Arkansas Tech University

MATH 2924: Calculus II

Dr. Marcel B. Finan
23 The Error in Taylor Polynomial Approxi-
mations: Taylors Theorem
In this section we would like to see how good the Taylor polynomials approx-
imation discussed in the previous section is.
To this end, let E
n
(x) be the error between the true value of f(x) and the
approximated value P
n
(x). That is, E
n
(x) = f(x) P
n
(x). The following
theorem provides an explicit formula for E
n
(x).
Theorem 23.1 (Taylors Theorem)
Suppose that f(x) has derivatives f

(x), f

(x), , f
(n)
(x), f
(n+1)
(x) near
x = a. Then there is a c between x and a such that
f(x) = P
n
(x) + E
n
(x)
where
P
n
(x) = f(a) +
f

(a)
1!
(x a) +
f

(a)
2!
(x a)
2
+ +
f
(n)
(a)
n!
(x a)
n
and
E
n
(x) =
f
(n+1)
(c)
(n + 1)!
(x a)
n+1
.
Proof.
The theorem is trivially true if x = a. In this case, we let c = a and E
n
(x) = 0.
So suppose that x = a.
Let E
n
(x) = f(x) P
n
(x). Dene the function
F(y) =
n

i=0
f
(i)
(y)
i!
(x y)
i
+
E
n
(x)
(x a)
n+1
(x y)
n+1
where y = a. Then F(y) is continuous on [a, x] and dierentiable in (a, x)
with derivative
F

(y) =
f
(n+1)
(y)
n!
(x y)
n

(n + 1)E
n
(x)
(x a)
n+1
(x y)
n
.
1
By the Mean Value Theorem, there is a < c < x such that
F

(c) =
F(x) F(a)
b a
.
But F(a) = F(x) = f(x) so that F

(c) = 0. This implies that

f
(n+1)
(c)
n!
(x c)
n
=
(n + 1)E
n
(x)
(x a)
n+1
(x c)
n
,
which reduces to E
n
(x) =
f
(n+1)
(c)
(n+1)!
(x a)
n+1
.
Example 23.1
We will nd E
n
(x) for f(x) = sin x about x = 0. Using the idea of successive
dierentiation we nd the following
f

(x) = cos x, f

(c) = cos c
f

(x) = sin x, f

(c) = sin c
f

(x) = cos x, f

(c) = cos c
f
(4)
(x) = sin x, f
(4)
(c) = sin c
f
(5)
(x) = cos x, f
(5)
(c) = cos c
f
(6)
(x) = sin x, f
(6)
(c) = sin c
f
(7)
(x) = cos x, f
(7)
(c) = cos c
f
(8)
(x) = sin x, f
(8)
(c) = sin c
f
(9)
(x) = cos x, f
(9)
(c) = cos c
.
.
.
It follows that
f
(n+1)
(c) =

cos c if n is a multiple of 4
sin c if n 1 is a multiple of 4
cos c if n 2 is a multiple of 4
sin c if n 3 is a multiple of 4.
Hence, using the above theorem we see that
E
n
(x) =

cos c
(n+1)!
x
n+1
if n is a multiple of 4
sin c
(n+1)!
x
n+1
if n 1 is a multiple of 4
cos c
(n+1)!
x
n+1
if n 2 is a multiple of 4
sin c
(n+1)!
x
n+1
if n 3 is a multiple of 4.
2
Note that for all n we have |E
n
(x)|
|x|
n+1
(n+1)!
. But we know that lim
n
x
n+1
(n+1)!
=
0 ( since the series

n=0
x
n
n!
is convergent by the ratio test so its nth term
converges to zero). Hence, lim
n
E
n
(x) = 0.
Remark 23.1
Note that from the above theorem, we have an upper bound for the error:
|f(x) P
n
(x)| = |E
n
(x)|
M
(n + 1)!
|x a|
n+1
,
where M is the maximum value of f
(n+1)
(x) on the interval between a and
x.
Example 23.2
Use Taylors theorem to approximate sin 3

to four decimal places accuracy;

that is, the magnitude of the error is less than 0.5 10
4
.
Solution.
Since sin 3

is close to 0 then we approximate sin x by a Taylor polynomial

near x = 0. Thus, by Taylor Theorem we have sin x = P
n
(x)+E
n
(x). Replace
x by

60
= 3

to obtain

E
n

60

60

n+1

1
(n + 1)!
< 0.5 10
4
.
Solving for n we nd n = 2. Hence, P
2
(x) = x and
sin 3

= sin

60

60
0.0523.
3