Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Math 1AA3/1ZB3
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

In the preceding lecture, we were able to find power series

representations for a certain restricted class of functions, by
manipulating geometric series, or differentiating or integrating
power series.

The goal of this lecture and next lecture is to investigate the more
general questions:
Question A: Which functions have power series representations?
Question B: If f (x) has a power series representation, how can we
find it?

We will answer Question B in this lecture and then answer

Question A in the next lecture.
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Suppose f (x) has a power series representation/expansion at

x = c, that is, for some R > 0, it holds that
∞
X
f (x) = cn (x − c)n = c0 + c1 (x − c) + c2 (x − c)2 + · · · (1)
n=0

for |x − c| < R, what the coefficients cn must be in terms of f (x)?

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Determining c1 : By Theorem B in Lecture 13, we can differentiate

(1) to get

Determining c2 : Differentiating (2) yields

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Determining c3 : Differentiating (3) produces

f 000 (x) = 2 · 3c3 + 2 · 3 · 4c4 (x − c) + · · · (4)

Setting x = c in (4) yields

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Thus we have proved

Theorem C
If f (x) has a power series representation/expansion at x = c, that
is, if
∞
X
f (x) = cn (x − c)n for |x − c| < R,
n=0

then its coefficients are given by

f (n) (c)
cn = , for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, · · ·.
n!
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

In other words, if f has a power series expansion at x = c, then it

must be
∞
X f (n) (c)
f (x) = (x − c)n (6)
n!
n=0
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Example 1: Find the Maclaurin Series of the function f (x) = e x .

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

The conclusion we can draw from Theorem C and Example 1 is

that if e x has a power series expansion at 0, then
∞
X xn
ex = (8)
n!
n=0

In Lecture 15, we will show that e x does have a power series

expansion, namely, (8) holds for all x.
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Example 2: Find the Maclaurin series for sin(x).

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Example 3: Find the Maclaurin series for cos(x).

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Example 4: Find the Maclaurin series for f (x) = (1 + x)k , where k

is any real number.
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

We calculate

f (x) = (1 + x)k
f 0 (x) = k(1 + x)k−1
f 00 (x) = k(k − 1)(1 + x)k−2
f 000 (x) = k(k − 1)(k − 2)(1 + x)k−3
..
.
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Evaluating at x = 0,

f (0) = 1
f 0 (0) = k
f 00 (0) = k(k − 1)
f 000 (0) = k(k − 1)(k − 2)
..
.
f (n) (0) = k(k − 1) · · · (k − n + 1).

For any real number k, we define

 
k k(k − 1) · · · (k − n + 1)
=
n n!

and these numbers are called the binomial coefficients.

Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Therefore the Maclanrin series of f (x) = (1 + x)k is

f 00 (0) 2 f 000 (0) 3

f (0) + f 0 (0)x + x + x + ···
2! 3!
∞  
X k n
= x
n
n=0

In fact, we have the following theorem.

Theorem (The Binomial Series)
If k is any real number and |x| < 1, then
∞  
X
kk n k(k − 1) 2 k(k − 1)(k − 2) 3
(1+x) = x = 1+kx+ x + x +· · ·
n 2! 3!
n=0
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Summary
Given a function f (x), its Taylor series center at c is
∞
X f (n) (c)
(x − c)n
n!
n=0

and its Maclaurin series is

∞
X f (n) (0)
x n.
n!
n=0

Theorem C: If f (x) has a power series expansion at x = c,

then f (x) is equal to its Taylor series centered at c.
We found the Maclaurin series for e x , sin(x), cos(x) and
(1 + x)k . In Lecture 15, we will show these functions are
equal to their Maclaurin series.
Lecture 14: Taylor and Maclaurin Series I

Discussion Questions

Question 1: Find the radius of convergence for the Maclaurin series

for sin(x), cos(x) and (1 + x)k .

Question 2: Find the Maclaurin series for f (x) using the definition
of a Maclaurin series.
(a).
f (x) = ln(1 + x).
(b).
f (x) = e −2x .