PX153 - F1 - taylor series
- taylor's theorem gives a way of expressing functions as a power series
- it uses the derivatives of a function to approximate its value around a point
- for small
:
- make a more accurate approximation by adding higher order derivatives. let's assume that we can approximate the function as a power series, a polynomial in
, that will be valid for some interval around , ie:
- evaluate these at
, allows us to find , , , etc
-
is just a number -
this is the taylor expansion of
-
if
, this is the maclaurin expansion -
eg: find the firs 3 non-zero terms of the taylor expansion of
about (ie: maclaurin expansion)
$$f(x) = \sin x \simeq \sin 0 + \sum\limits_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n!} f^{n'}|_{x=a}(x)^{n}$$
is an odd function, so, we only have odd powers of - note:
is in
-
eg: estimate the value of
by expanding around - switch to radians:
,
(accurate to 4 sf)
- switch to radians:
-
a useful trick is the relationship the derivative/integral of the taylor series is equal to the derivative/integral of the function
-
if the expansion is around
, you can find the expansion of a power of the independent variable (eg: ), by substituting it into the taylor expansion of the function of -
eg: if you want to find the expansion of
about , find the expansion for and replace with
non analytical function
- every differential is zero