|||| Formulas for the Remainder Term in Taylor Series

In Section 11.10 we considered functions f with derivatives of all orders and their Taylor
series

f na
 n! x  an
n0

The nth partial sum of this Taylor series is the nth-degree Taylor polynomial of f at a:
f a f a f na
Tnx  f a  x  a  x  a2      x  an
1! 2! n!

We can write
f x  Tnx  Rnx

where Rnx is the remainder of the Taylor series. We know that f is equal to the sum of
 
its Taylor series on the interval x  a  R if we can show that lim n l  Rnx  0 for
 
x  a  R.
Here we derive formulas for the remainder term Rnx. The first such formula involves
an integral.

1 Theorem If f n1 is continuous on an open interval I that contains a, and x is

in I , then
1 x
Rnx  y x  t n f n1t dt
n! a

Proof We use mathematical induction. For n  1,

R1x  f x  T1x  f x  f a  f ax  a

and the integral in the theorem is xax x  t f t dt. To evaluate this integral we integrate
by parts with u  x  t and dv  f t dt, so du  dt and v  f t. Thus

x x
y x  t f t dt  x  t f t tx
ta  y f t dt
a a

 0  x  a f a  f x  f a (by FTC 2)

 f x  f a  f ax  a  R1x

The theorem is therefore proved for n  1.

Now we suppose that Theorem 1 is true for n  k, that is,

1 x
Rk x  y x  tk f k1t dt
k! a

We want to show that it’s true for n  k  1, that is

1 x
Rk1 x  y x  tk1 f k2t dt
k  1! a

1
2 ❙❙❙❙ FORMULAS FOR THE REMAINDER TERM IN TAYLOR SERIES

Again we use integration by parts, this time with u  x  t k1 and dv  f k2t. Then
du  k  1x  t k dt and v  f k1t, so

1 x
y x  tk1 f k2t dt
k  1! a


tx
1 k1 x
 x  t k1 f k1t  y x  t k
f k1t dt
k  1! ta k  1! a

1 1 x
0 x  a k1 f k1a  y x  t k
f k1t dt
k  1! k! a

f k1a
 x  a k1  Rk x
k  1!

f k1a
 f x  Tkx  x  a k1
k  1!

 f x  Tk1x  Rk1 x

Therefore, (1) is true for n  k  1 when it is true for n  k. Thus, by mathematical

induction, it is true for all n.

To illustrate Theorem 1 we use it to solve Example 4 in Section 11.10.

EXAMPLE 1 Find the Maclaurin series for sin x and prove that it represents sin x for all x.

SOLUTION We arrange our computation in two columns as follows:

f x  sin x f 0  0

f x  cos x f 0  1

f x  sin x f 0  0

f x  cos x f 0  1

f 4x  sin x f 40  0

Since the derivatives repeat in a cycle of four, we can write the Maclaurin series as
follows:

f 0 f 0 2 f 0 3

f 0  x x  x  
1! 2! 3!

x3 x5 x7 x 2n1
x         1n
3! 5! 7! n0 2n  1!

With a  0 in Theorem 1, we have

1 x
Rnx  y x  tn f n1t dt
n! 0
 FORMULAS FOR THE REMAINDER TERM IN TAYLOR SERIES ❙❙❙❙ 3

Since f n1t is sin t or cos t, we know that f n1t

1 for all t. We use the fact  
(see Exercise 65 in Section 5.2) that, for a
b,

 y
a
b


f t dt
y
b

a
 f t  dt
Thus, for x  0,

n
1
 R x   n! y  x

0
x  tn f n1 t dt

 1
n!
y
0
x
 
x  tn f n1 t dt

1 x 1 x n1 x n1

y x  tn dt  
n! 0 n! n  1 n  1!

For x  0 we can write

1 0
Rnx   y x  tn f n1t dt
n! x

so

 
Rnx

1
n! y x
0
xt  n
f n1 t dt

1
n!
y
x
0
t  xn dt 
x n1
n  1!

Thus, in any case, we have

 R x 
n  1!
n1
x
n

The right side of this inequality approaches 0 as n l  (see Equation 11.10.10), so

 
Rnx l 0 by the Squeeze Theorem. It follows that Rnx l 0 as n l , so sin x is
equal to the sum of its Maclaurin series.

