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2.8. Linear Approximation and Differentials

This document discusses linear approximations and differentials. It begins by explaining how the graph of a function looks more like its tangent line when zoomed in near the point of tangency. This observation forms the basis for using the tangent line as an approximation of a function near a given point. Examples are then provided to demonstrate finding the linear approximation of a function at a point and using it to estimate nearby values. The document then defines differentials and explains their geometric meaning in relation to the tangent line and how differentials can be used to approximate errors.

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153 views13 pages

2.8. Linear Approximation and Differentials

This document discusses linear approximations and differentials. It begins by explaining how the graph of a function looks more like its tangent line when zoomed in near the point of tangency. This observation forms the basis for using the tangent line as an approximation of a function near a given point. Examples are then provided to demonstrate finding the linear approximation of a function at a point and using it to estimate nearby values. The document then defines differentials and explains their geometric meaning in relation to the tangent line and how differentials can be used to approximate errors.

Uploaded by

Dung Vũ
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Linear approximations and differentials


 We have seen that a curve lies very close to its
tangent line near the point of tangency. In fact, by
zooming in toward a point on the graph of a
differentiable function, we noticed that the graph
looks more and more like its tangent line.
 This observation is the basis for a method of finding
approximate values of functions.
 The idea is that it might be easy to calculate a value f
(a) of a function, but difficult (or even impossible) to
compute nearby values of f.
Linear approximations

 So we settle for the easily computed values
of the linear function L whose graph is the
tangent line of f at (a, f (a)). (See Figure 1.)
 In other words, we use the tangent line at
(a, f (a)) as an approximation to the curve
y = f (x) when x is near a. An equation of this
tangent line is y = f (a) + f (a)(x – a).
And the approximation


is called the linear approximation or tangent line approximation
of f at a.
Linear approximations

 The linear function whose graph is this tangent line, that is,

is called the linearization of f at a.


Ex 1: Find the linearization of the function f (x) = + 3 at a = 1
and use it to approximate the numbers 3.98 and 4.05. Are these
approximations overestimates or underestimates?
Solution:
The derivative of f (x) = (x + 3)1/2 is = .
The linearization is = 1 + 1 −1
=2+ −1 = +
Example 1

 The corresponding linear approximation (1) is
+3≈ + (when x is near 1)
We have
7 0.98
3.98 = 3 + 0.98 ≈ + = 1.995
4 4
7 1.05
4.05 = 3 + 1.05 ≈ + = 2.0125
4 4
We also see that our approximations
are overestimates because the tangent
line lies above the curve.
Example 1

 In the following table we compare the estimates from the linear
approximation with the true values.

 Notice from this table that the tangent line approximation gives
good estimates when x is close to 1 but the accuracy of the
approximation deteriorates when x is farther away from 1
Example 2

 The next example shows that by using a graphing
calculator or computer we can determine an interval
throughout which a linear approximation provides a
specified accuracy
Ex 2: For what values of x is the linear approximation
7 1
+3≈ +
4 4
accurate to within 0.5? What about accuracy to within 0.1?
Solution:
Accuracy to within 0.5 means that the functions should differ
by less than 0.5:
Example 2

 The linear approximation should lie between the curves obtained
by shifting the curve f(x) upward and downward by an amount 0.5.
 Figure 3 shows the tangent
line y = (7 + x)/4 intersecting the
upper curve y = + 3 + 0.5 at P
and Q.
 Zooming in and using the
cursor, we estimate that the
x-coordinate of P is about –2.66
and the x-coordinate of Q is about 8.66. Figure 3
Example 2

 Thus we see from the graph that the approximation
7 1
+3≈ +
4 4
is accurate to within 0.5 when –2.6 < x < 8.6. (We have rounded to
be safe.)
 Similarly, from Figure 4 we
see that the approximation is
accurate to within 0.1 when
–1.1 < x < 3.9.
Differentials

 If y = f (x), where f is a differentiable function, then the differential dx
is an independent variable (dx can be given the value of any real number).
 The differential dy is then defined in terms of dx by the equation
dy = f (x) dx
 So dy is a dependent variable; it
depends on the values of x and dx.
If dx is given a specific value and x
is taken to be some specific number
in the domain of f, then the numerical
value of dy is determined.
The geometric meaning of differentials
is shown in Figure 5.
Differentials

 Let P(x, f (x)) and Q(x + x, f (x + x)) be points on the
graph of f and let dx = x. The corresponding change in
y is
y = f (x + x) – f (x)
 The slope of the tangent line PR is the derivative f (x).
Thus the directed distance from S to R is f (x) dx = dy.
 Therefore dy represents the amount that the tangent line
rises or falls (the change in the linearization), whereas y
represents the amount that the curve y = f (x) rises or
falls when x changes by an amount dx.
Example 3

The radius of a sphere was measured and found to be 21 cm
with a possible error in measurement of at most 0.05 cm. What is
the maximum error in using this value of the radius to compute
the volume of the sphere?
Solution:
If the radius of the sphere is r, then its volume is V =  r3.
If the error in the measured value of r is denoted by dr = r,
then the corresponding error in the calculated value of V is V,
which can be approximated by the differential
dV = 4 r2 dr
When r = 21 and dr = 0.05, this becomes
dV = 4 (21)2 0.05  277 (cm3)
Example 3

 Note:
Although the possible error in Example 3 may appear to be
rather large, a better picture of the error is given by the relative
error, which is computed by dividing the error by the total volume:
∆ 4
≈ = =3
4
3
Thus the relative error in the volume is about three times the
relative error in the radius.
In Example 3 the relative error in the radius is approximately
dr/r = 0.05/21  0.0024 and it produces a relative error of about
0.007 in the volume.
The errors could also be expressed as percentage errors of
0.24% in the radius and 0.7% in the volume.
Homework

 2.8: 1, 3, 4, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 23

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