackets. For the expansion of 1  x  we began by writing
4

out four brackets, remember? Since n is an unknown quantity we

cannot tell how many brackets there really are between the first
and the last. So the use of dots in the middle is unavoidable.

1  x   1  x 1  x 1  x  ......1  x  to n brackets

n

On the right side it is necessary to distinguish one x from another.

So let’s use suffixes.

1  x   1  x1 1  x2 1  x3  ......1  xn 

n

Now let’s expand the right hand expression. We must follow the
rules for multiplying brackets which were outlined in Brief
Intermission especially rule (i) which says we should take one and
only one term from each bracket.

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For the first term of the expansion ignore the x’s and take only the
1’s. The result is

1.1.1 ................. 1

which means 1. This is the first term of the expansion.

For the second term take x from one bracket only, and 1 from
every other backet. The result is

x1.1.1.1................1

1.x2 .1.1................1

1.1.x3.1................1

1.1.1.x4 ................1
.
.
.

1.1.1.1................ xn

When the 1’s are ignored these become x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ......... xn .

When the suffixes are ignored (because they were not there in the
first place) they become x, x, x, x, ......... x.

Their sum is

x  x  x  x  .............  x

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Since these are n terms the sum reduces to nx. This is the second
term of the expansion. Thus

1  x 
n
 1  nx  ...........

To find the third term of the expansion which is sure to contain x 2

or x  x what must we do?

We must take x from two brackets and 1 from the remaining

brackets. The result is

x1.x2 .1.1...............1

x1.1.x3.1................1

x1.1.1.x4 ...............1
.
.
.

1.1.1.x4 .1.1.x7 ................

.
.
.
First ignore the 1’s. Then the terms shown above reduce to

x1 x2 , x1x3 , x1 x4 , ...... x4 x7 , .....

What is the number of these terms? To find out, let’s apply the
Fundamental Theorem of Counting which was explained in brief

Page 142 of 231

intermission. The first x can be chosen from any one of the n
brackets i.e. in n ways. The second x can be chosen from any one
of the remaining n  1 brackets i.e. in n  1 ways. Therefore the
first and the second x can be chosen in n  n  1 ways. Therefore
the number of terms is, apparently, n  n  1 .

Why ‘apparently’?

Observe that when we select x1 first and x2 second we get the pair
x1 x2 . When we select x2 first and x1 second we get the pair x2 x1 .
But this pair is unacceptable because of the rule: stick to the
ascending order. Likewise out of the pairs x1 x3 and x3 x1 both of
which we get when we form n  n  1 selections, we have to reject
x3 x1 because of the rule about choosing ascending order.

Therefore out of n  n  1 pairs only half are acceptable i.e. the

n  n  1
number of pairs actually accepted will be . When the
2
suffixes are removed each pair becomes x. x i.e. x 2 . The sum of
these terms is

n  n  1 n  n  1 2
x 2  x 2  x 2  x 2  .........  x 2 to terms i.e. x .
2 2

This is the third term of the expansion.

n  n  1 2
 1  x   1  nx 
n
x  ........
2

Page 143 of 231

We now turn to the fourth term of the expansion. This must
contain x3 i.e. x.x.x. So we must take x from three brackets and 1
from the remaining brackets. The result is

x1.x2 .x3.1.1.1.1.............1

x1.x2 .1.x4 .1.1.1.............1

x1.x2 .1.1.x5 .1.1.............1

.
.
.
1.x2 .x3.1.1.x6 .1.............1
.
.
.
These reduce to x1 x2 x3 , x1 x2 x4 , x1 x2 x5 , ...... x2 x3 x6 , .........

In each term the first factor could have been chosen from any one
of the n brackets, the second from any one of the remaining n  1
brackets and the third from any one of the remaining n  2
brackets. Therefore the number of ways of selecting terms with
three x’s is, apparently, n  n  1 n  2  . But the actual number is
n  n  1 n  2 
.
6

Consider why.

Take a look at the last term shown above, namely x2 x3 x6 . Using

the same set of letters but changing the order in which they are

Page 144 of 231

selected we can put down five more terms. The complete set of six
terms is as follows:

x2 x3 x6 , x2 x6 x3 , x3 x2 x6 , x3 x6 x2 , x6 x2 x3 , x6 x3 x2

But if the rule about choosing ascending order is to be followed we

can accept only the first of these six triplets. So out of six triplets
we can take only one. Out of another set of six triplets

x2 x4 x7 , x2 x7 x4 , x4 x2 x7, x4 x7 x2, x7 x2 x4, x7 x4 x2

we take only one, the first. So 6 triplets reduce to 1, 12 reduce to

2, 18 reduce to 3, ...... and n  n  1 n  2  reduce to
n  n  1 n  2 
.
6

When the suffixes are removed each of the above triplets reduces
to xxx i.e. to x 3 . Therefore the sum of these terms is

n  n  1 n  2 
x 3  x 3  x 3  x 3  ......... to terms i.e.
6
n  n  1 n  2  3
x . This is the fourth term of the expansion.
6

n ( n  1) 2 n  n  1 n  2  3
 1  x   1  nx 
n
x  x  .......
2 6

Our aim is to observe the pattern and use our observation to write
down subsequent terms. Towards this end let’s change the
denominators 2 and 6 shown above to 1.2 and 1.2.3. We then have

Page 145 of 231

 n  n  1 2 n  n  1 n  2  3
1  x 
n
 1  nx  x  x  ......
1.2 1.2.3

It is now easy to see that the next term would be

n  n  1 n  2  n  3 4
x
1 2  3  4

and the one after that would be

n  n  1 n  2  n  3 n  4  5
x
1 2  3  4  5

Therefore up to six terms the expansion is

n  n  1 2 n  n  1 n  2  3
1  x 
n
 1  nx  x  x
1.2 1.2.3

n  n  1 n  2  n  3 4 n  n  1 n  2  n  3 n  4  5

 x  x  .... (9.3)
1.2.3.4 1.2.3.4.5

If this is applied to 1  x  we get

10

10.9 2 10.9.8 3 10.9.8.7 4 10.9.8.7.6 5

1  x 
10
 1  10 x  x  x  x  x  ......
1 2 1 2  3 1 2  3  4 1 2  3  4  5

The next term is

10.9.8.7.6.5 6
x
1  2  3  4  5.6

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But 6 and 6 cancel out, 5 and 5 cancel out. So what remains is

10.9.8.7 6
x
1 2  3  4

This means the coefficients of x 4 and x 6 are equal. So are

coefficients of x3 and x 7 , as also those of x 2 and x8 , and those of
x1 and x9  i.e. x and x 9  .

(We noted this in Pascal’s triangle, didn’t we?)

The last term would be

10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1 10
x
1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10

which is nothing but the plain and simple x10 .

We can now write down the complete expansion of 1  x  . It

10

goes as follows:

10.9 2 10.9.8 3 10.9.8.7 4 10.9.8.7.6 5

1  x 
10
 1  10 x  x  x  x  x
1 2 1 2  3 1 2  3  4 1.2.3.4.5

10.9.8.7 6 10.9.8 7 10.9 8 10 9 10

 x  x  x  x x
1 2  3  4 1.2.3 1.2 1

which simplifies to

1  10 x  45 x2  120 x3  210 x 4  252 x5  210 x 6  120 x7  45 x8  10 x9  x10

Page 147 of 231

The Binomial Theorem, which is the name by which formula (9.3)
is known, will be needed when we attempt to prove an important
formula in the next chapter and also when we try to expand the
function e x into an infinite series.

P.S. : We neglected to write the terms at the end of (9.3). One can
easily guess what they must be. The last one is x n . The second
n (n  1) n 2
last is nx n 1 . The third last is x . And so on. If it is
1.2
considered sufficient to write five terms at the beginning and one
at the end then the expansion would be

n ( n  1) 2 n( n  1)(n  2) 3 n ( n  1)( n  2)( n  3) 4

(1  x )n  1  nx  x  x  x
1.2 1.2.3 1.2.3.4
.......  x n .

This brings to the end our endeavour to obtain the expansion of

(1  x ) n .

Page 148 of 231

 CHAPTER TEN

“IT’S AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME”

You might have heard this remark from the mouth of a public
speaker or read it in a newspaper. Politicians frequently use it to
justify their principles, precepts, programmes, planks whatever.
It’s hard to say who coined the phrase and when, but I like to
imagine that it was calculus that gave birth to it. For calculus was
certainly an idea whose time had come. For proof of this fact it is
sufficient to point out that calculus was invented simultaneously
and independently by two mathematicians ‒ by Isaac Newton in
England and by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz in Germany.

(Such simultaneity is not as unusual as one might suppose. It

occurs in different branches of science also. For instance the
chemical compound Iron Pentacarbonyl  Symbol Fe  CO 5  was
discovered by two scientists, one in England and the other in
France, on the same day, June 15, 1891.)

