Can you expand and find the radius of convergence for this Maclaurin series?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around expanding the function $\frac{2-z}{(1-z)^2}$ into a Maclaurin series and determining its radius of convergence. Participants explore the use of geometric series and differentiation in the context of series expansion.

Discussion Character

  • Homework-related
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest using the geometric series $\frac{1}{1-z}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}z^n$ as a basis for the expansion.
  • One participant proposes breaking down the function into two parts: $\frac{1}{(1-z)^2}$ and $\frac{1}{1-z}$, indicating that the first term can be derived from differentiating the geometric series.
  • Another participant mentions that the radius of convergence for series obtained through differentiation or integration remains the same as the original series, but the behavior at endpoints may differ.
  • Some participants express uncertainty about the final form of the Maclaurin series and whether it should be left in its expanded form or simplified further.
  • There is a discussion about the specific series expansion resulting in $\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}(n+2)z^n$ and how to arrive at that conclusion from the earlier steps.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the method of using geometric series and differentiation for the expansion. However, there is no consensus on the final form of the series or the exact radius of convergence, as some participants express differing views on the endpoint behavior.

Contextual Notes

Some participants note that the series derived from differentiation or integration may have different convergence behavior at the endpoints compared to the original series, but this remains a point of discussion rather than a settled fact.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for students and individuals interested in series expansions, particularly in the context of Maclaurin series and convergence analysis in mathematics.

aruwin
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Hello.
I am stuck on this question. I'd appreciate if anyone could help me on how to do this.

The question:
Expand the following into maclaurin series and find its radius of convergence.

$\frac{2-z}{(1-z)^2}$

I know that we can use geometric series as geometric series is generally
$$\frac{1}{1-z}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}z^n$$

but I don't know how to use it for this problem.
 
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aruwin said:
Hello.
I am stuck on this question. I'd appreciate if anyone could help me on how to do this.

The question:
Expand the following into maclaurin series and find its radius of convergence.

$\frac{2-z}{(1-z)^2}$

I know that we can use geometric series as geometric series is generally
$$\frac{1}{1-z}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}z^n$$

but I don't know how to use it for this problem.

$\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{2 - z}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } &= \frac{1 + 1 - z }{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \\ &= \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } + \frac{1 - z}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \\ &= \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } + \frac{1}{1 - z} \end{align*}$

The second term is easy to write as a geometric series. For the first term, use the fact that $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}z } \left( \frac{1}{ 1 - z } \right) = \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \end{align*}$, so when you write $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{1 - z } \end{align*}$ as a geometric series, when you differentiate it you'll have a series for $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \end{align*}$...
 
Last edited:
aruwin said:
Hello.
I am stuck on this question. I'd appreciate if anyone could help me on how to do this.

The question:
Expand the following into maclaurin series and find its radius of convergence.

$\frac{2-z}{(1-z)^2}$

I know that we can use geometric series as geometric series is generally
$$\frac{1}{1-z}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}z^n$$

but I don't know how to use it for this problem.

An idea can be to use the identity $\displaystyle \frac{2 - z}{(1 - z)^{2}} = \frac{1}{1-z} + \frac{1}{(1-z)^{2}}$ and the fact that is $\displaystyle \frac{d}{d z} \frac{1}{1-z} = \frac{1}{(1-z)^{2}}$...

Kind regards

$\chi$ $\sigma$
 
Prove It said:
$\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{2 - z}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } &= \frac{1 + 1 - z }{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \\ &= \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } + \frac{1 - z}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \\ &= \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } + \frac{1}{1 - z} \end{align*}$

The second term is easy to write as a geometric series. For the first term, use the fact that $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x } \left( \frac{1}{ 1 - z } \right) = \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \end{align*}$, so when you write $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{1 - z } \end{align*}$ as a geometric series, when you differentiate it you'll have a series for $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{ \left( 1 - z \right) ^2 } \end{align*}$...

Then what about the radius of convergence? Since the series are all going to be $\frac{1}{(1-z)^n}$, I assume the answer is R=1?
 
Sorry, I misunderstood before. Let me try and write out the maclaurin series first and then the radius.
 
aruwin said:
Then what about the radius of convergence? Since the series are all going to be $\frac{1}{(1-z)^n}$, I assume the answer is R=1?

Yes, any series that is obtained through differentiation or integration has the same radius of convergence as the series it came from.

