- #1
mathmathmath
- 6
- 0
hi everyone, I am just learning the taylor series at school. I am slightly confused.
in my textbook, one of hte exercises is to find hte nth degree taylor polynomial of x^4 about a=-1. n is 4 in this case
so this gives me a long polynomial. i understand that inputting any x value into this polynomial yields the sameresult as the x^4 function. however I am slightly confusd at why anyone would do this. my guess is that this question is for hte sake of practice, and ideally taylor approximations would only be made for more complex functions. is this true?
one more question, what does "approximation ABOUT a=x" mean really? I've learned linear approximation so i assume its somewhat similar.. but I am still confused. thank you very much for your help
in my textbook, one of hte exercises is to find hte nth degree taylor polynomial of x^4 about a=-1. n is 4 in this case
so this gives me a long polynomial. i understand that inputting any x value into this polynomial yields the sameresult as the x^4 function. however I am slightly confusd at why anyone would do this. my guess is that this question is for hte sake of practice, and ideally taylor approximations would only be made for more complex functions. is this true?
one more question, what does "approximation ABOUT a=x" mean really? I've learned linear approximation so i assume its somewhat similar.. but I am still confused. thank you very much for your help