A PHYSICAL METHOD TO COMPUTE THE EXPONENTIAL

摘要

This note is the body of a talk presented at a Pi Mu Epsilon induction ceremony at Penn State Erie and presents a physical method to compute the transcendental function ex. This is aimed at students and professors and I find it an excellent addendum to the beginning presentation of Taylor series. To students first learning calculus, the computation of the standard transcendental functions is often quite mysterious. Showing that it is possible to compute ex physically, like the trigonometric functions, makes the function a bit more accessible.