There is almost universal agreement that calculus is the greatest

thing that has happened to mathematics in the past 400 years. Its
power may be gauged from the fact that it finds application in
branches of mathematics as diverse as Number Theory and
Thermodynamics.

How did calculus originate?

It all began with the Great fire of London (1666). The fire burnt
down half of London and drove thousands into the countryside.
Among them was Isaac Newton, then a young man of 24. He was
studying the laws of planetary motion discovered by the famous

Page 149 of 231

Italian astronomer Kepler. One of the three laws states that planets
move in elliptical orbits with the sun in one focus. Another states
that the radius vector joining the sun to a planet sweeps out equal
area in equal times. The situation can be easily understood from
the following figure.

C B
D A

(Fig. 10.1)

In the figure above S stands for the sun while A, B, C, D stand for
four different positions of a planet at equal intervals of time. The
laws state that S is not the centre of the ellipse. Rather it is one of
its two foci, and that the areas of the ‘triangles’ SAB, SBC, SCD are
equal. (The reason for putting the word triangles into inverted
commas is that two sides of each figure are straight lines but the
third, namely AB or BC or CD, is not. It is an arc of the ellipse.)

Had the orbits been circular, with S as the centre, then equality of
areas would ensure equality of arc-lengths AB, BC, CD etc.
(Readers are invited to see this for themselves by drawing a
figure). But ‘ellipse’ instead of ‘circle’ queers the pitch. It implies
that the arcs are not of equal length. It follows that the planets
cover unequal distances in equal times i.e. time taken by the planet
to go from A to B, time taken by it to go from B to C and time
taken by it to go from C to D – all three times are equal, but the

Page 150 of 231

distances from A to B, that from B to C and that from C to D –
meaning of course the arcs AB, BC, CD – are not equal.

What conclusion follows from the observation: unequal distances

in equal times?

The obvious conclusion is, unequal speeds.

So, the speeds of the planet over arc AB, over arc BC and over arc
CD are not equal. They are different.

So the speed of a planet in its motion around the sun is not

constant. It varies from point to point.

Newton probably wanted to measure that speed. The problem

before him may be stated thus: How does one measure speed when
it is variable?

Since speed is the rate of change of distance with respect to time

the problem may be restated in these words: How does one
measure a rate of change when it is variable? Or, how does one
measure a variable rate of change?

Constant rates, as opposed to variable rates, are easy to measure. If

a snail is observed to have crawled over 4 metres in 2 hours, 10
metres in 5 hours, 14 metres in 7 hours the conclusion is obvious
that it is crawling at the rate of 2 metres per hour.

The problem is more difficult when the rate is variable. The speed
of your car is an example of a variable rate. You realize this
immediately when you start the car (its speed increases then) or
when you bring it to a stop (its speed decreases then). But even
when you are cruising along steadily the speed is not constant.

Page 151 of 231

The flickering of the speedometer needle shows that the speed is
undergoing minute changes even in that situation.

Newton found that the mathematical tools in his possession were

inadequate for the purpose of measuring variable rates. So he
developed a new one. That tool is known by the name ‘calculus’.

To understand Newton’s idea imagine that you are travelling by a

car whose speedometer is not working. How would you measure
the speed of such a car?

Suppose at 9.30 a.m. the odometer of the car shows (say) 10380
kilometres. Wait for a suitable length of time, say five minutes.
At 9.35 a.m. suppose the odometer shows 10388 kilometres. (It
may be a few hundred metres less or more but let’s ignore the
difference for the convenience of dealing in round figures.)

So in 5 minutes the car has travelled 8 kilometres.

Multiply by 12.

In 60 minutes the car will travel 96 kilometres.

So the speed of the car is 96 kilometres per hour.

The method is adequate but inefficient. It takes all of five minutes

to find out the speed. The speedometer does the same instantly.
Something must be done to make the method more efficient.

The obvious answer is to shorten the time interval. Suppose at

9.31 a.m. the odometer shows 10381.5 kilometres.

Then in one minute the car has travelled one and a half kilometre.

Page 152 of 231

Multiply by 60.

The conclusion is that in 60 minutes the car will travel 90

kilometres.

So the speed of the car is 90 kilometres per hour.

“Be exact,” you will want to say, “96 or 90?”

That’s not the point. The point is, how do you measure the speed
of a car whose speedometer is broken.

You can improve the method by reducing the time interval to 30

seconds or even to 20 or 10 seconds.

Let’s try to generalize the method. The steps are:

(In what follows the symbol  signifies small change. Thus  x

stands for small increase or decrease in x. It is a single number. It
is not a product of two numbers, δ and x.)

1. Time at the first observation: t (say at the place A)

2. Distance at the first observation : s
3. Time at the second observation : t   t (say at B)
4. Distance at the second observation : s   s
5. Distance between A and B :  s
6. Time taken to go from A to B :  t
s
7. Speed over the interval AB :
t

Page 153 of 231

 distance
(By the formula, speed = . True, the formula is applicable
time
to constant speeds, but since the interval AB is small, one may
assume that the speed over AB is constant. No harm then in
applying the formula.)

s
A B
t
(Fig. 10.2)

It remains to sharpen our result by reducing the interval AB to zero.

An interval of zero length would imply instant observation and
instant conclusion ‒ a situation identical with the situation which
obtains when the speedometer is functioning.

So we must reduce the time interval  t and the distance interval

 s to zero. In symbols we must let  t  0 . (to be read as ‘let  t
tend to zero’) and  s  0 . Since the former automatically leads to
the latter (i.e. if  t tends to zero,  s also tends to zero) it is
sufficient to mention that we let  t  0 .

s
What happens to the ratio when  t  0 ? We saw that it
t
changes from 96 to 90 when an interval of five minutes is reduced
to one minute. One thing is clear: it does not reduce to zero.

s
Although  t  0 and  s  0 we find that does not tend to
t
zero. It certainly does not.

Page 154 of 231

It tends to its own thing, reduces to its own value. That thing, that
ds
value is denoted by .
dt

s ds
The process of changing into , as the time-interval  t
t dt
tends to zero (as also the distance-interval  s tends to zero,
inevitably and automatically), is indicated by the following
equation

 s ds
lim 
 t 0  t dt

The meaning of this statement may be put into words as follows :

as  t becomes smaller and smaller indefinitely, continuously,
s
endlessly we find that takes on the ultimate form which is
t
ds
shown by the symbol .
dt

The underlying principle may be stated briefly as follows :

the ratio of two small quantities need not be small.

ds
The symbol is the theoretical approximation to the speed of
dt
your car as shown by the speedometer when it is functioning. It is
known by the name ‘instantaneous velocity’. We may simplify the
terminology by calling it the ‘just-now’ speed of the car. For that
is exactly what it is ‒ the speed of the car just now, at the moment,
at the instant when you ask for it.

Page 155 of 231

 ds
The mathematical name of the symbol is ‘derivative of s with
dt
respect to t’. It stands for the rate of change of s with respect to t
evaluated continuously, from point to point, from moment to
moment.

There are four steps in the evaluation of the derivative of y w.r.t. x,

dy
the symbol for which is .
dx

1. Make a small change in x. Call it  x .

2. Measure the corresponding change in y. Call it  y .
y
3. Find the ratio .
x
4. Find its limit as either change tends to zero.

The whole process is summed up in the statement.

 y dy
lim 
 x 0  x dx

Let’s apply this idea to a few simple functions of the form y  x n

where n denotes a natural number or positive integer. The simplest
case occurs when n  1 . We then have y  x1 which is normally
written as y  x .

1. yx

Make small changes in x and y.

Since y  x

Page 156 of 231

 y  y  x  x

Subtracting,  y   x

y
Therefore 1
x

Since 1 is constant it will remain as it is when limit is taken.

y
Therefore lim 1
 x 0 x
 1 1
 1.x 0

(The reason for writing the answer in this manner will be clear
shortly.)

dy
  1x 0
dx

2. y  x2

Since y  x 2 ,
therefore y   y   x   x 
2

Subtract.

