Taylor Polynomials

Introduction

The fundamental idea in differential calculus is that a function can be ``locally'' approximated by its tangent line.

For instance consider the function near . Since its derivative at equals , the tangent line at can be written as

In the picture below, the sine function is black, while its tangent line is depicted in red. Close to , both are quite close!

Find an equation for the tangent line of the function tex2html_wrap_inline183

at the point

.

Click here for the answer, or to continue.

Helmut Knaust
Sun Jul 7 22:08:09 MDT 1996