- #1
Apteronotus
- 202
- 0
Hi,
In Wikipedia it's stated that
"...
Legendre polynomials are useful in expanding functions like
[tex]
\frac{1}{\sqrt{1 + \eta^{2} - 2\eta x}} = \sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \eta^{k} P_{k}(x)[/tex]
..."
Unfortunately, I am failing to see how this can be true. Is there a way of showing this?
I know that Legendre polynomials form an orthonormal set, and so given any function, we should be able to decompose it into a 'linear combination' of these polynomials. But what form does this decomposition take?
In Wikipedia it's stated that
"...
Legendre polynomials are useful in expanding functions like
[tex]
\frac{1}{\sqrt{1 + \eta^{2} - 2\eta x}} = \sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \eta^{k} P_{k}(x)[/tex]
..."
Unfortunately, I am failing to see how this can be true. Is there a way of showing this?
I know that Legendre polynomials form an orthonormal set, and so given any function, we should be able to decompose it into a 'linear combination' of these polynomials. But what form does this decomposition take?