Therefore  y   x   x   x 2
2

Page 157 of 231

  x 2  2 x  x     x   x 2
2

 2x   x     x 
2

  x 2x   x

y
Therefore  2x   x
x

y
Therefore lim  lim  2 x   x 
 x 0  x  x 0

 2x  0

 2x

dy
  2x
dx

 2x1

3. y  x3

Since y  x 3

Therefore y   y   x   x 
3

Therefore  y   x   x   x 3
3

Page 158 of 231

  x 3  3 x 2  x   3 x  x    x   x 3
2 3

 3 x 2  x   3 x  x    x 
2 3

   x  3 x 2  3 x  x    x  
2
 

y
 3 x 2  3 x  x     x 
2

x

y
 lim 3 x 2  3 x  x     x  
2
 lim
 x 0  x  x 0  

 3 x 2  3x  0    0 
2

 3x 2

dy
  3x2
dx

4. Let y  x 4

 y   y   x   x
4

Subtract

 y   x   x   x 4
4

Page 159 of 231

  x 4  4 x 3   x   6 x 2  x   4 x   x     x   x 4
2 3 4

 4 x 3  x   6 x 2  x   4 x  x    x 
2 3 4

   x   4 x 3  6 x 2   x   4 x  x     x  
2 3
 

y
 4 x 3  6 x 2   x   4 x  x    x 
2 3

x

y
 4 x3  6 x 2  0   4 x  0    0 
2 3
 lim
 x 0  x

dy
  4 x3
dx

If we eliminate y these four results become

d
 x   1x0
dx

d 2
dx
 x   2 x1

d 3
dx
 x   3x 2
d 4
dx
 x   4 x3

Page 160 of 231

Let’s rewrite the results in a slightly different way.

d 1

dx
 x   1x11
d 2
dx
 x   2 x 21

d 3
dx
 x   3 x31

d 4
dx
 x   4 x 41

The conclusion is now obvious that

d n
dx
 x   nx n1

We have guessed this result. We have not proved it. The proof is
not difficult, now that we know binomial expansion.

Let y  x n

 y   y   x   x
n

 y   x   x   x n
n

n  n  1 n2 n  n  1 n  2  n3

 x n  nx n1  x   x  x   x  x   ......  x n
2 3

1.2 1.2.3

Page 161 of 231

We have x n at both the ends, with opposite signs. Cancel them.

n  n  1 n2 n  n  1 n  2  n3

 y  nx n 1  x   x  x   x  x   ......
2 3

1.2 1.2.3

Divide both sides by  x .

y n  n  1 n2 n  n  1 n  2  n3

x  x   x  x   ......
2
 nx n1 
x 1.2 1.2.3

Taking limit as  x  0

dy n  n  1 n2 n  n  1 n  2  n3 2

 nx n1  x  0  x  0   ......
dx 1.2 1.2.3

 nx n1  0  0  .......

 nx n1

d n

dx
 x   nx n1

It is worthwhile to ask a basic question: what about the derivative

of a constant?

That is easy to answer.

Let y  c (where c denotes a constant)

 y  c.1

Page 162 of 231

  c. x 0

Let x and y change by amounts  x and  y respectively.

 y   y  c( x   x ) 0

Subtract.

 y  c ( x   x ) 0  cx 0

 c.1  c.1

cc

0

y
 0
x

Taking limit as  x  0

dy
 0 i.e. the derivative of a constant is zero.
dx

ds
(We noted earlier that stands for the rate of change of s w.r.t. t.
dt
dy
So if y is equal to a constant c then stands for the rate of
dx
change of c w.r.t. x. Since a constant never changes its rate of
change is zero. This is another explanation for the result: the
derivative of a constant is zero.)

Page 163 of 231

We round off this chapter by elucidating two simple elementary
properties of derivatives.

dy du dv
I. If y  u  v then  
dx dx dx

A better statement of the same result is obtained by eliminating y.

The result is

d du dv
u  v   
dx dx dx

Proof of this result is found in any elementary textbook of calculus.

I prefer to brighten this page with an illustration.

Let y  x 2  x

Let  x and  y be the corresponding changes in x and y.

Then y   y   x   x   x   x
2

 x 2  2 x  x    x   x   x
2

 x 2  x  2 x  x    x    x
2

 y  2 x  x    x   x 
2

Page 164 of 231

  y   x  2 x  1   x 
2

 y   y  y   x  2 x  1   x 
2

Cancel y from both sides.

 y   x  2 x  1   x 
2

y
  2x  1   x
x

Taking limit as  x  0

dy
 2x  1 0
dx

d 2

dx
 x  x  2x  1
d 2 d
We recall that
dx
 x   2 x and
dx
 x   1.

d 2 d d

dx
 x  x    x2    x 
dx dx

This explains the result.

II. If y  cu where c is constant and u is a function of x then

Page 165 of 231

 dy du
c
dx dx

Or, eliminating y,

d du
 cu   c
dx dx

A simple illustration would go as follows:

Let y  5 x 2

 y   y  5 x   x 
2

 5  x 2  2 x  x    x  
2
 

 5 x 2  10 x  x   5  x 
2

 y   y  y  10 x  x   5   x 
2

Cancel y.

 y  10 x  x    x 
2

y
  10 x   x
x

Taking limit as  x  0

Page 166 of 231

dy
 10 x  0
dx

dy
 10 x
dx

d

dx
 5x2   5 2x 

d d

dx
 5x 2   5  x2 
dx

which, again, explains the result.

P.S. The four-word command ‘Find the derivative of’ is usually

shortened to a single word ‘Differentiate’. Thus instead of saying
‘Find the derivative of x 2 with respect to x’ we say ‘Differentiate
x 2 with respect to x’.

As noted above the result of differentiating x 3 w.r.t. x is 3x 2 . The

result of differentiating x 4 w.r.t. x is 4x 3 . The result of
differentiating x n w.r.t. x is nx n 1 .

P.P.S.: As a student of mathematics you have probably

experienced the discomfiture of not being able to solve a problem
given to you. If so you will welcome the idea which I am about to
present. Give the following problem to the person who challenged
you. Draw an ellipse on a piece of paper and ask him or her to
determine accurately the two points inside it each of which is
called its focus.

Page 167 of 231

 (Fig. 10.3)

For solution turn to appendix B

Page 168 of 231

 CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE DERIVATIVES OF COS AND SIN

In the previous chapter we found the derivatives of the functions

y  x , x 2 , x3 , x 4 , ........., x n , ......... These may be termed
elementary functions of algebra.

1
Other elementary functions are y  , y  x , but we chose to
x
ignore them because we don’t need them.

1
(If you are keen, go ahead and prove that their derivatives are 
x2
1
and respectively.)
2 x

The elementary functions of trigonometry are the cosine function

and the sine function. We preferred to represent them as

x  cos and y  sin 

in order to advantageously combine coordinate geometry and

trigonometry.

Since coordinate geometry is also called algebraic geometry this

chapter is witness to a marvellous event ‒ the confluence of four
great streams of mathematics i.e. algebra, geometry, trigonometry
and calculus.

Consider the cosine function first,

Page 169 of 231

 x  cos

Let angle  undergo a small change  .

Let the corresponding change in x be denoted, as usual, by  x .

 x   x  cos    

From the second equation subtract the first.

 x  cos      cos

Divide by  .

 x cos      cos
 
 

Take limit of both sides as   0 .

x cos      cos
 lim  lim
 0   0 

dx cos      cos
  lim
d  0 

d cos      cos 
  cos   lim (11.1)
d 0 

Visualizing this situation by means of a figure is absolutely

essential. Without it the end result will be impossible to grasp.

Page 170 of 231

 Q
P
N


M L A
O

(Fig.11.1)

Let O be the centre of a circle of unit radius. As before, we do not

care whether the unit is an inch or a centimetre, a yard or a meter, a
mile or a kilometre. We just draw a circle of suitable size and
assume that its radius is one unit.

Through O draw the x-axis and the y-axis. Let the positive side of
the x-axis cut the circle at the point A (the initial point).

Let P be the point on the circle such that angle AOP has measure
 radians.

(This is the same as saying, let point P correspond to number  ).

Similarly let Q correspond to number    . Since  is small

minute minuscule or infinitesimal it is clear that P and Q are very
close to each other, although for the sake of clarity they are shown
wide apart in the figure.

Draw PL, QM perpendicular to the x-axis.

Draw PN perpendicular to QM.

Draw the chord PQ.

Page 171 of 231

Then the definition of cos  leads to the following observations.

cos  = x-coordinate of P i.e. OL

cos     = x-coordinate of Q i.e. OM

 cos      cos   OM  OL

 OM   OM  ML 

 OM  OM  ML

  ML

cos      cos ML
  (11.2)
 

Further  is, basically and originally, the measure of angle POQ

(see Fig. 11.1)

Q
P
N


M L A
O

(Fig. 11.1)

Page 172 of 231

But the formula for the arc-length of a circle, namely

s  r

becomes, when the radius is one unit, the still simpler formula
s  1. i.e.

s 

which means that the same number signifies angle-measure in

radians and arc-length when the circle is a unit circle. Therefore
 signifies both measure of angle POQ and length of arc PQ.

But the length of arc PQ is not the same as the length of chord PQ.

(The word ‘chord’ has been italicized for emphasis)

And chord PQ must be drawn because the sides of triangle PNQ

must be straight lines. Arc PQ will not do.

