One point I think should be made: watch what you say! In particular, watch where you put "=". The most natural interpretation of
y=lnx
=1/x
is that you are saying that y is equal to both ln x and 1/x- so they are equal to each other.
Be very careful that you say
y= ln x,
y'= ln x.
As to how you prove them, that depends strongly on how you define the functions!
If you define ax by first defining an= "product of a with itself n times" as long as n is a positive integer, then extend to all rational numbers by requiring that ax+y= axay and axy= (ax)y for x,y any rational numbers, and finally extending to any real number by "continuity", then you can use the "difference quotient":
[tex]\lim_{h\rightarrow 0}\frac{a^(x+h)-a^x}{h}= \lim_{h\rightarrow 0}\frac{a^xa^h- a^x}{h}= \lim_{h\rightarrow 0}\frac{a^h- 1}{h} a^x[/itex]<br />
You can prove that [itex]\lim_{h\rightarrow 0}(a^h- 1)/h[/itex] exists for a any positive number, so that the derivative of [itex]a^x[/itex] is a constant times [itex]a^x[/itex] and then define e to be the number such that that constant is 1.<br />
Having done that, define ln(x) to be the inverse function to [itex]e^x[/itex]. If y= ln(x) then x= [itex]e^y[/itex] so [itex]dx/dy= e^y= x[/itex] and then [itex]dy/dx= 1/x[/itex].<br />
<br />
Conversely, it has become common in calculus books to define ln(x) as [itex]ln(x)= \int_1^x (1/t)dt[/itex] so that we have immediately from the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus that d(ln x)/dx= 1/x. Then define exp(x) to be the inverse function to ln(x) and we have: if y= [itex]e^x[/itex] then x= ln(y) so dx/dy= 1/y and dy/dx= y= [itex]e^x[/sup].[/itex][/tex]