Proving $(1 + 1/n)^{n+1} \gt e$

To complete The Chaz' answer:

You just need to show that the sequence $\bigl\{(1+{1\over n})^{n+1}\bigr\}$ is decreasing (one then easily shows its limit is $e$ if you know that $\bigl(1+{1\over n}\bigr)^n$ converges to $e$).

We use Bernoulli's inequality: $$ (1+x)^n>1+nx,\quad \text{for }\ \ x>-1, n\ge 1. $$

We have $$ \eqalign{ {\bigl(1+{1\over n}\bigr)^{n+1}\over \bigl(1+ {1\over n+1}\bigr)^{n+1}} &= \Bigl(1+{1\over n^2+2n}\Bigr)^{n+1}\cr & >1+{n+1\over n^2+2n}\cr & >1+{ 1\over n+1}\cr &={n+2\over n+1}. } $$ Thus $$ \Bigl(1+{1\over n+1}\Bigr)^{n+2} ={n+2\over n+1}\Bigl(1+{1\over n+1}\Bigr)^{n+1} < \Bigl(1+{1\over n}\Bigr)^{n+1}. $$ And so the sequence $\bigl\{(1+{1\over n})^{n+1}\bigr\}$ is decreasing.

Can you show that $a_n = \left ( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right ) ^{n + 1}$ (for $n = 1, 2, 3, ...$) is a decreasing sequence that converges to $e$ ?

Then

$$\left ( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right )^{n + 1} = \left ( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right )^{1} \cdot\left ( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right )^{n} $$

and taking limits (as $n \to \infty$) on both sides gives...

The following are lesser known facts, neverthless they are of some interest.

Let us introduce a tuning parameter $\alpha \in [0,\infty[$ and consider the sequence: $$x_\alpha (n):=\left( 1+\frac{1}{n}\right)^{n+\alpha}\; .$$ Then $\displaystyle \lim_{n\to \infty} x_\alpha (n)= e$ for any $\alpha$, but the monotonicity and the position of $x_\alpha (n)$ with respect to $e$ changes with $\alpha$ (i.e., they both can be tuned by varying $\alpha$).

Then the following statements can be proved:

1. If $1/2\leq \alpha $ then $x_\alpha (n)$ decreases strictly and converges to $e$ from above;

2. There exists a number $a\in ]0,1/2[$ s.t.:

   • if $0\leq \alpha < a$, then $x_\alpha (n)$ increases strictly and converges to $e$ from below;
   • if $a\leq \alpha <1/2$, then there exists $\nu =\nu(\alpha) \in \mathbb{N}$ s.t. $x_\alpha (n)$ decreases for $1\leq n\leq \nu$, increases for $n>\nu$ and converges to $e$ from below.

The number $a$ is something like $\ln 4 -1\approx 0.3863$. The proofs of these facts are tedious and lengthy but also elementary, for they rely on Differential Calculus.

Moreover, a simple computation with Taylor series expansion yields that $x_{1/2} (n)$ is the sequence which has the best rate of convergence to $e$ among the $x_\alpha$. In fact, we have: $$\begin{split} x_\alpha (n) -e&= \exp \left( (n+\alpha)\ \ln (1+1/n)\right) -e\\ &= \exp \left((n+\alpha) \left( \frac{1}{n}-\frac{1}{2n^2}+\text{o}(1/n^2)\right) \right) -e\\ &= \exp \left(1 +\frac{2\alpha -1}{2n} +\text{o}(1/n)\right) -e\\ &\approx \frac{e(2\alpha -1)}{2n} \end{split}$$ for $\alpha \neq 1/2$, but: $$\begin{split} x_{1/2} (n) -e&= \exp \left( (n+1/2)\ \ln (1+1/n)\right) -e\\ &= \exp \left((n+1/2) \left( \frac{1}{n}-\frac{1}{2n^2}+ \frac{1}{3n^3}+\text{o}(1/n^3)\right) \right) -e\\ &= \exp \left(1 +\frac{1}{12n^2} +\text{o}(1/n^2)\right) -e\\ &\approx \frac{e}{12n^2} \; . \end{split}$$