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Mathematics LibreTexts

9.8: Power Series

  • Page ID
    120842
    • Gilbert Strang & Edwin “Jed” Herman
    • OpenStax

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    A power series (in one variable) is an infinite series. Any polynomial can be easily expressed as a power series around any center c, although most of the coefficients will be zero since a power series has infinitely many terms by definition. One can view power series as being like "polynomials of infinite degree," although power series are not polynomials. The content in this Textmap's chapter is complemented by Guichard's Calculus Textmap.

      Thumbnail: The graph shows the function \(\displaystyle y=sinx\) and the Maclaurin polynomials \(\displaystyle p_1,p_3\) and \(\displaystyle p_5\). (CC BY-SA 3.0; OpenStax).


      This page titled 9.8: Power Series is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gilbert Strang & Edwin “Jed” Herman (OpenStax) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.