Power Series Radii and Intervals of Convergence

First some examples Consider the following example series: What does our intuition tell us about the convergence or divergence of this series? What test should we use to confirm our intuition?

Power Series Now we consider a whole family of similar series: What about the convergence or divergence of these series? What test should we use to confirm our intuition? We should use the ratio test; furthermore, we can use the similarity between the series to test them all at once.

How does it go? We start by setting up the appropriate limit. Since the limit is 0 which is less than 1, the ratio test tells us that the series converges absolutely for all values of x. Why the absolute values? Why on the x’s and not elsewhere? The series is an example of a power series.

What are Power Series? It’s convenient to think of a power series as an infinite polynomial: Polynomials: Power Series:

In general... Definition: A power series is a (family of) series of the form In this case, we say that the power series is based at x 0 or that it is centered at x 0. What can we say about convergence of power series? A great deal, actually.

Checking for Convergence I should use the ratio test. It is the test of choice when testing for convergence of power series!

Checking for Convergence Checking on the convergence of We start by setting up the appropriate limit. The ratio test says that the series converges provided that this limit is less than 1. That is, when |x|<1.

What about the convergence of We start by setting up the ratio test limit. Since the limit is 0 (which is less than 1), the ratio test says that the series converges absolutely for all x.

Now you work out the convergence of Don’t forget those absolute values!

Now you work out the convergence of We start by setting up the ratio test limit. What does this tell us? The power series converges absolutely when |x+3|<1. The power series diverges when |x+3|>1. The ratio test is inconclusive for x = -4 and x = -2. (Test these separately… what happens?)

Convergence of Power Series What patterns can we see? What conclusions can we draw? When we apply the ratio test, the limit will always be either 0 or some positive number times |x-x 0 |. (Actually, it could be , too. What would this mean?) If the limit is 0, the ratio test tells us that the power series converges absolutely for all x. If the limit is k|x-x 0 |, the ratio test tells us that the series converges absolutely when k|x-x 0 | 1. It fails to tell us anything if k|x-x 0 |=1. What does this tell us?

Suppose that the limit given by the ratio test is We need to consider separately the cases when k |x-x 0 | < 1 (the ratio test guarantees convergence), k |x-x 0 | > 1 (the ratio test guarantees divergence), and k |x-x 0 | = 1 (the ratio test is inconclusive). This means that... Recall that k  0 !

Recapping Must test endpoints separately!

Conclusions Theorem: If we have a power series, It may converge only at x=x 0. It may converge for all x. It may converge on a finite interval centered at x=x 0. Radius of convergence is 0 Radius of conv. is infinite. Radius of conv. is R.

Conclusions Theorem: If we have a power series, It may converge only at x=x 0. It may converge for all x. It may converge on a finite interval centered at x=x 0.