Engineering Applied Exercise -- Taylor Series

Since we want to approximate the value of a square root, we need to use the function

f ( x )= √ x and expand it using Taylor series around a generic center x=a.

The general equation for the Taylor expansion with infinite terms is:

' f ' ' ( a) 2 f ( n) ( x ) n

f ( x )=f ( a ) + f ( a )( x−a )+ ( x −a ) +…+ ( x−a ) +…
2! n!

Or, written as a summation:

∞
f (n ) ( a ) n
f ( x )= ∑ ( x−a )
n =0 n!

1
For f ( x )= √ x=x 2 , we have the following function/derivative values at x=a:

f ( a )= √ a

−1
' 1 1 1
f ( x )= x 2 = ∴ f ' ( a )=
2 2√ x 2 √a

−3
1 −1 2 −1 −1
f '' ( x) =
2 2 ( )
x =
4√x 3
∴ f ' ' ( a) =
4 √ a3

−5
−1 −3 2 3 3
f ' ' ' ( x )=
4 2( )
x =
8 √x 5
∴ f ' '' ( a )=
8 √ a5

−7
3 −5 2 −15 −15
(4 )
f ( x )=
8 2
x = ( )
16 √ x 7
∴ f (4 ) ( a )=
16 √ a7

−9
−15 −7 2 105 105
(5 )
f ( x )=
16 2
x = ( )
32 √ x 9
∴ f ( 5 ) ( a )=
32 √ a9

−11
105 −9 −945 −945
(6 )
f ( x )=
32 2
x ( ) 2
=
64 √ x11
∴ f (6 ) ( a )=
64 √ a11
So, in order to estimate √ 4.7 , it’s reasonable to choose a value of a close to 4.7 and for

which we have an exact square root, so x=4.

Now, we can construct the following table. The last two columns are the only things

different from the template offered by the professor.

 The column “Partial Sum” brings the current value of the approximation to that

n – in this column we will find the approximations of √ 4.7 for the different

number of terms considered;

 The column “Error” is the absolute value of the difference between the current

partial sum and the previous one (the same as the absolute value of the nth term),

being observed in order to know when the approximation is converging within

10-5 – moment at which the process will stop.

n Function/Derivative n! (x-a)n = (4.7-4)n nth term Partial Sum Error

0 1 0 2 2 --
√ 4=2 ( 0.7 ) =1
1 1 1 1 ( 0.7 )1 =0.7 0.175 2.175 1.825
=
2√ 4 4
2 −1 −1 2 ( 0.7 )2 =0.49 -0.00765625 2.16734375 7.66x10-3
=
4 √4 3 32
3 3 3 3 ( 0.7 )3 =0.343 0.000669922 2.168013672 6.70x10-4
=
8 √ 4 256
5

4 −15 −15 24 ( 0.7 )4=0.2401 -0.00007327 2.167940399 7.33x10-5

=
16 √ 4 2048
7

5 105 105 12 ( 0.7 )5 =0. 16807 0.00000898 2.167949375 8.98x10-6

=
32 √ 4 16384
9
0

Since using n=5 the value is converging within 10-5 (the previous value as larger greater

than 10-5), we can say that:

√ 4.7 ≈ 2.167949375
The error on this approximation is:

E=|T 6 ( x )|

f ( 6) ( 4 )
E= | 6!
( 4.7−4 ) |
6

6
−945 ( 0.7 )
E=
| ∙
64 √ 4 11 720 |
945 0.117649
E= ∙
131072 720

E=0. 00000118=1.18 × 10−6