Our difficulty (‘arc PQ will not do’) will be overcome without any
effort on our part. The magician who performs the trick and makes
the problem disappear is the smallness of the quantity  .
Because it is very very small, and getting smaller and smaller, the
points P and Q are close to each other, very close indeed and
getting still closer, because  tends to zero. So ultimately arc
PQ and chord PQ will be indistinguishable and therefore the two
quantities, length of arc PQ and length of chord PQ, will be equal
(well, very nearly equal) and ultimately, in the long run, will
indeed become equal when  vanishes (i.e. reduces to zero) and
P and Q become one point. Therefore, using the symbol  which
stands for ‘very nearly equal to’ we may write (11.2) as

Page 173 of 231

 cos      cos ML

length of arc PQ length of chord PQ

Further, remembering that  signifies both measure of angle

POQ and length of arc PQ, we can write the above result as

cos      cos  ML

 length of chord PQ

Now take limit as   0 . In the limit both ‘length of arc PQ’ and
‘length of chord PQ’ become equal because both reduce to zero.
Therefore we may assume that, in the limit, the symbol  changes
to  .
cos      cos  ML 
 lim  lim   
 0    0
 PQ 

d  ML 
 By (11.1)  cos   lim
0 
 
d  PQ 

d  ML 
  cos    1 lim   (11.3)
d 0 PQ
 

Next, we drew three perpendiculars in the figure shown above

resulting in right angles at L, M, N.

Therefore quadrilateral PNML contains three right angles. As such

its fourth angle (the one at P i.e. angle NPL ) is also a right angle.

 PNML is a rectangle.

Page 174 of 231

 Its opposite sides are equal and parallel.

 PN  ML and PN  ML (11.4)

Since PN  ML and OP cuts them.

 mAOP  mOPN (alternate angles or z-angles)

 mOPN   (11.5)

Now consider Fig. 11.1. Look at the triangle formed by radii OP,
OQ and chord PQ i.e. triangle POQ. Its angles are angle POQ,
angle OPQ, angle OQP. Therefore

mPOQ  mOPQ  mOQP  1800

  mOPQ  mOQP  1800

 mOPQ  mOQP  1800  

But OP  OQ implies

mOPQ  mOQP (isosceles triangle).

1800  
 mOPQ  mOQP 
2


In particular mOPQ  900 
2

Page 175 of 231

 
Therefore by Fig. 11.1 mOPN  mNPQ  900 
2


  mNPQ  900 
2


 mNPQ  900  
2

Q
P
N


M L A
O

(Fig. 11.1 repeated)

Now triangle NPQ is right-angled at N.

mNQP  mNPQ  90


 mNQP  900     900
2


 mNQP  900     900
2

Page 176 of 231

 
 mNQP    0
2


 mNQP  
2


 mNQP   
2

Back to (11.3), namely,

d ML
 cos    1 lim
d  0 PQ

d PN
 By (11.4)  cos    1 lim
d  0 PQ

opp
  1 lim (w.r.t. NQP )
 0 hyp

  1 lim sin NQP

 0

  
  1 lim sin    
 0
 2 

  1 sin   0 

  sin 

Page 177 of 231

 d
  cos    sin  (11.6)
d

This is the result we were aiming at, going by the title of the
chapter.

Now for the twin result ‒ the derivative of sin  . However this
time we will be brief. We will not reduce the steps, I assure you,
but we will reduce the words, we’ll cut the palaver, so to speak.

Let y  sin 

 y   y  sin    

 y  sin      sin 

 y sin      sin 
 
 

y sin      sin 
 lim  lim
 0   0 

dy sin      sin 
  lim
d  0 

d sin      sin 
  sin    lim
d  0 

 By Fig. 11.1

Page 178 of 231

 d y coordinate of Q  y coordinate of P
 sin    lim
d 0 

QM  PL
 lim
 0 

QN  NM  PL
 lim
 0 

QN
 lim
 0 length of arc PQ

 NM  PL, PNML being a rectangle 

QN
 lim
 0 length of chord PQ

(In the limit both arc and chord reduce to zero, i.e. become equal)

QN
 lim
 0 PQ

adj
 lim (w.r.t. NQP )
 0 hyp

 lim cos NQP

 0

  
 lim cos    
 0
 2 

Page 179 of 231

  cos   0 

 cos 

d
  sin    cos (11.7)
dx

Let’s write (11.6) and (11.7) together.

d
 cos    sin 
d

d
 sin    cos
d

They are the aim which we set out to achieve, at the beginning of
the chapter.

We now possess the tools, the equipment – functions, infinite

series, binomial theorem, derivatives in general, derivatives in
particular (meaning derivatives of cos  and sin  ) – needed to
finish the job.

Page 180 of 231

 PART THREE

THE RESULT

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE INFINITE SERIES FOR ex

We begin this chapter with a much-needed short form. We really

needed it in the chapter on the Binomial Theorem. But that was a
difficult chapter, so I avoided making it more difficult by
introducing new ideas. However, one cannot close the door on the
idea for too long. If we do, we’ll be dealing with clumsy
expressions which will prove burdensome. If we open the door
and let the idea come in it’ll make our expressions and our task
easier.

In short, it’s an idea whose time has come.

The symbol n or n! (each of which should be read either as

‘factorial n’ or as ‘n factorial’) represents the product of all the
integers from 1 to n. Thus

n or n! = 1.2.3.4.5.6 ............ (n 1).n (12.1)

Particular examples follow easily.

1! = 1

2! = 1.2 = 2

3! = 1.2.3 = 6

Page 181 of 231

 4! = 1.2.3.4 = 24

5! = 1.2.3.4.5 = 120

6! = 1.2.3.4.5.6 = 720

7! = 1.2.3.4.5.6.7 = 5040

and so on

The numbers increase very fast. The population of the whole world
is just about 13 factorial!

The above definition does not apply to 0! So a separate definition

is required. It goes thus

0 or 0! = 1 (12.2)

This seems strange, but there is an explanation for it. In the

chapter on ‘Permutations and Combinations’ which is generally
included in high school / junior college algebra there is a certain
expression whose value

a) turns out n! if we find it by applying a definition

n!
b) turns out if we find it by applying a formula
0!

There is only one way to make the two answers identical, and that
is to define 0! as 1.

Page 182 of 231

(We don’t really require 0! here. So this amounts to a digression.
However experience shows that nine teachers out of ten don’t
know why 0! must be defined as 1. So the teacher who knows why
this must be so has to take the stage and face the audience. False
modesty has no place in a situation like this.)

One property of n! is noteworthy and frequently required in our

endeavour. It can be stated as a formula:

n 1
 (12.3)
n!  n  1!

To see why this should be so let’s write the left hand side as

n
1.2.3.4........ n  1 n

Cancel n. What remains is

1
1.2.3.4........  n  1

which shortens to

1
 n  1!
What this means is that

2 1
 ,
2! 1!

Page 183 of 231

 3 1
 ,
3! 2!

4 1
 ,
4! 3!

5 1
 and so on.
5! 4!

We are now ready to undertake our main task, developing an

infinite series for the function ex.

Recall the Binomial Theorem. It was stated in the form

n  n  1 2 n  n  1 n  2  3 n  n  1 n  2  n  3 4
1  x 
n
 1  nx  x  x  x  ....  x n
1.2 1.2.3 1.2.3.4

The use of factorials gives it a more elegant form

n  n  1 2 n  n  1 n  2  3 n  n  1 n  2  n  3 4
1  x 
n
 1  nx  x  x  x  ....  x n
2! 3! 4!
......... (12.4)

A lot of people think that the number of terms on the right hand
side is n. They’re wrong. The number is n  1 . To see this read
1, x, x2, x3, x4, ......, xn as x0, x1, x2, x3, x4, ......, xn. Clearly, in the
sequence of numbers:

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ........., n

the number of numbers is not n but n  1 .

Page 184 of 231

We have seen that the sequence whose nth term is

n
 1
1  
 n

‘converges’ to the number e, which means that putting n = 1, 2, 3,

4, 5, ......... and calculating the values of the above expression leads
us to a string of numbers which come continuously closer and
closer to a constant. The exact value of the constant cannot be
stated in terms of digits. So it must be shown by a letter. That
letter is ‘e’.

All these remarks are summed up in the brief statement

n
 1
lim 1    e
n
 n

A parallel result was also obtained, namely,

n
 x
lim 1    e x (12.5)
n
 n

It is time to ask the natural and inevitable question: what will

happen if we apply the binomial theorem to (12.5)?

Here’s the result.

n
 x
e  lim 1  
x
n
 n

Page 185 of 231

  x n  n  1  x  n  n  1 n  2   x  
2 3

 lim 1  n.        ......to n  1 terms 

n 
 n 2!  n  3! n 
......... (12.6)

Let’s simplify the terms one by one.

We leave the first terms as it is. It’s already as simple as can be.

x
The second term n. clearly reduces to x.
n

n  n  1  x 
2

The third term   becomes

2!  n 

n  n  1 x 2
2! n 2

Write this as

n  n  1 x 2
2! n.n

Cancel n to obtain

n 1 x2
2! n

Interchange the denominators. The term reduces to

Page 186 of 231

 n 1 x2
n 2!

