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Find the Maclaurin series for f (x) = sinh x using the definition of a
Maclaurin series. Also find the associated radius of convergence.
Hyperbolic sine (written sinh) and hyperbolic cosine (written cosh) are defined as follows:
ex ex
ex + ex
,
cosh x =
.
2
2
It is easy to check that these functions are derivatives of each other:
sinh x =
d
sinh x = cosh x,
dx
d
cosh x = sinh x.
dx
Furthermore, we have
e0 e0
e0 + e0
= 0,
cosh 0 =
= 1.
2
2
By definition, the Maclaurin series for a function f (x) is
sinh 0 =
X
f 00 (0) 2
f (n) (0) n
f 0 (0)
x = f (0) +
x+
x + .
n!
1!
2!
n=0
We make a table of the derivatives of f (x) = sinh x and these derivatives evaluated at 0.
n
f (n) (x)
f (n) (0)
0
1
2
3
4
5
..
.
sinh x
cosh x
sinh x
cosh x
sinh x
cosh x
..
.
0
1
0
1
0
1
..
.
X
0
1
0
1
0
1
f (n) (0) n
x = x0 + x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5 +
n!
0!
1!
2!
3!
4!
5!
n=0
x1
x3
x5
+
+
+
1!
3!
5!
X
x2n+1
=
.
(2n + 1)!
n=0
=
To find the radius of convergence, we can use the Ratio Test. Let an = x2n+1 /(2n + 1)!. Then
2(n+1)+1
an+1
(2n + 1)!
= lim x
lim
n
an n [2(n + 1) + 1]!
x2n+1
2n+3
x
(2n + 1)!
= lim 2n+1
n x
(2n + 3)!
x2
= lim
n (2n + 3)(2n + 2)
1
= x2 lim
n (2n + 3)(2n + 2)
= x2 0
= 0,
which is certainly less than 1 (regardless of the value of x), so the Ratio Test implies that the series
converges for all x. Hence the radius of convergence is R = .
Page 1
Section 8.7, exercise 21. Prove that the series obtained in Exercise 9 represents sinh x for all x.
We first establish some facts about the functions sinh x
and cosh x. The graphs of y = sinh x, y = cosh x, and
y = cosh x are shown at the right. These graphs
show several important properties of these functions.
First, we note that cosh x is always positive. This
is easy to see from the definition,
y = cosh x
2
ex + ex
cosh x =
,
2
because the exponential function ex is always positive
(even for negative values of x).
Second, we see that cosh x is decreasing for x < 0
and increasing for x > 0. In particular, since cosh x is
continuous (because ex is continuous), this means that
cosh x is minimized at x = 0, with a minimum value of
cosh 0 = 1. To verify this, we note that ex is a strictly
increasing function, so we have ex < ey if x < y. So,
if x is positive (so x < x), we have ex < ex , so
x
sinh x =
e e
2
y = sinh x
-3
-2
-1
-1
y = cosh x
-2
> 0.
-3
-4
ex ex
< 0,
2
have cosh z < cosh x (because the function cosh x is decreasing for x < 0 and increasing for x > 0).
So we see that
(n+1)
f
(z) n+1 cosh z n+1 cosh x n+1
<
x
x
x
0 |Rn (x)| =
(n + 1)!
(n + 1)!
.
(n + 1)!
Now limn 0 = 0, and
n+1
cosh x n+1
= (cosh x) lim |x|
lim
x
= (cosh x) 0 = 0.
n (n + 1)!
n (n + 1)!
(Here we used the fact that limn xn /n! = 0 for every real number x, as shown at the bottom of
page 461 in the textbook.) So, by the Squeeze Theorem, we have
lim |Rn (x)| = 0.
(see Theorem 6 on page 414 of the textbook), which was what we wanted to show.
Therefore, for every x, the remainder term in the Maclaurin series goes to 0 as n , so the
series converges to sinh x.
Page 3