A general way to find the inverse functions....

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around methods for finding the inverse of functions, particularly focusing on the function \( y = 5x^3 - x^5 \). Participants explore various approaches, including the use of Taylor series expansions and historical contributions to the topic.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant notes that there is no closed formula to find \( x \) as a function of \( y \) for the given function \( y = 5x^3 - x^5 \).
  • Another participant proposes using a Taylor expansion to find the inverse function, providing a detailed formula for the coefficients of the expansion.
  • Participants discuss the historical context of the formulas, mentioning contributions from mathematicians such as Joseph Louis Lagrange and Hans Heinrich Burmann.
  • There is a mention of the need for certain conditions to be satisfied for the validity of the inverse function expansions, including the non-zero derivative condition.
  • One participant shares their previous work on the function \( \log_{10} \text{erfc}(x) \) and discusses the computation of its inverse using similar methods.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best method for finding inverses, with multiple approaches and historical references presented without resolution of which is superior.

Contextual Notes

Some limitations are noted regarding the conditions under which the proposed methods are valid, including the need for certain derivatives to be non-zero and the convergence of series expansions.

chisigma
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In www.mathhelpforum.com and interesting question has been proposed by the user misiazeska the 05 20 2013...How to find the inverse of this function?...$$y= 5\ x^{3} - x^{5}$$ ... and the unanimous answer has been '... it doesn't exist any closed formula to find x as function of y...'. In my opinion the proposed problem is a good opportunity to use the following solving procedure to find the inverse of an analytic function. Giving a function...$$ w = f(z) = a_{1}\ z + a_{2}\ z^{2} + a_{3}\ z^{3} + ... ,\ a_{1} \ne 0\ (1)$$

... which is analytic inside a disk with $|z|< r$, the Taylor expansion of the inverse function is...$$ z = f^{-1}(w) = b_{1}\ w + b_{2}\ w^{2} + b_{3}\ w^{3} + ...\ (2)$$

... where...$$b_{n}= \frac{1}{n!}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \frac{d^{n-1}}{d z^{n-1}} \{\frac{z}{f(z)}\}^{n}\ (3)$$
Now we consider the original function...$$y= 5\ x^{3} - x^{5} \implies \sqrt[3]{y}= \sqrt[3]{5}\ x\ \sqrt[3]{1 - \frac{x^{2}}{5}}\ (4) $$

... that, setting $w= \sqrt[3]{y}$ and $x=z$ becomes...$$w = f(z) = \sqrt[3]{5}\ z\ \sqrt[3]{1 - \frac{z^{2}}{5}}\ (5) $$

... which satisfies the requirements of (1) so that the (2) and (3) can be applied. The coefficients $b_{n}$ are computed as follows...

$$b_{1}= \lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \frac{z}{f(z)}= \lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{5}\ \sqrt[3]{1 - \frac{z^{2}}{5}}} = \frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{5}}\ (6) $$

$$b_{2}= \frac{1}{2}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \frac{d}{d z} (\frac{z}{f(z)})^{2} = \frac{1}{2}\ \frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{25}}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \frac{d}{d z} \frac{1}{(1 - \frac{z^{2}}{5})^{\frac{2}{3}}} = \frac{1}{2}\ \frac{1}{\sqrt[3]{25}}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow 0}\ \frac{4\ z}{15\ (1-\frac{z^{2}}{5})^{\frac{5}{3}}} = 0\ (7)$$

$$b_{3} = \frac{1}{6}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \frac{d^{2}}{d z^{2}} (\frac{z}{f(z)})^{3} = \frac{1}{6}\ \frac{1}{5}\ \frac{d^{2}}{d z^{2}}\ \frac{1}{1-\frac{z^{2}}{5}} = - \frac{1}{30}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow 0}\ \frac{10\ (3 z^{2}+5)}{(z^{2}-5)^{3}} = \frac{1}{75}\ (8)$$

... and now we can write the first three terms of the inverse function...

$$ x= \sqrt[3]{\frac{y}{5}} + \frac{y}{75} + ...\ (9)$$

Of course it is possible to proceed to compute more terms but the main scope is to illustrate a way to find a general way to solve this type of problems. For completeness sake in next post I will try to demonstrate the (3)...

Kind regards

$\chi$ $\sigma$

Questions and comments should be posted here:

http://mathhelpboards.com/commentary-threads-53/commentary-general-way-find-inverse-functions-4929.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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This topic is for questions and comments pertaining to this tutorial:

http://mathhelpboards.com/math-notes-49/general-way-find-inverse-functions-4928.html

Kind regards

$\chi$ $\sigma$
 
I'm just wondering, why do we need a Commentary thread when we can just comment in the original thread?
 
Prove It said:
I'm just wondering, why do we need a Commentary thread when we can just comment in the original thread?

It is explained here:

http://www.mathhelpboards.com/f49/guidelines-posting-responding-tutorial-topics-4202/
 
chisigma said:
Giving a function...$$ w = f(z) = a_{1}\ z + a_{2}\ z^{2} + a_{3}\ z^{3} + ... ,\ a_{1} \ne 0\ (1)$$

... which is analytic inside a disk with $|z|< r$, the Taylor expansion of the inverse function is...$$ z = f^{-1}(w) = b_{1}\ w + b_{2}\ w^{2} + b_{3}\ w^{3} + ...\ (2)$$

... where...$$b_{n}= \frac{1}{n!}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow 0} \frac{d^{n-1}}{d z^{n-1}} \{\frac{z}{f(z)}\}^{n}\ (3)$$

The reported formula was 'discovered' in the year 1770 by the Italian mathematician and astronomer Giuseppe Luigi Lagrancia [more known in scientific licterature as Joseph Louis Lagrange...]. Some year after the not well known German mathematician Hans Heinrich Burmann found the more general statement of the problem that follows: given a function $w= f(z)$ analytic in a disk of radious r centered in $z=z_{0}$ with $f^{ '} (z_{0}) \ne 0$, so that is...

