Welcome to Calculus.

I'm Professor Greist, and we're about to

begin lecture two, bonus material.
In our main lesson, we saw a definition
for e to the x, in terms of a series, and
from that and a little bit of help from
Euler's formula.
We derived expressions for sin of x and
for cosine of x.
These can seem a little mysterious,
difficult to work with at first but if
you think of these as long polynomials.
Polynomials of unbounded degree.
It can make it easier both to work with
them and to understand what the series
mean.
Let's consider the case of e to the x and
see what happens when we cut off the
series at some finite polynomial term,
since polynomials are so easy to work
with.
If we stop after the first term.
Well, it's a, a bit too simple to
conclude much.
But if we keep going, looking at 1 plus
x.
Or 1 plus x plus x squared over 2
factorial.
Or continuing to include the cubic term,
as well.
Then we see that we're getting closer and
closer.
Two, what the graph of e to the x looks
like.
Especially if we zoom in very very close
to what's happening near the origin.
And does the same thing work with the
other series that we've looked at?
Well, let's consider cosine of x.
We know that the terms in the series
expansion go, like, one.
And then 1 minus x squared over 2.
Then, 1 minus x squared over 2, plus x to
the fourth over 4 factorial.
And what we see is that we're getting
closer and closer to what cosine is doing
the more terms that we add.
In this series, the better an
approximation to cosine we obtain.
It will come as no surprise to you that
the same thing is true of sine, that when
we look at the linear term and then the
cubic term and then the fifth order term.
That, although we're not getting exactly
sin, we're getting something that is
closer and closer.
And this will keep on going.
The more terms that we add, the better
these polynomial approximations become to

the true function.

At this point, a few remarks are in
order.
First of all, these finite polynomial
approximations work best near zero.
If you want to approximate e to the x,
when x is very, very large, then you're
going to need quite a few terms.
In order to get a good approximation.
Now that's okay, e to the x really is
this infinite series, but it's precisely
because you include all of the terms.
And second of all, sometimes you will see
the term MacLaurin series used to apply
to infinite series of this form.
I choose to use the notation Taylor
series exclusively, and in a few lessons,
we'll see exactly what type of Taylor
series we're talking about, when we write
out things in this form.
Lastly, and most importantly, at this
point in the course, you may be ready to
press the panic button.
We have begun with material that is
usually reserved for the end of a second
semester calculus course.
Relax.
Don't panic.
You'll see in just a few short lessons
what the payoff is for beginning a
calculus course with infinite series.
Stick with it, learn the mechanics and
know that a deeper understanding is
coming.
This is not an easy course and it's a
long one.
We have a lot of time left together.
Don't panic.
Work at it and you'll make it to the end
with a deeper understanding of calculus.