For some purposes the integral formula in Theorem 1 is awkward to work with, so we
are going to establish another formula for the remainder term. To that end we need to prove
the following generalization of the Mean Value Theorem for Integrals (see Section 6.5).

2 Weighted Mean Value Theorem for Integrals If f and t are continuous on a, b and
t does not change sign in a, b, then there exists a number c in a, b such that

b b
y f xtx dx  f c y tx dx
a a

Proof Because t doesn’t change sign, either tx  0 or tx

0 for a
x
b. For the
sake of definiteness, let’s assume that tx  0.
By the Extreme Value Theorem (4.1.3), f has an absolute minimum value m and an
absolute maximum value M , so m
f x
M for a
x
b. Since tx  0, we have

mtx
f xtx
Mtx a
x
b
4 ❙❙❙❙ FORMULAS FOR THE REMAINDER TERM IN TAYLOR SERIES

and so

b b b
3 m y tx dx
y f xtx dx
M y tx dx
a a a

If xab tx dx  0, these inequalities show that xab f xtx dx  0 and so Theorem 2 is
true because both sides of the equation are 0. If xab tx dx  0, it must be positive and
we can divide by xab tx dx in (3):
xab f xtx dx
m

M
xab tx dx
Then, by the Intermediate Value Theorem (2.5.10), there exists a number c in a, b such
that
xab f xtx dx b b
f c  and so y f xtx dx  f c y tx dx
xab tx dx a a

4 Theorem If f n1 is continuous on an open interval I that contains a, and x is

in I , then there exists a number c between a and x such that

f n1c
Rnx  x  a n1
n  1!

Proof The function tt  x  t n doesn’t change sign in the interval from a to x, so the
Weighted Mean Value Theorem for Integrals gives a number c between a and x such that

x x
y x  t n f n1t dt  f n1c y x  t n dt
a a


tx
n1 x  t n1 x  a n1
 f c  f n1c
n1 ta n1

Then, by Theorem 1,

1 x
Rnx  y x  t n f n1t dt
n! a

1 n1 x  a n1 f n1c

 f c  x  a n1
n! n1 n  1!

The formula for the remainder term in Theorem 4 is called Lagrange’s form of the
remainder term. Notice that this expression

f n1c
Rnx  x  a n1
n  1!

is very similar to the terms in the Taylor series except that f n1 is evaluated at c instead
of at a. All we can say about the number c is that it lies somewhere between x and a.
In the following example we show how to use Lagrange’s form of the remainder term
as an alternative to the integral form in Example 1.
 FORMULAS FOR THE REMAINDER TERM IN TAYLOR SERIES ❙❙❙❙ 5

EXAMPLE 2 Prove that Maclaurin series for sin x represents sin x for all x.

SOLUTION Using the Lagrange form of the remainder term with a  0, we have

f n1c n1
Rnx  x
n  1!

where f x  sin x and c lies between 0 and x. But f n1c is sin c or cos c. In any
 
case, f n1c
1 and so

 R x   n  1!  x 

n  1!
n1
f c xn1
n1

By Equation 11.10.10 the right side of this inequality approaches 0 as n l , so

 R x  l 0 by the Squeeze Theorem. It follows that R x l 0 as n l , so sin x is
n n
equal to the sum of its Maclaurin series.

EXAMPLE 3
(a) Approximate the function f x  s
3
x by a Taylor polynomial of degree 2 at a  8.
(b) How accurate is this approximation when 7
x
9?
SOLUTION
(a) f x  s
3
x  x 1 3 f 8  2

f x  13 x2 3 f 8  121

f x  29 x5 3 f 8  144

1

8 3
f x  10
27 x

Thus the second-degree Taylor polynomial is

f 8 f 8
T2 x  f 8  x  8  x  82
1! 2!

 2  121 x  8  288 x  82

1

The desired approximation is

x
T2 x  2  121 x  8  288 x  82
3 1
s

(b) Using the Lagrange form of the remainder term we can write
f c 8 3 x  8
3
5x  83
R2 x  x  83  10
27 c 
3! 3! 81c 8 3

where c lies between 8 and x. In order to estimate the error we note that if 7
x
9,
  
then 1
x  8
1, so x  8
1 and therefore x  8 3
1. Also, since x  7, 
we have
c 8 3  7 8 3  179
and so

 R x   81c 
5 x8 3
51
2   0.0004
8 3
81  179

Thus if 7
x
9, the approximation in part (a) is accurate to within 0.0004.