In the first fraction divide out by n. So the third term reduces to

2
n 1x
  
 n n  2!

which is the same as

2
 1x
 1   .
 n  2!

Take the fourth term next:

n  n  1 n  2   x 
3

 
3! n

This becomes

n  n  1 n  2  x3
3! n.n.n

Cancel n and interchange the denominators

 n  1 n  2  x3
n.n 3!

Break the first fraction into two parts:

Page 187 of 231

 n  1 n  2 x3
n n 3!

On dividing out by n this reduces to

3
 1  2  x
 1   1  
 n  n  3!

So the result stated above changes into the following:

 2
 1  x  1  2  x
3

e  lim 1  x  1     1   1    ......to n  1 terms 
x
n
  n  2!  n  n  3! 

The fifth term (not shown above) is

4
 1  2  3  x
 1   1   1  
 n  n  n  4!

Therefore the modified form of (12.6) is

  1  x 2  1  2  x3
e x  lim 1  x  1    1  1   
n
  n  2!  n  n  3!

 1  2  3  x
4

 1   1   1    ...... to n  1 terms  ......... (12.7)
 n  n  n  4! 

We can discern a pattern here. By observing it we can write the

next term without much difficulty. It is

Page 188 of 231

 5
 1  2  3  4  x
 1   1   1   1   .
 n  n  n  n  5!

The next question is, what happens if we change the single limit
appearing on the right-hand side of (12.7) into several limits, one
for each term? The result will be

2 3
 1x  1  2  x
e  lim1  lim x  lim 1    lim 1  1    ........ to 
x
n  n  n
 n  2! n  n  n  3!

1
We know that because n   we must have  0 . Therefore
n

2 3 4 1 1 1

, , ,....... i.e. 2   ,3   , 4   ......
n n n n n n

will tend to, 2(0), 3(0), 4(0), ..... i.e. to zero.

x2 x3 x4
 e x  1  x  1  0   1  0 1  0   1  0 1  0 1  0   ........ to 
2! 3! 4!

This easily and clearly reduces to

x x 2 x3 x 4
ex  1      ........... to  (12.8)
1! 2! 3! 4!

This is the infinite series for ex, the aim and object of this chapter.

It remains to point out the speciality of this series.

Page 189 of 231

In the chapter on ‘e’ it was pointed out that e is a very remarkable
number. Its extraordinary nature was made clear (I hope) by non-
mathematical means, by means of literary devices like simile and
metaphor. There the number 1 was likened to a young boy, the
number 0 to his kid-brother,  to a giant and e to the point where
the middle point of the rope, in a tug-of-war between the boys and
the giant, comes to rest in dynamic equilibrium – the rope
trembling like a high-tension wire.

But literary devices are frowned upon by mathematicians –

deplored by some and despised by the others.

A mathematician would much rather use mathematical symbols

than words. He believes that as far as possible, in mathematics, the
use of words should be avoided, shunned, eschewed. He would
very much prefer to write:

Given  0 , if    0 xa   f ( x )  l  then

lim f ( x )  l
xa

(This is the famous ‘definition of limit’ – probably the most

difficult part of elementary calculus.)

This statement contains just three and half words: ‘given’, ‘if’,
‘then’ and ‘lim’.

For my own satisfaction I wrote out the meaning of the above

definition in plain, simple, intelligible-to-the-layman language.
My explanation contained 211 words.

We face a problem here. I’m trying to show you how ‘e’ is an

unusual, unique, extraordinary, only-one-of-its-kind, God-made-it-

Page 190 of 231

and-broke-the-mould sort of number. I did that once before, using
a metaphor. But that was unsatisfactory. I want to do it again –
this time without recourse to literary devices, strictly adhering to
mathematics.

Is it possible?

Yes. It’s possible now, because we’ve developed the necessary

“infrastructure”, laid the necessary foundation, so to speak.

But how?

The infinite series for ex obtained above solves the problem. We

have, by (12.8),

x x2 x3 x4
e  1      ...... to 
x

1! 2! 3! 4!

x2 x3 x4
i.e. ex  1  x     ..... to 
2! 3! 4!

Differentiate both sides w.r.t. x.

d x
(e )
dx

d d d  x2  d  x3  d  x 4 
 1   x            ...........
dx dx dx  2!  dx  3!  dx  4! 

2 x 3x 2 4 x3
 0 1    .........
2! 3! 4!

Page 191 of 231

By (12.2) this becomes

d x x x2 x3 x4
e  1      ........... (12.9)
dx 1! 2! 3! 4!

Notice anything unusual here?

Did it strike you that although derivative was taken it made no

difference to the series? It remained the same.

To see this clearly compare the right hand sides of the equations
(12.8) and (12.9).

What the equations mean is that

d x
dx
 e   ex

What this means is that the derivative of ex is none other than ex

itself.

Let’s put the result a little differently, by using y.

dy
If y = ex then  y.
dx

In other words the function ex has this unusual property: its

derivative is equal to itself.

No other function has this property.

Page 192 of 231

Let’s put this in historical perspective. We know that Newton
invented calculus. Presumably he began by inventing the
derivative. Inevitably some bright-eyed and bushy-tailed fellow
must have put this question to him: ‘What is the function whose
derivative is equal to itself?’

Or perhaps Newton thought of this question himself.

He must have been non-plussed, stumped for an answer. He must

have found himself tongue-tied – a rare experience for a giant of
his stature. He must have thought long and hard and deep about it.
He must have returned to the question umpteen times, or a hundred
times maybe. He must have had a bee-in-the-bonnet experience.
But to no avail. The answer surely eluded him. The question went
with him to the grave.

Why?

Because Newton died in 1727 and Euler invented the number ‘e’ in
1730 (or thereabouts).

Such is the power and the beauty, such is the amazing quality of
the number ‘e’.

We close this chapter by bringing out into the open another

question which is lurking in the shadows. Its presence will be felt
by the knowledgeable. Students, it is more or less certain, will fail
to realize it. So will the average pedagogue. Only the discerning
and the perspicacious will sense that something is amiss, that some
unwarranted liberties have been taken.

Consider how.

Page 193 of 231

We learnt the rule: ‘the derivative of a sum is equal to the sum of
derivatives’. In symbols,

d du dv
u  v   
dx dx dx

The rule extends to as many functions as we like. In fact

d du du du du
 u1  u2  u3  ........  un   1  2  3  .............  n
dx dx dx dx dx

The sum in brackets ends at the nth term. So we are taking

derivative of a finite sum. We are differentiating a finite series.
But in (12.9) we extended the rule to an infinite series. Is this
permissible? Can this be done? And if so, can this be done always
or only under special circumstances. These are fundamental
questions. They cannot be brushed aside casually, nonchalantly,
insouciantly as I seem to have done. On the other hand they
cannot be taken up immediately and examined thoroughly. This
book is not the right place for such a serious job. It’s the subject of
a major theorem in calculus, a theorem which is far beyond the
scope of this book. I can do more than hint at the existence of the
question.

The principle is this: What is true of finite processes may not be

true of infinite processes.

Well might that perspicacious person, speaking with acerbic

tongue, tell me, “Infinity, sir, is not to be trifled with. It’s
dynamite! Handle with care.”

Page 194 of 231

 CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE INFINITE SERIES FOR COS AND SIN

The following figure occurred in the chapter on trigonometry. It

was stated there that it would play an important role in a later
chapter, which is none other than this.

B(0,1)
P(cos, sin  )
1 
y
 c

A(1,0) x N A(1,0)

B(0, 1)
(Fig. 13.1)

According to this figure the x-coordinate of P is cos  and the y-

coordinate of P is sin  . Briefly, w.r.t. P

x  cos and y  sin  (13.1)

Here measure of angle AOP is  radians.

The points O, A, B, A ', B ' are fixed points, but P is not. It is a

variable point, being free to move anywhere on the circle. Suppose
it comes down to A. Then the radii OP, OA coincide and the
measure of angle AOP reduces to zero. In other words

P (cos ,sin  ) becomes A(1,0) when   0

Page 195 of 231

This means

cos   1 and sin   0 when   0

This leads to the conclusion

cos 0  1 , sin 0  0 (13.2)

which is what we desire, which is our aim, our goal.

In the chapter on infinite series we proved three results:

1
 1  x  x 2  x3  ..... (13.3)
1 x

1
 1  2 x  3x 2  4 x3  ..... (13.4)
1  x 
2

1
 1  3 x  6 x 2  10 x 3  ..... (13.5)
1  x 
3

(Actually the last one was left to you for practice.)

These results show that the functions

1 1 1
, ,
1  x 1  x  1  x 3
2

can be expanded into infinite series.

Page 196 of 231

The technique used in proving these results was elementary. For
example let’s recall the proof of the first of these three results.

Let S  1  x  x 2  x 3  .....

 xS  x  x 2  x 3  .....

