Math 129 Section 005H Lecture 30: Taylor series (§10.2)11 1 This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License

Last time: Taylor polynomials

(Monday, November 1, 2021)

Given a function f, its Taylor polynomial of order n centered at x=0 is the polynomial

Pn⁢(x)=C0+C1⁢x+⋯+Cn⁢xn

such that

Pn⁢(0) = f⁢(0)
Pn′′⁢(0) = f′′⁢(0)
⋮
Pn(n)⁢(0) = f(n)⁢(0)

We found

Cn=f(n)⁢(0)n!

so

Pn⁢(x)=f⁢(0)+f′⁢(0)⁢x+f′′⁢(0)2!⁢x2+f′′′⁢(0)3!⁢x3+⋯+f(n)⁢(0)n!⁢xn.

Similarly, the Taylor polynomial of order n centered at x=a is

Pn⁢(x)=f⁢(a)+f′⁢(a)⁢(x-a)+f′′⁢(a)2!⁢(x-a)2+f′′′⁢(a)3!⁢(x-a)3+⋯+f(n)⁢(a)n!⁢(x-a)n.

Warm-up.

What is the nth Taylor polynomial of ex about x=0?