Republic of the Philippines

Batangas State University

Pablo Borbon Campus II, Alangilan, Batangas City
College of Engineering, Architecture and Fine Arts

EE 304
ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS FOR EE

CHAVEZ, MARK JOHN TRIBIANA

15-59551
EE-3201

May 3, 2018

ENGR. MARJORIE G. MARCAIDA

INSTRUCTOR
Power Series

A power series about a, or just power series, is any series that can be written in the form,

where a and cn are numbers. The cn’s are often called the coefficients of the series. The first
thing to notice about a power series is that it is a function of x. That is different from any other
kind of series that we’ve looked at to this point. In all the prior sections we’ve only allowed
numbers in the series and now we are allowing variables to be in the series as well. This will not
change how things work however. Everything that we know about series still holds.

In the discussion of power series convergence is still a major question that we’ll be
dealing with. The difference is that the convergence of the series will now depend upon the
values of x that we put into the series. A power series may converge for some values of x and
not for other values of x.

Before we get too far into power series there is some terminology that we need to get out
of the way.

First, as we will see in our examples, we will be able to show that there is a number R so
that the power series will converge for, and will diverge for . This number is
called the radius of convergence for the series. Note that the series may or may not converge if
. What happens at these points will not change the radius of convergence.

Secondly, the interval of all x’s, including the endpoints if need be, for which the power
series converges is called the interval of convergence of the series.

These two concepts are fairly closely tied together. If we know that the radius of
convergence of a power series is R then we have the following.

The interval of convergence must then contain the interval since we

know that the power series will converge for these values. We also know that the interval of
convergence can’t contain x’s in the ranges and since we know the power
series diverges for these value of x. Therefore, to completely identify the interval of
convergence all that we have to do is determine if the power series will converge for
or . If the power series converges for one or both of these values then we’ll need to
include those in the interval of convergence.
Before getting into some examples let’s take a quick look at the convergence of a power series
for the case of . In this case the power series becomes,

and so the power series converges. Note that we had to strip out the first term since it was the
only non-zero term in the series.

It is important to note that no matter what else is happening in the power series we are
guaranteed to get convergence for . The series may not converge for any other value of x,
but it will always converge for .

Let’s work some examples. We’ll put quite a bit of detail into the first example and then not put
quite as much detail in the remaining examples.
Example 1 Determine the radius of convergence and interval of convergence for the following
power series.

Solution

Okay, we know that this power series will converge for , but that’s it at this point. To
determine the remainder of the x’s for which we’ll get convergence we can use any of the tests
that we’ve discussed to this point. After application of the test that we choose to work with we
will arrive at condition(s) on x that we can use to determine which values of x for which the
power series will converge and which values of x for which the power series will diverge. From
this we can get the radius of convergence and most of the interval of convergence (with the
possible exception of the endpoints).

With all that said, the best tests to use here are almost always the ratio or root test. Most of the
power series that we’ll be looking at are set up for one or the other. In this case we’ll use the
ratio test.

Before going any farther with the limit let’s notice that since x is not dependent on the limit it
can be factored out of the limit. Notice as well that in doing this we'll need to keep the absolute
value bars on it since we need to make sure everything stays positive and x could well be a value
that will make things negative. The limit is then,

So, the ratio test tells us that if the series will converge, if the series will diverge, and
if we don’t know what will happen. So, we have,

We’ll deal with the case in a bit. Notice that we now have the radius of convergence for
this power series. These are exactly the conditions required for the radius of convergence. The
radius of convergence for this power series is .

Now, let’s get the interval of convergence. We’ll get most (if not all) of the interval by solving
the first inequality from above.
 So, most of the interval of validity is given by . All we need to do is determine if the
power series will converge or diverge at the endpoints of this interval. Note that these values
of x will correspond to the value of x that will give .

The way to determine convergence at these points is to simply plug them into the original power
series and see if the series converges or diverges using any test necessary.

:
In this case the series is,

This series is divergent by the Divergence Test since .

:
In this case the series is,

This series is also divergent by the Divergence Test since doesn’t exist.

So, in this case the power series will not converge for either endpoint. The interval of
convergence is then,

In the previous example the power series didn’t converge for either endpoint of the
interval. Sometimes that will happen, but don’t always expect that to happen. The power series
could converge at either both of the endpoints or only one of the endpoints.

Example 2 Determine the radius of convergence and interval of convergence for the following
power series.

Solution
Let’s jump right into the ratio test.
So we will get the following convergence/divergence information from this.

We need to be careful here in determining the interval of convergence. The interval of

convergence requires and . In other words, we need to factor a 4 out of the
absolute value bars in order to get the correct radius of convergence. Doing this gives,

So, the radius of convergence for this power series is .

Now, let’s find the interval of convergence. Again, we’ll first solve the inequality that gives
convergence above.

