Week 10
Week 10
Week 10
Definition:
The series
1
X
cn (x a)n = c0 + c1 (x a) + c2 (x a)2 + . . .
n=0
is called a Power Series Centered at x = a, where a is fixed and the cn s are coefficients.
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For a given value of x, we obtain a series of numbers which may or may not converge. Note that
when x = a, all the terms become 0, so the power series always converges to 0. We will use the Ratio
Test to determine for which values of x a given power series converges.
Examples
1
X 2 n xn
1. For what values of x does converge?
n=0
n!
X1
( 1)n (x 4)n
2. For what values of x does p converge?
n=0
n
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10.1.1 Radius and Interval of Convergence
In general, when using the Ratio Test to determine convergence, we find that a power series
X1
cn (x a)n does one of the following:
n=0
converges at x = a only
converges between a R and a + R for some R, diverges outside and may or may not converge
at x = a R and x = a + R.
We call this value of R the Radius of Convergence since it represents the distance on either side
of the centre a for which the Power Series converges. The resulting Interval of Convergence is
one of (a R, a + R), (a R, a + R], [a R, a + R) or [a R, a + R] and is determined by checking
for convergence or divergence at the endpoints.
Examples:
Find the radius of converge and the interval of convergence for the following:
1
X n(3x + 12)n
1.
n=0
3n
1
X n(x + 2)n
2.
n=0
3n+1
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X1
( 1)n (x)2n
3. (This is known as the Bessel function, and is used to describe planetary motion
n=0
22n (n!)2
and other sound and signal vibrations)
It is nice to know if a given power series converges and for what values of x it converges, but it will
be even more useful to begin with a power series, and find out what function it converges to. This
will enable us to find the function that has a given power series representation. In this section, we
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will only be able to discover functions that are related to .
1 x
We will begin with a simple geometric power series and manipulate it to get more complicated power
series.
Note that the Geometric series
1
X
xn = 1 + x + x2 + . . .
n=0
1
converges for |x| < 1 and has sum . Thus we can write
1 x
1
X
1
= xn
1 x n=0
1
X
1
and say that the function has power series representation xn . We will manipulate this
1 x n=0
equation to find other power series in the next example.
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Example:
Find the power series representation for the following functions.
1
1.
2 + 4x2
x2
2.
x+2
3.
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10.2.1 Dierentiation and Integration of Power Series
1
X
A power series f (x) = cn (x a)n is a function whose domain is the interval of convergence of the
n=0
series (a R, a + R). This function is dierentiable and continuous on (a R, a + R) and we can
perform term-by-term dierentiation and integration as follows:
1
X
2 3
If f (x) = c0 + c1 (x a) + c2 (x a) + c3 (x a) + . . . = cn (x a)n
n=0
1
X
then f 0 (x) = c1 + 2c2 (x a) + 3c3 (x a)2 + . . . = cn n(x a)n 1
n=1
Z 2 1
X
c1 (x a) c2 (x a)3 cn (x a)n+1
and f (x)dx = C + c0 (x a) + + + ... = C +
2 3 n=0
n+1
We will note here that using integration or dierentiation to obtain a new Power Series does not
change the Radius of Convergence. The endpoints of the Interval of Convergence, however, may or
may not converge in the new power series.
Example
Find a power series representation for the following functions.
1
1.
(1 x)2
2. ln(1 + x)
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1
3. tan x
We can also use the power series representation of functions to approximate difficult definite
integrals to a desired degree of accuracy. This is in fact how mathematical software calculates these
definite integrals.
Example
Z 0.5
1
Approximate dx accurate to 7 decimal places.
0 1 + x7
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We can also use power series to evaluate sums of particular series or to evaluate some difficult
limits.
Example 1:
X1
( 1)n 2n
Evaluate the sum of the series .
n=0
62n (2n)!
Example 2:
6 sin x 6x + x3
Evaluate lim .
x!0 x5
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