$$ w = f(z) = w_{0} + f^{\ '} (z_{0})\ (z-z_{0}) + \frac{f^{\ ''} (z_{0})}{2!}\ (z-z_{0})^{2} + ...\ (1)$$

... then the Taylor series of its inverse function $z= g(w)$ is ...

$$ z= g(w) = z_{0} + \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{(w-w_{0})^{n}}{n!}\ \lim_{z \rightarrow z_{0}} \frac {d^{n-1}}{d z^{n-1}} \{\frac{z-z_{0}}{f(z)- w_{0}}\}^{n}\ (2)$$
The coefficients of the expansion of g(*) can be found by the following theorem, generally known as 'Burmann's theorem' : let be $\varphi(*)$ a function defined as...$$\varphi(z) = \frac{z-z_{0}}{f(z)- w_{0}}\ (3)$$
… then the analytic function g(z) can be expanded, in a certain domain of z, as...

$$ g(z) = z_{0} + \sum_{n=1}^{m-1} \frac{\{f(z) - w_{0}\}^{n}}{n!}\ \frac{d^{n-1}}{d \xi^{n-1}}\ \{g^{\ '} (\xi)\ \varphi^{n} (\xi) \}_ {\xi= z_{0}}\ (4) $$

... where...

$$ R_{m}= \frac{1}{2\ \pi\ i}\ \int_{z_{0}}^{z} \int_{\gamma} \{\frac{f(\zeta)- w_{0}}{f(\xi)- w_{0}}\}^{m-1}\ \frac{g^{\ '}(\xi)\ f^{\ '}(\zeta)}{f(\xi)-f(\zeta)}\ d \xi\ d \zeta\ (5)$$

... being $\gamma$ a contour such that for any $\zeta$ inside $\gamma$ the equation $f(\xi)=f(\zeta)$ has only the solution $\xi = \zeta$. In the case $g(z)=z$ is $g^{\ '}(z)=1$ and the (4) becomes the (2). The (4) and (5) that $f^{\ '} (z_{0}) \ne 0$ is a necessary but non suffcient condition for the validity of (2) because the other condition $\lim _{m \rightarrow \infty} R_{m}=0$ must be satisfied, and that is an important detail that usually is not specified in the lecterature...

Kind regards

$\chi$ $\sigma$
 
Last edited:
As reported in...

http://www.mathhelpboards.com/f52/unsolved-statistic-questions-other-sites-part-ii-1566/index4.html

... several years ago I performed the computation of the function $\log_{10} \text{erfc}\ (x)$, where...

$$ \text{erfc} (x) = 1- \frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi}} \int_{0}^{x} e^{- t^{2}}\ dt\ (1)$$

... and the results are represented here...

http://do8ae71anmf4y.cloudfront.net/6d/4e/i71519853._szw380h285_.jpg

Because is $\log_{10} a = \frac{\ln a}{\ln 10}$ the main task is the computation of the function...

$$\lambda (x) = \ln \{\text{erfc} (x)\}\ (2)$$

Now $\lambda(*)$ is analytic and its McLaurin expansion is given by...$$\lambda(x) = a_{1}\ x + a_{2}\ x^{2} + a_{3}\ x^{3} + ... \ (3)$$... where...$$a_{n} = \frac{1}{n!}\ \lim_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{d^{n}}{d x^{n}} \lambda(x)\ (4)$$
The computation of the $a_{n}$ is not too diffcult but very tedious and fortunately 'Monster Wolfram' is available...$$a_{1}= - \frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi}},\ a_{2}= - \frac{2}{\pi},\ a_{3} = - \frac{2\ (4 - \pi)}{3\ \pi^{\frac{3}{2}}},\ a_{4}= \frac{4\ (\pi - 3)}{3\ \pi^{2}},\ a_{5} = - \frac{96 - 40\ \pi + 3\ \pi^{2}}{15\ \pi^{\frac{5}{2}}},\ a_{6}= - \frac{4\ (120 - 60\ \pi + 7\ \pi^{2})} {45\ \pi^{3}}$$
$$a_{7}= - \frac{5760 - 3360\ \pi + 532\ \pi^{2} - 15\ \pi^{3}} {315\ \pi^{\frac{7}{2}}},\ a_{8}= - \frac{8\ (420 - 280\ \pi + 56\ \pi^{2} - 3\ \pi^{3})}{105\ \pi^{4}},\ … $$

From the pratical point of view in many cases is important the inverse of the $\lambda(*)$ function and we are in condition to apply what has been found in previous posts writing... $$ x = \lambda^{-1} (*) = b_{1}\ \lambda + b_{2}\ \lambda^{2} + b_{3}\ \lambda^{3} + ...\ (5)$$

... where...

$$ b_{n} = \frac{1}{n!}\ \lim_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{d^{n-1}}{d x^{n-1}} (\frac{x}{\lambda(x)})^{n}\ (6)$$

The $b_{n}$ can be computed using (6) and also in thic case 'Monster Wolfram' is useful... $$ b_{1}= - \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2},b_{2} = - \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{4},b_{3} = - \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{24}\ (2 + \pi),b_{4} = - \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{48}\ (1 + 3\ \pi)$$

$$b_{5}= - \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{960}\ (4 + 50\ \pi + 7\ \pi^{2}),b_{6}= - \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{5760}\ (4 + 180\ \pi + 105\ \pi^{2}) (7)$$

... and at this point also 'Monster Wolfram' is unable to proceed further (Sadface)...

The effective utulity of (6) and (7) will be analized in a succesive post...

Kind regards

$\chi$ $\sigma$
 
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