Now check the endpoints.

The series here is,

This is the alternating harmonic series and we know that it converges.

:
The series here is,
This is the harmonic series and we know that it diverges.

So, the power series converges for one of the endpoints, but not the other. This will often
happen so don’t get excited about it when it does. The interval of convergence for this power
series is then,

Example 3 Determine the radius of convergence and interval of convergence for the following
power series.

Solution
We'll start this example with the ratio test as we have for the previous ones.

At this point we need to be careful. The limit is infinite, but there is that term with the x’s in
front of the limit. We’ll have provided .

So, this power series will only converge if . If you think about it we actually already knew
that however. From our initial discussion we know that every power series will converge for
and in this case . Remember that we get a from , and notice the coefficient of
the x must be a one!

In this case we say the radius of convergence is and the interval of convergence is ,
and yes we really did mean interval of convergence even though it’s only a point.

Fourier Series
Okay, in the previous two sections we’ve looked at Fourier sine and Fourier cosine
series. It is now time to look at a Fourier series. With a Fourier series we are going to try to
write a series representation for on in the form,

So, a Fourier series is, in some way a combination of the Fourier sine and Fourier cosine
series. Also, like the Fourier sine/cosine series we’ll not worry about whether or not the series
will actually converge to or not at this point. For now we’ll just assume that it will
converge and we’ll discuss the convergence of the Fourier series in a later section.
Determining formulas for the coefficients, and , will be done in exactly the same manner as

we did in the previous two sections. We will take advantage of the fact that and

are mutually orthogonal on as we proved earlier. We’ll also need the

following formulas that we derived when we proved the two sets were mutually orthogonal.

So, let’s start off by multiplying both sides of the series above by and integrating
from -L to L. Doing this gives,

Now, just as we’ve been able to do in the last two sections we can interchange the integral and
the summation. Doing this gives,

We can now take advantage of the fact that the sines and cosines are mutually orthogonal. The
integral in the second series will always be zero and in the first series the integral will be zero if
and so this reduces to,

Solving for gives,

Now, do it all over again only this time multiply both sides by , integrate both sides
from -L to L and interchange the integral and summation to get,

In this case the integral in the first series will always be zero and the second will be zero if
and so we get,

Finally, solving for gives,

In the previous two sections we also took advantage of the fact that the integrand was even to
give a second form of the coefficients in terms of an integral from 0 to L. However, in this case
we don’t know anything about whether will be even, odd, or more likely neither even nor
odd. Therefore, this is the only form of the coefficients for the Fourier series.

Before we start examples let’s remind ourselves of a couple of formulas that we’ll make heavy
use of here in this section, as we’ve done in the previous two sections as well. Provided n in an
integer then,

In all of the work that we’ll be doing here n will be an integer and so we’ll use these without
comment in the problems so be prepared for them.

Also don’t forget that sine is an odd function, i.e. and that cosine is an even
function, i.e. . We’ll also be making heavy use of these ideas without comment
in many of the integral evaluations so be ready for these as well.

Now let’s take a look at an example.

Example 1 Find the Fourier series for

on .

Solution
So, let’s go ahead and just run through formulas for the coefficients.

Note that in this case we had and This will happen on occasion so
don’t get excited about this kind of thing when it happens.

The Fourier series is then,

As we saw in the previous example sometimes we’ll get and
Whether or not this will happen will depend upon the function and often won’t happen, but
when it does don’t get excited about it.

Let’s take a look at another problem.

Example 2 Find the Fourier series for

on .

Solution
Because of the piece-wise nature of the function the work for the coefficients is going to be a
little unpleasant but let’s get on with it.

At this point it will probably be easier to do each of these individually.

So, if we put all of this together we have,

So, we’ve gotten the coefficients for the cosines taken care of and now we need to take care of
the coefficients for the sines.
As with the coefficients for the cosines will probably be easier to do each of these individually.

So, if we put all of this together we have,

So, after all that work the Fourier series is,

As we saw in the previous example there is often quite a bit of work involved in computing the
integrals involved here.

The next couple of examples are here so we can make a nice observation about some Fourier
series and their relation to Fourier sine/cosine series

Example 3 Find the Fourier series for

on .

Solution
Let’s start with the integrals for .
In both cases note that we are integrating an odd function (x is odd and cosine is even so the

product is odd) over the interval and so we know that both of these integrals will be zero.

Next here is the integral for

In this case we’re integrating an even function (x and sine are both odd so the product is even) on

the interval and so we can “simplify” the integral as shown above. The reason for doing
this here is not actually to simplify the integral however. It is instead done so that we can note
that we did this integral back in the Fourier sine series section and so don’t need to redo it in this
section. Using the previous result we get,

In this case the Fourier series is,