Today, for some summer fun, let’s look at synthetic division a/k/a synthetic substitution. I’ll assume you all know how to do that since it is a pretty common pre-calculus topic and even comes up again in calculus. Why Does Synthetic Division Work? An example: consider the polynomial . This can be written in nested form…
Convergence tests for series appear on both sections of the BC Calculus exam. In the multiple-choice section, students may be asked to say if a sequence or series converges or which of several series converge. The Ratio test is used most often to determine the radius of convergence and the other tests to determine the…
One of the great things – at least I like it – about Taylor series is that they are unique. There is only one Taylor series for any function centered at a given point, What that means is that any way you get it, it’s right. Faced with writing the power series for, say, ,…
The seventh in the Graphing Calculator / Technology series Here are some hints for graphing Taylor polynomials using technology. (The illustrations are made using a TI-8x calculator. The ideas are the same on other graphing calculators; the syntax may be slightly different.) Each successive term of a Taylor polynomial consists of all the previous terms…
Our BC friends will soon be starting to teach series. Today, to emphasize that series are all around us, I would like to discuss series that we see every day: numbers. Long ago I was taught that no one has ever seen a “number.” Have you ever see a four? What we see are numerals, symbols or…
As I hope you’ve noticed there is a new pull-down on the navigation bar called “Website.” For some years I’ve had a website at linmcmullin.net that lately I’ve been neglecting. I decided to close it in the next few days, and therefore, I move most of the material that is there to this new tab. The…
This is an example of how sequences and series are used in “real life.” It could be used in a calculus class or an advanced math class. When you borrow money to buy a house or a car you are making a kind of loan called a mortgage. Paying off the loan is called amortizing…
