# Differentiating power series

by EV33
Tags: differentiating, power, series
 P: 196 My question is just a concept that I don't understand. When differentiating a power series that starts at n=0 we bump that bound up to n=1. My question is do we always do that? or Do we only do that when the first term of the power series is a constant and thus when it is differentiated it becomes zero? My guess is the second case.
P: 910
 Quote by EV33 My question is just a concept that I don't understand. When differentiating a power series that starts at n=0 we bump that bound up to n=1. My question is do we always do that? or Do we only do that when the first term of the power series is a constant and thus when it is differentiated it becomes zero? My guess is the second case.
Huh? n = 0 is just the index. We can call out "starting point" a0 or a1 --- whichever we prefer. And yes, that term will disappear when you take the derivative of ∑anxn.

a0 + a1x + a2x2 + ...

(a0 + a1x + a2x2 + ... )' = a1 + 2a2x + ...

It's as simple as that.

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