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m471 w11 hw1

This document provides the instructions for Homework 1 in Math 471. It consists of 5 problems involving Taylor series, cancellation errors, limits, rates of convergence of functions and sequences, and orders of convergence. Students are instructed to show their work, include code and output, and label and organize their responses.

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97 views2 pages

m471 w11 hw1

This document provides the instructions for Homework 1 in Math 471. It consists of 5 problems involving Taylor series, cancellation errors, limits, rates of convergence of functions and sequences, and orders of convergence. Students are instructed to show their work, include code and output, and label and organize their responses.

Uploaded by

bhuvnish
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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.

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