 S  xS  1

 S 1  x   1

1
S 
1 x

Another infinite series developed by us was

x2 x3 x4
ex  1  x     ..... (13.6)
2! 3! 4!

The technique used in proving this result was different – expansion

by binomial theorem.

Suppose a reader observes (13.3), (13.4), (13.5) shown above and

wonders what the next result would be. In other words he wonders
1
what the expansion of would be.
1  x 
4

The first term would be 1 of course. Think of it as x 0 . The second

would contain x i.e. x1 . The third would contain x 2 . The fourth
would contain x3 . The fifth would contain x 4 and so on. Thus the
expansion would be

Page 197 of 231

 1
 x 0  ....  x1  .... x 2  .... x 3  .....
1  x 
4

Or, better,

1
 x 0  bx1  cx 2  dx 3  ......
1  x 
4

(Why have I started with b, c, d, .....? Why not a, b, c, d, .....? The

question will be answered shortly. Just wait.)

What remains to be done now is to find the values of b, c, d, .....

and we have the desired series. The method is already known to
you (write S, find xS, subtract, divide by 1  x , ..... and we get what
we want: the sum S). So forget it, ignore it, and go on to the next
question, a most important one at that.

Can any function be expanded into an infinite series?

The answer is, ‘Yes’.

Provided certain conditions are fulfilled we can change any

function f ( x) into an infinite series such as

f ( x )  ax 0  bx1  cx 2  dx 3  .....

Or, more simply,

f ( x )  a  bx  cx 2  dx 3  .....

Page 198 of 231

Such a series is called a power series because it contains powers of
x, namely x 0 , x1 , x 2 , x 3 , x 4 ,....

Can we find a power series expansion of the cosine function? In

other words can we write

cos   a  b  c 2  d 3  ..... (13.7)

and finish the job by finding a, b, c, d, .....?

The answer is, ‘Yes’.

Or, ‘Yes, it can be done.’

That then is the aim of this chapter – expanding cos  and sin 
into series of powers of  .

Begin by putting   0 . Then (13.7) becomes

cos 0  a

But in (13.2) we saw that cos 0  1 .

a  1

 cos   1  b  c 2  d 3  .....

Differentiate both sides w.r.t.  .

d d
d
cos  
d
1  b  c 2  d 3  ..... 

Page 199 of 231

 sin   0  b.1  c.2  d .3 2  .....

Put   0.

 sin 0  b.1  c.0  d .0  .....

 b   sin 0

But according to (13.2) sin 0  0 .

b  0 .

 cos   1  c 2  d 3  .....

Differentiate again.

d d
d
cos  
d
1  c 2  d 3  .....
 sin   0  c.2  d .3 2  .....

d
Differentiate again. Remember sin   cos  .
d

 cos   c.2  d .3.2  .....

Put   0.

 cos 0  c.2

1  c.2

Page 200 of 231

 1
c  
2

1
 cos  1   2  d 3  e 4  ..... (13.8)
2

(The number ‘e’ here is obviously different from Euler’s e.)

To find a we did not differentiate both sides of (13.7)

To find b we differentiated once.

To find c we differentiated twice.

Maybe to find d we must differentiate three times.

d d  1 2 
 cos    1    d  e  ..... 
3 4

d d  2 

1
 sin   0  .2  d .3 2  e4 3  .....
2

Differentiate again, second time.

1
 cos    .2  d .3.2  e.4.3 2  .....
2

 cos   1  d .3.2  e.4.3 2  .....

Differentiate third time. Ignore the derivative of 1 because it is

zero, 1 being a constant.

Page 201 of 231

   sin    d .3.2.1  e.4.3.2  .....

 sin   d .3.2.1  e.4.3.2  .....

Put   0.

 sin 0  d .6  0  .....

 0  6d

d  0

2
 By (13.8) cos =1   e 4  f  5  .....
2!

Let’s rewrite this as

1 2
cos = 1    e 4  f  5  .....
2!

To find e we will have to differentiate four times, it seems.

d d  1 2 
Once, cos =  1    e  f   ..... 
4 5

d d  2! 

1
sin =  .2  e.4 3  f .5 4  .....
2!

sin =    e.4 3  f .5 4  .....

Twice, cos =  1+e.4.3 2  f .5.4 3  .....

Page 202 of 231

Three times, sin   e.4.3.2  f .5.4.3 2  .....

Four times, cos   e.4.3.2.1  f .5.4.3.2  .....

Put   0 .

 cos 0  e.4.3.2.1

1  e  4!

1
e 
4!

2 4
 cos  1    f  5  g 6  h 7  .....
2! 4!

Maybe you can guess that f would be zero. Your guess will turn
out right. Therefore

2 4
cos   1    g 6  h 7  .....
2! 4!

Page 203 of 231

Differentiate repeatedly until the term containing g has no  left in
n 1
it. Ignore zero. Also remember 
n!  n  1!

 3
Once,  sin      g.6 5  h.7 6  .....
1! 3!

1 2
Twice,  cos      g.6.5 4  h.7.6 5  .....
1! 2!

Three times


(  sin  )   g.6.5.4 3  h.7.6.5 4  .....
1!


 sin    g .6.5.4 3  h.7.6.5 4  .....
1!

1
Four times, cos    g .6.5.4.3 2  h.7.6.5.4 3  .....
1!

Five times,  sin   g .6.5.4.3.2  h.7.6.5.4.3 2  .....

Six times,  cos   g .6.5.4.3.2.1  h.7.6.5.4.3.2  .....

Put   0

 cos 0  g .6.5.4.3.2.1

1  g  6!

Page 204 of 231

 1
g  
6!

(You had probably guessed this!)

2 4 6
 cos   1     ..... (13.9)
2! 4! 6!

This is the infinite series for cos  .

 8  10 
 Its next two terms are and  
 8! 10! 

Now for the infinite series for sin  .

Let sin   a  b  c 2  d 3  e 4  .....

Put   0 .

 sin 0  a

Remember, by (13.2) sin 0  0

a  0

 sin   b  c 2  d 3  e 4  .....

Differentiate once.

cos   b.1  c.2  d .3 2  e.4 3  .....

Page 205 of 231

Put   0 .

 cos 0  b

 By (13.2) b  1

 sin     c 2  d 3  e 4  .....

Differentiate twice.

 cos   1  c.2  d .3 2  e.4 3  .....

 sin   c.2.1  d .3.2  e.4.3 2  .....

Put   0 .

 sin 0  c.2.1

 By (13.2) 0  2c

c  0

 sin     d 3  e 4  f  5  ..... (13.10)

Differentiate three times.

 cos   1  d .3 2  e.4 3  f .5 4  .....

 sin   d .3.2  e.4.3 2  f .5.4 3  .....

Page 206 of 231

 cos   d .3.2.1  e.4.3.2  f .5.4.3 2  .....

Put   0 .

 cos 0  d  3!

1  d  3!

1
d   Put in (13.10)
3!

3
 sin      e 4  f  5  .....
3!

It can be guessed that e must be zero.

Differentiating four times and putting   0 shows that the guess is

right.

3
 sin      f  5  g 6  ..... (13.11)
3!

Differentiate five times

2
Once, cos   1   f .5 4  g.6 5  .....
2!


Twice,  sin     f .5.4 3  g .6.5 4  .....
1!

Page 207 of 231

 1
Three times,  cos    f .5.4.3 2  g.6.5.4 3  .....
1!

Four times, sin   f .5.4.3.2  g.6.5.4.3 2  .....

Five times, cos   f .5.4.3.2.1  g.6.5.4.3.2  .....

Put   0

 cos0  f  5!

1  f  5!

1
f 
5!

3 5
 By (13.10) sin       g 6  h 7  .....
3! 5!

You can now guess (or prove by differentiating six times and
seven times) that

1
g  0 and h  
7!

3 5 7
 sin        ..... (13.12)
3! 5! 7!

This is the infinite series for sin  .

Page 208 of 231

 9  11 
 The next two terms are and  
 9! 11! 

So we have achieved our aim, as stated in the title of this chapter.

We have found the infinite series for cos  and sin  .

Let’s write them together.

2 4 6
cos   1     .....
2! 4! 6!

3 5 7
sin        .....
3! 5! 7!

You may find these results rather strange, or unusual. Such a

reaction is quite normal. It happens because our thinking is
compartmentalised. In our minds cos  and sin  belong to a
compartment called ‘Trigonometry’. Infinite series belong to a
compartment called ‘Algebra’. We cannot conceive of such a
‘marriage’ between trigonometry and algebra.

But we have to listen to ‘elders’ here. They simply tell us, “You
have to change your way of thinking. There is no alternative. There
simply isn’t.” To help you to do that I suggest we verify one of the
results (13.9) (13.12), (say the latter), for a particular value of  .


