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Instead of using L'Hospital's rule can this be proved by using the definition of the limit and or the squeeze theorem.

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    What have you tried? You could solve this quickly using the Taylor series for the exponential. – Joel Mar 22 '18 at 03:59
  • I have tried using a epilson on two arguement and the Taylor series didn't work out too well for me. I'm trying to prove this as apart of a problem set for my real analysis class and I think the necessary proof is from a squeeze theorem arguement. – Alexander Quinn Mar 22 '18 at 04:01

2 Answers2

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Use Mean Value Theorem to deduce that $1+u+u^{2}/2\leq e^{u}\leq 1+u+u^{2}$ for $0\leq u\leq 1/2$, then for $n\geq 2$, we have $1/n\leq 2$ and hence $1+(1/n)+1/(2n^{2})\leq e^{1/n}\leq 1+(1/n)+1/n^{2}$, so $n(e^{1/n}-1)\rightarrow 1$.

The use of Mean Value Theorem here:

Let $\varphi(u)=1+u+u^{2}-e^{u}$, $0\leq u\leq 1/2$, then for $0<u\leq 1/2$, $\varphi(u)=\varphi(u)-\varphi(0)=\varphi'(\xi)u$, where $\xi$ lies in between $0$ and $u$.

Since $\varphi'(\xi)=1+2\xi-e^{\xi}$, we investigate the function $\eta(u)=1+2u-e^{u}$ for $0\leq u\leq 1/2$. Note that for $0<u\leq 1/2$, $\eta(u)=\eta(u)-\eta(0)=\eta'(\omega)u=(2-e^{\omega})u>0$ for some $\omega$ lies in between $0$ and $u$, in particular, $\omega$ lies in between $0$ and $1/2$.

So $\eta(\xi)>0$ and hence $\varphi'(\xi)=\eta(\xi)>0$, so $\varphi(u)>0$.

user284331
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In THIS ANSWER, I showed using only the limit definition of the exponential function and Bernoulli's Inequality that the exponential function satisfies the inequalities

$$1+x\le e^x\le \frac1{1-x}\tag 1$$

for $x<1$.

Letting $x=\frac1n$ for $n>1$ in $(1)$, subtracting $1$, and multiplying the result by $n$ reveals

$$1\le n(e^{1/n}-1)\le \frac{1}{1-\frac1n}$$

whence applying the squeeze theorem yields the coveted result.

Mark Viola
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