Homework 1

Math 471, Winter 2011

Assigned: Thursday, January 6, 2010

Due: Tuesday, January 18, 2010

Note in particular the following points of style:

• Box your answers whenever it is appropriate.

• Include printouts of all Matlab code, labeled with your name, date, section, etc.
• Include a transcript of the output.
• The Matlab code should have comments.
• Print the tables neatly with the required number of rows, decimal places, etc.
• Label all the problems, and put all the pages in order.

(1) (Taylor series)

(a) Calculate the first three terms of the Taylor series for f (x) = ln x about x = 2. Express
the coefficients analytically (not as decimals).
(b) The first-order Taylor expansion of f (x) = exp x about x = 0 with exact remainder is
f 00 (ξ) 2
f (x) = 1 + x + x
2!
for some point ξ between zero and x. Find an analytic expression for ξ. Use this
expression to determine the numerical value of ξ when x = 0.5 and x = 0.1.

(2) (Cancellation Errors, p52 #12) Near certain values of x, the following functions cannot
be accurately computed using the given formula on account of arithmetic cancellations.
Identify the values of x where cancellation occurs (e.g., near x = 0 or when x is large
and positive). Propose a reformulation that removes the problem (e.g., using Taylor series,
rationalization, trigonometric identities, etc.).

(a) f (x) = 1 + cos x (b) f (x) = √e−x + sin x √

−1
(c) f (x) = ln x − ln(1/x) (d) f (x) = x2 +√ 1 − x2 + 4
(e) f (x) = 1 − 2 sin2 x (f) f (x) = ln(x + x2 + 1)
(g) f (x) = x − sin x (h) f (x) = ln x − 1

(3) (Rate of convergence of a sequence, p27 #1) Compute the following limits and
determine the corresponding rates of convergence.

(a) limn→∞ nn−1

√3 +2 √
(b) limn→∞ ( n + 1 − n)
(c) limn→∞ sinn n

(4) (Rate of convergence of a function) Let f be a function. The following function

approximates the derivative of f at a point x when h is small and positive.
f (x + h) − f (x)
g(x; h) =
h
1
 2

Let f (x) = sin x and fix x = 1. Define e(h) = |g(1; h) − cos 1|. For h = 2−n with
n = 1, 2, . . . , 8, complete the following table. (Use eight or more decimal places.)

n h g(1; h) e(h) e(h)/h e(h)/h2 e(h)/h3

Use this table to decide the rate of convergence of the sequence. Explain your reasoning.
Repeat this process for the function
f (x + h) − f (x − h)
g(x; h) = ,
2h
which also approximates the derivative of f .
√
(5) (Order of convergence of a sequence) The following sequence converges to 5. Let
p0 = 1. For n ≥ 0, define  
1 5
pn+1 = pn +
2 pn
√
Define the absolute error en = |pn − 5|. Make a table with the following columns, letting
n = 0, 1, . . . , 6. (Use eight or more decimal places.)

n pn en en /en−1 en /e2n−1 en /e3n−1

Use this table to decide the order of convergence of the sequence. Explain your reasoning.
Repeat this process for the sequence defined by
p3n + 5 · 3pn
p0 = 1 and pn+1 = for n ≥ 0,
3p2n + 5
√
which also converges to 5.