The only place it might be different is at the endpoints. For example, $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{1 - z} = \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{ z^n } \end{align*}$ is convergent for $\displaystyle \begin{align*} |z| < 1 \end{align*}$ and divergent for $\displaystyle \begin{align*} |z| \geq 1 \end{align*}$, while if we integrate it we have

$\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{1 - z} &= \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{z^n} \\ \int{ \frac{1}{1 - z}\,\mathrm{d}z } &= \int{ \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{z^n}\,\mathrm{d}z } \\ -\ln{ \left( 1 - z \right) } &= \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty} {\frac{z^{n+1}}{n+1}} \\ \ln{ \left( 1 - z \right) } &= -\sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{ \frac{z^{n+1}}{n+1} } \end{align*}$

which is convergent where $\displaystyle \begin{align*} -1 \leq z < 1 \end{align*}$. Don't believe me? When $\displaystyle \begin{align*} z = -1 \end{align*}$ we have $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \ln{ \left( 2 \right) } = \ln{ \left[ 1 - \left( -1 \right) \right] } &= -\sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{\frac{\left( -1 \right)^{n + 1}}{n + 1}} \end{align*}$, which is an alternating series, and since $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x} \left( \frac{1}{x + 1} \right) = -\frac{1}{\left( x + 1 \right) ^2} \end{align*}$, that means the non-alternating part $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{n + 1} \end{align*}$ is decreasing, and thus is convergent by the Alternating Series Test.So to answer your previous question - in general any series obtained from differentiating or integrating has the same RADIUS of convergence, but may have different convergence behaviour at the ENDPOINTS of that radius.
 
Prove It said:
Yes, any series that is obtained through differentiation or integration has the same radius of convergence as the series it came from.

The only place it might be different is at the endpoints. For example, $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{1 - z} = \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{ z^n } \end{align*}$ is convergent for $\displaystyle \begin{align*} |z| < 1 \end{align*}$ and divergent for $\displaystyle \begin{align*} |z| \geq 1 \end{align*}$, while if we integrate it we have

$\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{1 - z} &= \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{z^n} \\ \int{ \frac{1}{1 - z}\,\mathrm{d}z } &= \int{ \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{z^n}\,\mathrm{d}z } \\ -\ln{ \left( 1 - z \right) } &= \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty} {\frac{z^{n+1}}{n+1}} \\ \ln{ \left( 1 - z \right) } &= -\sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{ \frac{z^{n+1}}{n+1} } \end{align*}$

which is convergent where $\displaystyle \begin{align*} -1 \leq z < 1 \end{align*}$. Don't believe me? When $\displaystyle \begin{align*} z = -1 \end{align*}$ we have $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \ln{ \left( 2 \right) } = \ln{ \left[ 1 - \left( -1 \right) \right] } &= -\sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{\frac{\left( -1 \right)^{n + 1}}{n + 1}} \end{align*}$, which is an alternating series, and since $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x} \left( \frac{1}{x + 1} \right) = -\frac{1}{\left( x + 1 \right) ^2} \end{align*}$, that means the non-alternating part $\displaystyle \begin{align*} \frac{1}{n + 1} \end{align*}$ is decreasing, and thus is convergent by the Alternating Series Test.So to answer your previous question - in general any series obtained from differentiating or integrating has the same RADIUS of convergence, but may have different convergence behaviour at the ENDPOINTS of that radius.

Thanks for the explanation.

Now to get the final answer of the maclaurin series expansion, it should start off like this, right?
$$\frac{2-z}{(1-z)^2}= \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}nz^{n-1}+\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}z^n$$

How do I finish this? The answer I was given is :

$$\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}(n+2)z^n$$

or is it enough to just leave the answer as $$\frac{2-z}{(1-z)^2}= \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}nz^{n-1}+\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}z^n$$ ?
 
Last edited:
aruwin said:
Thanks for the explanation.

Now to get the final answer of the maclaurin series expansion, it should start off like this, right?
$$\frac{2-z}{(1-z)^2}= \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}nz^{n-1}+\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}z^n$$

How do I finish this? The answer I was given is :

$$\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}(n+2)z^n$$

$\displaystyle \begin{align*} \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{n\,z^{n-1}} + \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{z^n} &= 0 + 1 + 2z + 3z^2 + 4z^3 + \dots + 1 + z + z^2 + z^3 + \dots \\ &= 2 + 3z + 4z^2 + 5z^3 + \dots \\ &= \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{ \left[ \left( n + 2 \right) \, z^n \right] } \end{align*}$
 
Prove It said:
$\displaystyle \begin{align*} \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{n\,z^{n-1}} + \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{z^n} &= 0 + 1 + 2z + 3z^2 + 4z^3 + \dots + 1 + z + z^2 + z^3 + \dots \\ &= 2 + 3z + 4z^2 + 5z^3 + \dots \\ &= \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty}{ \left[ \left( n + 2 \right) \, z^n \right] } \end{align*}$

Thanks!
 

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