Taylor expansion, of gradient of a function, in multiple dimensions

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Whenry
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Hello all,

I understand that the taylor expansion for a multidimensional function can be written as

[itex]f(\overline{X}[/itex] + [itex]\overline{P}[/itex]) = [itex]f(\overline{X}) + \nabla f(\overline{X}+t\overline{P})(\overline{P})[/itex]

where t is on (0,1).

Although I haven't seen that form before, it makes sense.

But I don't understand the integral in the following the Taylor expansion,

[itex]\nabla f(\overline{X}[/itex] + [itex]\overline{P}[/itex]) = [itex]\nabla f(\overline{X}) + \int^{1}_{0} \nabla^{2} f(\overline{X}+t\overline{P})(\overline{P})dt[/itex]

Could someone help me understand the derivation?

Thank you,

Will
 
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Whenry said:
Hello all,

I understand that the taylor expansion for a multidimensional function can be written as

[itex]f(\overline{X}[/itex] + [itex]\overline{P}[/itex]) = [itex]f(\overline{X}) + \nabla f(\overline{X}+t\overline{P})(\overline{P})[/itex]

where t is on (0,1).

I don't understand it. What kind of multiplication is going on in the last term? It appears to be two vectors multiplied together. Is it a dot product?


But I don't understand the integral in the following the Taylor expansion,

[itex]\nabla f(\overline{X}[/itex] + [itex]\overline{P}[/itex]) = [itex]\nabla f(\overline{X}) + \int^{1}_{0} \nabla^{2} f(\overline{X}+t\overline{P})(\overline{P})dt[/itex]

I don't either, but this is an interesting formula and I would like to know where you saw it. Is this from a subject like fluid dynamics? Can you give a link to a page?