Handout 2 Maclaurin series and Taylor series

Maclaurin series
The Maclaurin series is an approximation to a function f (x) near x = 0:

X
∞
xn
F (x) = f (n) (0)
n=0
n!

where we’re using the notation f (n) (x) to mean the n-th derivative of f (x).

Example: f (x) = 1/(1 − x)

1 ′ 1
f (x) = f (x) = 1 term
2 terms
(1 − x) (1 − x)2 3
7 terms
8 terms
Original function

2 6
f ′′ (x) = f ′′′ (x) =
(1 − x)3 (1 − x)4 2

f (0) = 1 f ′ (0) = 1
1
f ′′ (0) = 2 f ′′′ (0) = 6
F (x) = 1 + x + x2 + x3 + · · · 0

-1
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1

This series converges (so F (x) = f (x)) as long as −1 < x < 1. It has radius of convergence 1.

Example: f (x) = sin x

1.5
f (x) = sin x f ′ (x) = cos x
sin(x)

f ′′ (x) = − sin x f ′′′ (x) = − cos x 1

1 term
2 terms
3 terms
4 terms

f (0) = 0 f ′ (0) = 1
0.5

f ′′ (0) = 0 f ′′′ (0) = −1

x3 x5 0

F (x) = x − + − ···
3! 5!
-0.5

-1

-1.5
-4 -2 0 2 4

In fact, this series converges for all values of x: it has an infinite radius of convergence.
Taylor Series
This gives an approximation for f (x) near x = a:
X
∞
(x − a)n
F (x) = f (n) (a)
n=0
n!

Example: ln x near x = 2

1 2
f (x) = ln x f ′ (x) =
x
−1 2 1.5 Original function
1 term
f ′′ (x) = f ′′′ (x) = 3 2 terms
x2 x 3 terms
4 terms
1
f (2) = ln 2 f ′ (2) = 1/2
f ′′ (2) = −1/4 f ′′′ (2) = 1/4 0.5

(x − 2) (x − 2)2 (x − 2)3
F (x) = ln 2+ − + +· · · 0
2 8 24
This Taylor series has radius of conver- -0.5

gence 2: so it’s OK as long as 0 < x < 4.

-1
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Example: polynomial

Here we’ll look at the intermediate terms of the Taylor series for f (x) = x3 − 3x near x = −1, x = 0 and
x = 1.
f (x) = x3 − 3x f ′ (x) = 3x2 − 3 f ′′ (x) = 6x f ′′′ (x) = 6
Near x = −1:
f (−1) = 2 f ′ (−1) = 0 f ′′ (−1) = −6 f ′′′ (−1) = 6 F (x) = 2 − 3(x + 1)2 + (x + 1)3 .
Near x = 0:
f (0) = 0 f ′ (0) = −3 f ′′ (0) = 0 f ′′′ (0) = 6 F (x) = −3x + x3 .
Near x = 1:
f (1) = −2 f ′ (1) = 0 f ′′ (1) = 6 f ′′′ (1) = 6 F (x) = −2 + 3(x − 1)2 + (x − 1)3 .
All three versions of F (x) are the same function; but the first or first two terms of each give three
different approximations:
3

-1

-2

-3
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

The straight line in the middle is −3x; the right hand curve is −2 + 3(x − 1)2 ; and the left hand curve
is 2 − 3(x + 1)2 . The thick curve is f (x) = F (x). Again, the radius of convergence here is infinite.