Put   i.e. 90 degrees. Then
2

Left hand side

Page 209 of 231

  sin 


 sin i.e. sin 900
2

 y coordinate of point B (see Fig. 13.1)

1

Now (13.12) reads as follows

3 5 7
     
 2 2 2
1            .....
2 3! 5! 7!

We remember that  radians is equal to 1800. But even in this

equation  is, as always, equal to 3.14 approximately. Therefore

 3.14
  1.57
2 2

The above equation now reads

1.57  1.57  1.57 

3 5 7

1  1.57     .....
3! 5! 7!

3.87 9.54 23.51

1  1.57     .....
6 120 5040

1  1.57  0.645  0.0795  0.00466  .....

Page 210 of 231

1  0.925  0.0795  0.00466  .....

1  1.0045  0.00466  .....

1  0.99984  .....

We may therefore conclude that the results (13.9) and (13.12)

stand justified.

Assuming that your curiosity has been aroused, let me ask you to
join me in a quest which you will, hopefully, find interesting,
perhaps enjoyable, perhaps thrilling ..... no, what’s the right word?
..... Found it! ..... Enchanting.

What if, instead of four terms of the series for sin  , we had taken
six terms? What if we had written

3 5 7  9  11
sin          .....
3! 5! 7! 9! 11!


and then put    1.57 approximately?
2

(The word ‘approximately’ is omitted in further statements. We

simply assume that it is there.)


As before, sin  sin 900  y coordinate of B in Fig. 27  1
2

1.57  1.57  1.57  1.57  1.57 

3 5 7 9 11

1  1.57       .....
3! 5! 7! 9! 11!

Page 211 of 231

 3.87 9.54 23.51 57.96 142.86
1  1.57       .....
6 120 5040 362880 39916800

1  1.57  0.645  0.0795  0.00466  0.00016  0.0000036  .....

 0.99984  0.00016  0.0000036  .....

 0.9999964  .....

(If in the above series we use a value of  which is more accurate

than 3.14, in particular if we use 3.1415926, we get

1 = 0.99999994 + .....)

2 4 6
For cos   1     .....
2! 4! 6!

 
putting    1.57 and cos   cos  x-coordinate of B in Fig.
2 2
(13.1)  0, we get

0 = 0.0000946 + …..

You are welcome to verify this, by using a calculator.

(Wanna try?)

Some readers may find it difficult to digest results like

1 = 0.99984 + ..... and

0  0.0000945  .....

Page 212 of 231

derived above. Some may even think they are wrong, or worse,
absurd. They are neither wrong nor absurd. They are perfectly
sensible results obtained by perfectly sane people engaged in a
perfectly worthwhile endeavour ..... They would become wrong if a
careless writer were to omit the plus sign and the dots which
appear at the end of each equation. The sign and the dots are of
vital importance to the truth of the equations. They are an integral
part, an inseparable part of each statement. They indicate that more
terms are going to follow. The terms are there, hidden among the
dots, like actors waiting in the wings for their entry. What’s more,
they aren’t just a few. They aren’t just a handful or a bagful. They
are many, infinitely many. They are small and getting smaller,
forever smaller. Some are so small that they have thousands of
zeroes after the decimal point. Yet, if exactness is desired, if
accuracy is insisted upon, none of them can be ignored. Like the
vote of one man, one common faceless insignificant man in a
billion-strong democracy like ours it has meaning, power,
puissance and potency.

So the sum and substance of this chapter is

2 4 6
cos   1     .....
2! 4! 6!

and

3 5 7
sin        .....
3! 5! 7!

each series running up to infinity.

Page 213 of 231

That brings us to the final stage of our quest – our climb to the
summit.

And I have good news for you. It’s mercifully short.

Page 214 of 231

 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE EQUATION

In chapter 12 we developed the infinite series for ex. In chapter 13

we developed the infinite series for cos  and sin  .

We will now write all three of them together.

x2 x3 x 4 x5 x6 x7
ex  1  x        ..... (14.1)
2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!

x2 x4 x6
cos x  1     ..... (14.2)
2! 4! 6!

x3 x5 x7
sin x  x     ..... (14.3)
3! 5! 7!

(In the second and the third series we had used  earlier. Now we
have changed it to x because we want to write all three series in
terms of the same quantity.

One more point. We saw that the result

1
 1  x  x 2  x 3  x 4  ....
1 x

holds good only if 1  x  1 . Does a similar condition apply to

the results stated above?

Page 215 of 231

The answer is, no. They are true for all values of x. In symbols,
they are true for   x   .

Proof of this statement will be found in textbooks of calculus.)


In (14.1) change x to ix where i  1 . 
ix  ix   ix   ix   ix   ix   ix 
2 3 4 5 6 7

e  1 
ix
      .....
1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!

Apply  ab   a 2b 2 etc.
2

i 2 x 2 i3 x3 i 4 x 4 i5 x5 i6 x6 i7 x 7
eix  1  ix        .....
2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!

Recall the various powers of i.

i  1

i 2  1

i 3  i 2 .i   1 i  i

i 4   i 2    1  1
2 2

i 5  i 4 .i  1.i  i

Page 216 of 231

 i 6  i 4 .i 2  1 1  1

i 7  i 4 .i 3  1 i   i
.
.
.
.
2 3
x ix x 4 ix 5 x 6 ix 7
 eix  1  ix        ..... (14.4)
2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!

Go back to (14.2) and (14.3) and compare them with the above
equation.

Do you see any connection?

If you do, if you can eliminate the three series altogether and write
an equation connecting eix , cos x and sin x I’ll say you deserve
the warmest applause. You are far ahead of the crowd in the race
to the finishing line.

But if you don’t see the connection that’s no reflection on your

mathematical ability. I’ll just say that the right idea occurred to A
and didn’t occur to B and C. We can still have A  B  C .

In the above equation let’s separate real from imaginary. The odd
terms do not contain i so they are real. The even terms contain i so
they are imaginary.

x 2 x 4 x6 ix 3 ix 5 ix 7
eix  1     .....  ix     .....
2! 4! 6! 3! 5! 7!

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Take out the common factor i in the second part of the right hand
side.

x2 x4 x6  x3 x5 x7 
eix  1     .....  i  x     ..... 
2! 4! 6!  3! 5! 7! 

Now compare this result with (14.2) and (14.3). You will easily see
that it reduces to

eix  cos x  i sin x (14.5)

This is itself a famous equation. It made quite a stir when it was

first brought to light, for nobody had suspected that such a relation
existed between the functions e x , cos x and sin x .

It’s called Euler’s equation. In arriving at it we have reached a

mini-summit. We’re now a few steps away from our goal, the
summit. Now don’t flag, don’t show signs of enervation. Rest a
while if you must but don’t don’t give up.

In (14.5) above change x to  .

 ei  cos   i sin 

Remember the figure at the beginning of chapter 13? We repeat it

here.

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 B(0,1)
P(cos, sin  )
1 
y
 c

A(1,0) x N A(1,0)

B(0, 1)
(Fig. 14.1)

In this figure the point representing  (which means  radians or

180 degrees measured from the starting point A) is A ' . Also the
co-ordinates of A ' are  1,0  .

So, by x  cos which was noted in (14.1),

1  cos 

 cos   1

Further, by y  sin  , again noted in (14.1)

0  sin 

 sin   0

 ei  1  i.0

 ei  1  0

Add 1 to both sides.

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  ei  1  1  0  1

 ei  1  0

This is the equation the whole book is about. This is our equation.
This is our summit, our Mount Everest, our Sagarmatha, our
Chomolungma.

This is the most beautiful equation in mathematics.

Let’s emphasize its importance by writing it several times – in

letters of bigger and bigger size.

ei  1  0

e i  1  0

ei 1  0
i
e 1  0

ei 10
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You may wonder, what’s so beautiful about it. You may want to
say, “I don’t see any beauty in it”. You may even say that to your
friends, derisively, scathingly, bitingly. You may want to say it
with vicious sarcasm. “This is supposed to be the Most Beautiful
Equation in Mathematics. Big deal! B-e-e-e-e-g D-e-a-l!”.

You are welcome to say that. It takes a trained eye to appreciate

Picasso’s famous painting ‘Guernica’. It takes a trained ear to
appreciate Mozart’s Requiem or Beethoven’s Ninth symphony or
Tansen’s Raag Todi. You may not possess that trained eye or that
trained ear, mathematically speaking. But having struggled
manfully, valiantly through all these pages you have given ample
evidence that you deserve to possess that eye, that ear. So you
shall have it. Here goes.

