Showing a map is surjective

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I need to show that the map:

exp: $\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{S}^1,f(\theta)=e^{2\pi i\theta}$ is surjective.

I know that $f$ is surjective if $\forall y\in\mathbb{S}^1 \exists x\in \mathbb{R}$ such that $y=f(x)$, so with that in mind this is what I did:

Let $\theta=\frac{\log(y)}{2\pi i}$ then $e^{2\pi i\theta}=e^{2\pi i \frac{\log(y)}{2\pi i}}=e^{\log(y)}=y$

But $\theta=\frac{\log(y)}{2\pi i}\notin \mathbb{R}$ so I don't think what I did is right at all.

Could somebody please help me show that this map is surjective?

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Since the derivative of $f$ does not vanish on $\mathbb{R}$, $f$ is open. Hence, $f(\mathbb{R})$ is open in $\mathbb{S}^1$. Since $f(\mathbb{R})$ is nonempty and $\mathbb{S}^1$ is connected, it suffices to show that $f(\mathbb{R})$ is closed is $\mathbb{S}^1$. Let $H:=f(\mathbb{R})$, notice that $H$ is a subgroup of $\mathbb{S}^1$. Therefore, let $(g_i)_{i\in I}$ be a set of representants of $(\mathbb{S}^1/H)\setminus\{H\}$, one has: $$H=\mathbb{S}^1\setminus\bigcup_{i\in I}g_iH.$$ Since each $x\mapsto {g_i}^{-1}x$ is continuous, $g_iH$ is open as the inverse image of $H$ by the previous map. Finally, $H$ is closed in $\mathbb{S}^1$.

Remarks.

  • xyzzyz gave in the comments an easier argument to show that $f(\mathbb{R})$ is closed.

  • The argument I developed gives right away that $f$ is surjective from $\mathbb{C}$ to $\mathbb{C}^*$ (knowing that $f$ is holomorphic).