Taylor Series

The Taylor Series expansion of f (x) for points near x = a can be written: f (x) =
n=0

1 ( n) f (a) (x a)n n!

Expand through the rst few terms and take some derivatives. . . f (x) = f (a) + f (a) (xa) + 1 1 1 f (a) (xa)2 + f (a) (xa)3 + f (4) (a) (xa)4 + . . . 2! 3! 4!

f (x) = f (a) + f (a) (xa) +

1 1 1 f (a) (xa)2 + f (4) (a) (xa)3 + f (5) (a) (xa)4 + . . . 2! 3! 4! 1 (4) 1 1 f (x) = f (a) + f (a) (xa) + f (a) (xa)2 + f (5) (a) (xa)3 + f (6) (a) (xa)4 + . . . 2! 3! 4!

The nth derivative of the Taylor expansion for f (x) near x = a is the Taylor expansion of the nth derivative of f (x)! In the neighborhood of x = a, the Taylor expansion for f (x) reproduces the slope, curvature, and so on of f (x). Ultimately, this means that just about any function may be written as a polynomial using the Taylor Series - the major exceptions being functions that lack dierentiability at some order at x = a.

Common Expansions about x = 0

sin x = x cos x = 1 ex = 1 + x + x3 x5 x7 x9 + + ... 3! 5! 7! 9! x2 x4 x6 x8 + + ... 2! 4! 6! 8!

x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 + + + + + ... 2! 3! 4! 5! 6!

x2 x3 x4 x5 + + ... 2 3 4 5 1 1 (1 + x)n = 1 + nx + n(n 1)x2 + n(n 1)(n 2)x3 + . . . 2! 3! log (1 + x) = x

Approximations
Linearization
One linearizes a function by keeping the Taylor expansion terms up to rst-order in (x a). Because weve truncated the higher-order corrections, we wouldnt expect these approximations to be very good if we wandered too far away from x = a. The linearizations of those common functions near x = 0 ought to look real familiar. Keep in mind that theyre only valid for values of x near 0, which is to say for small values of x. sin x x cos x 1 ex 1 + x log (1 + x) x (1 + x)n 1 + nx

The Art of Approximation

There is a bit of an art to approximation. If the function you are trying to approximate vanishes, you have more-than-likely over-approximated, losing the very information you were seeking. Consider the following function (modeled after a combination you see in the discussion of quadrapoles) for small values of x: f (x) = 2 To rst-order in x, 1 1 f (x) 2 (1 + x) (1 x) 2 2 f (x) 0 Ok. We know f(x) is really, really small for small x. That doesnt tell me much. I can do better. As a general rule, keep enough terms to get a non-zero result. 1 3 1 3 f (x) 2 (1 + x + x2 ) (1 x + x2 ) 2 8 2 8 3 2 f (x) x 4 1 1 + 1x 1+x