One way to understand where the formulas come from is the power series of e^x, remembering that that function is (can be) defined as the function whose derivati

One way to understand where the formulas come from is the power series of e^x, remembering that that function is (can be) defined as the function whose derivative is itself. Sin and cos are functions whose second derivative is -sin and -cos respectively. If you plug in ix to the power series for e^x, the complex exponential comes right out. There are a couple other "paths" to this result, and the choice we have is by far the most elegant.