POWER SERIES

A power series about a, or just power series, is any series that can be written in the form,

where and

are numbers. A power series may converge for some values of x and not for other values of x.
Example: For what values of x does the series

converge?
THEOREM. For a given power series

, there are only 3 possibilities.

1. The series converges only for = .
2. The series converges for all
3. There is a positive number R such that the series converges if | | < and diverges if | | > .

The number R in case 3 is called the radius of convergence of the power series.
case 1: = 0
case 2: =
The interval of convergence of a power series is the interval that consists of all values of x for which
the series converges.
case 1: {a} or =
case 2: ,
case 3: there are four possibilities ,
, + , , +, , + , , +
Examples: Find the radius and interval of convergence of the following power series.
1.
1

+3

2.
5

3.
1

4.
6

5. 1

4

ln

Power Series Representations of Functions
Recall that the geometric series is

provided that |r| <1.

If we let = 1 = , then the series becomes

provided that || < 1.

Thus, we can represent the function
() =
1
1

with the power series

provided that || < 1

. . () =
1
1
=

|| < 1
Example 1: Find a power series representation for the following function and determine its interval of
convergence.
1. =

2. =

3. =

4. =

Differentiation and Integration of Power Series
Let =

+
Then

+ 2

+3

+ =

= 1

= 1 2

Also,
=

= +

+1

Theorem: If =

has a radius of convergence of > 0 then,

= +

+1

and both of these also have a radius of convergence of .
Example: Find a power series representation for the following function and determine its interval of
convergence.
1. =
1
1

2. = ln5
3. =

TAYLOR AND MACLAURIN SERIES.
Denition. If f has a power series representation at that is, if
=

| | <
then its coecient are given by formula

!

Denition. The power series of the form
=

is called the
Denition. The particular case of the Taylor series for = 0 is called the
.
=

0
!

Definition: The polynomial

is called the

.
Examples: Find the Maclaurin series of the following functions.
1. =

2. =

3. =

4. = cos
5. =

cos 3

6. = sin
7. = sin

8. = tan