Take a second look, a clearer look at our equation:

ei  1  0

Observe that it contains five numbers. In the timeline order of

arrival they are 1, 0,  , i and e. Who invented 1 is not known. It
was some genius who lived several thousand years before our time.
Who invented 0 and  is also not known. Some geniuses, who
lived three thousand years ago, give or take a few centuries. The
number i was invented by Giovanni some 500 years ago but he is
not real. Like the number i he too is imaginary – like the lovable
puppet Pinocchio whose nose became longer whenever he told a
lie. Only one thing seems certain, that e was invented by Euler in
the eighteenth century. Even there, historians of mathematics are
not unanimous. It is believed that the concept of e was known to
other mathematicians. To Euler goes the credit of calling it e. He
used the letter e, not because his own name began with it – he was

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too modest and generous to do that – but because it was basic to
the idea of what is called the ‘exponential function’. So to Euler
goes the credit of crystallizing the concept, of giving it a ‘local
habitation and a name’. Scholars agree that this is quite an
achievement by itself.

Furthermore observe that they were invented at different places in

the world. The number 1 was certainly invented in Africa, for
Africa is, by common consent, the cradle of civilization. The
number 0 was, it is now universally agreed, invented by someone
in India although the concept of zero was known to all
civilizations, even an isolated one like the Maya civilization of
Mexico. The idea of  (ratio of circumference of a circle to its
diameter) was known to Indians and Chinese also, but the credit
for inventing it is given to the Greeks mainly because they were far
ahead of the others in geometry. Italy takes the credit for inventing
i and little Switzerland takes the credit for inventing e because
Euler was Swiss.

Observe that the five numbers did not originate in the same branch
of mathematics. Arithmetic, that most ancient of all branches, can
lay claim on 1 and 0; geometry lays claim on  ; algebra on i and
calculus on e.

Five numbers, ‘born’ at different times in the history of the world,

at widely different places, in different branches of the subject –
there’s no earthly reason why they should come together in a
single equation, but they do! Such is the wonder and beauty of it.
Such is the glory of mathematics.

Bombay city on the west coast of India is the home of the Hindi
film industry – popularly called ‘Bollywood’. A Bollywood

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movie, made a few decades ago, showed how three boys from the
same family are separated at a very young age. One is brought up
in a Hindu family, one in a Muslim family and one by a Christian
priest. After many years – and after a lot of ridiculous
shenanigans, including chasing attractive dames – they come
together in joyous ecstatic reunion and juvenile audiences go gaga
over the event. The producer of the movie killed two birds with
one stone – made a lot of money and fostered brotherly feeling
between Hindus, Muslims and Christians, thereby achieving
‘national integration’.

In our equation not just three but five siblings have been united –
to the everlasting glory of Man, Mathematics and the Maker!

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction!

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 Appendix A

The Cube Problem

(See page ix of the preface)

We assume that immediately after one face of a cube is painted we

paint its opposite face.

Paint one face of the cube with any one colour, say red.

Then for the opposite face we have a choice of five colours.

Next paint a third face with any one of the remaining colours.

Three faces have been painted. So three colours have been used,
which means three colours remain. So for the opposite face there is
a choice of three colours.

Now two faces remain. Paint one of them with one of the
remaining colours. Then for the last face there is only one choice.

Therefore the number of choices is, by the Fundamental Theorem

of Counting, 5.3.1 i.e. 15.

This explains why there can be 15 such cubes.

Yet another argument runs as follows:

(For convenience we use numbers instead of colours.)

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Take three cubes. Choose a pair of opposite faces on each cube and
paint them with the numbers 1 and 2. Then take one of these cubes
and on another pair of its opposite faces paint the numbers 3 and 4.
Take the second such cube and paint a pair of its opposite faces
with 3 and 5. Take the third cube and paint a pair of its opposite
faces with 3 and 6. Paint the remaining two faces with the
remaining two numbers.

Now take three more cubes. Paint a pair of opposite faces of each
with the numbers 1 and 3. Take one of these cubes and paint a pair
of its opposite faces with 2 and 4. Take another and paint a pair of
its opposite faces with 2 and 5. Take the third and paint 2 and 6 on
it. Paint the remaining two faces with the remaining two numbers.

Next take three more cubes, paint 1 and 4 on their opposite faces,
then paint 2 and 3 on one, 2 and 5 on the second and 2 and 6 on
third on opposite faces. Paint the remaining two faces with the
remaining two numbers.

Again take three cubes, paint 1 and 5 on their opposite faces, then
paint 2,3 on one, 2,4 on the second and 2,6 on the third, on
opposite faces. Finish the job as before.

Finally take three more cubes, paint 1,6 on the opposite faces of all
three, choose another pair of opposite faces, paint 2,3 on one cube,
2,4 on another and 2,5 on the third. Finish the job as before.

Then you have the fifteen different cubes the whole argument is
about.

The answer ‘720’ is arrived at as follows:

First face : 6 choices

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Second face : 5 choices

Third face : 4 choices

Fourth face : 3 choices

Fifth face : 2 choices

Sixth face : 1 choice.

Therefore the number of choices, and hence the number of cubes,

is
6.5.4.3.2.1

which comes to 720.

Apparently.

But the truth is that these 720 ways contain a great deal of
duplication, which means that different orders result in the same
cube.

For instance, if the faces are named a, b, c, d, e, f and the colours

are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 then the three different orders

a-1, b-2, c-3, d-4, e-5, f-6

b-2, a-1, c-3, d-4, e-5, f-6

a-1, b-2, d-4, c-3, e-5, f-6 etc.

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all result in the same cube. In fact it can be shown that 48 different
orders result in the same cube. Another set of 48 different orders
result in another cube, different from the first. A third set of 48
different orders result in a third cube, different from the previous
two, and so on. Thus the number of different cubes is 720 divided
by 48 which comes to 15, as before.

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 Appendix B

Answer to the question on expansion of brackets. (Brief

Intermission)

B and E. In B there are two factors from the second bracket

(namely c and d) but none from the fourth bracket (i.e. neither e
nor f). In E there are two factors from the fourth bracket (namely e
and f) but none from the second bracket (i.e. neither c nor d).

Answer to the question about the sixth term in the expansion of

(1  x ) 4 . (Chapter 9)

It is 1. x. x.1 .

Answer to the problem of determining the foci of a given ellipse.

(Chapter 10)

Step (i) Draw a pair of parallel chords of the ellipse. Join their mid-
points M, M  . Draw another pair of parallel chords in a different
direction. Join their mid-points N, N  . It can be proved that the
point of intersection of the lines MM  and NN  is the centre of the
ellipse.

Step (ii) Denote the centre as C. (Lines through C are called

diameters of the ellipse. Unlike the diameters of a circle they are of
unequal length. The longest diameter is called the Major axis and
the shortest diameter is called the Minor axis. However they
cannot be drawn at this stage because their directions are unknown
to us.)

Taking C as centre and a suitable radius draw a circle to intersect

the ellipse in four points. It can be proved that the four points form

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a rectangle two of whose sides are parallel to the major axis and
the other two are parallel to the minor axis.)

Draw lines through C parallel to the sides of the rectangle. These

lines are the major and minor axes of the ellipse.

Step (iii) Suppose we want to draw the tangent to the ellipse at a

point P on it. Draw the circle on the major axis of the ellipse as
diameter. Through P draw the perpendicular to the major axis. Let
it cut the circle in Q. Join CQ. Draw the perpendicular to it at Q.
Let the perpendicular cut the major axis (produced) at T. Join PT.
Then it can be proved that PT is tangent to the ellipse at P.

Step (iv) Draw perpendiculars to the major axis at its end-points.

Let the tangent to the ellipse at any point meet the perpendiculars
in U, V. Draw the circle on UV as diameter. Let it cut the major
axis at S and S . Then it can be proved that S and S are the foci of
the ellipse.

Proofs of the statements made above are beyond the scope of this
book.

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 Appendix C

Pronunciation of Indian names

(‘A man’s name is to him the sweetest sound in any language’ –

Dale Carnegie.)

Agrawal:
The first and second a’s are short, the third is long, as in ‘father’.

Huzurbazar:
Both u’s as in ‘put’.
Both a’s are long, as in ‘father’.

Jussawala:
‘u’ as in ‘cup’. All a’s are long, as in ‘father’.

Katre:
‘a’ as in ‘father’
‘e’ as in ‘bell’.
The ‘t’ sound is soft, as in French. There is no English equivalent.

Sarathy:
The first ‘a’ is long, as in ‘father’. The second ‘a’ is short.
The name rhymes with ‘earthy’.

Sharad Sane:
The first and second a’s are short, the third is long, as in ‘father’.
The letter ‘d’ is to be pronounced softly, as in French, or like the
English word ‘the’ when it occurs before a consonant.
In the latter name, ‘e’ as in ‘bell’.

Vilas Pandit:

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(occurs on the ‘credits’ page)
Both i’s are short, as in ‘bill’.
The first ‘a’ is long, as in ‘father’.
The second ‘a’ is short.
The ‘t’ sound is soft, as in French. There is no English equivalent.

(The word ‘Pandit’ has been accepted into the English language. It
means scholar or a wise man. India’s first Prime Minister used to
be referred to as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, as a mark of respect.)

******************************************************

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