Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2001 / Paper 2 / 2 / Solution

The generalized Leibniz rule follows by mathematical induction. The case $n=0$ is the identity $uv=uv$. Suppose the formula holds for $n$ and differentiate every term using the product rule:For an interior index $r$, the coefficient of $u^{(r)}{v}^{(n+1-r)}$ becomes $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n}{r-1}\right)+\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n}{r}\right)=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n+1}{r}\right)$ by Pascal's identity. The two endpoint coefficients are one. This provesOnly finitely many derivatives are involved; it suffices that both functions are $n$ times differentiable.

For $u=x(x+1)$ and $v=e^{2x}$, the derivatives of $u$ beyond order two vanish. The three surviving terms of the generalized Leibniz rule giveThe simplified expression works for every integer $n\ge 0$, including the two cases where one or more of the three terms are absent.

For $u=x^2$ and $v=\sin x$, use $d^m(\sin x)/d{x}^m=\sin (x+m\pi /2)$. Again only three terms survive. With $T=x+n\pi /2$, they areSince $\sin (T-\pi /2)=-\cos T$ and $\sin (T-\pi )=-\sin T$, this becomesThe factors $n$ and $n(n-1)$ remove the nonexistent terms when $n=0$ or $1$.