Tangent lines and Taylor polynomials

A theme in calculus is that of approximating a nonlinear function by a

linear one.

Goal =⇒ to approximate the graph of f near a with a line �(x) that

has the same value and the same slope as f does at a

The tangent line to f at a satisfies these conditions. Using the point-slope

form of a line, we can write down an equation for it:
y − y0 = m(x − x0 )

�(x) f (a) f � (a) a

Thus, the equation for the tangent line �(x) is

�(x) = f (a) + f �(a)(x − a).
This is a function of x — f (a), f �(a), and a are numbers!

Remark For values of x near a, the tangent line approximates the

original function. In fact, it is the unique linear function that has the
same function value f (a) and derivative f �(a) at the point a, so in this
sense, it is the best linear approximation to f at a.

√
Example Find the tangent line to f (x) = x near a = 100.

1 1
We have f �(x) = √
2 x
, so f (100) = 10 and f �(100) = 20 . Thus, the tangent
line is
1
�(x) = 10 + (x − 100).
20

Math 30G - Prof. Kindred - Lecture 7 Page 1

 √
Example Estimate 103 (without a calculator).

Using our equation for the tangent line from the previous example, we
have
√ 1
103 = f (103) ≈ �(103) = 10 + (103 − 100) = 10.15 .
20
√
(Note that the actual value is 103 is 10.1489...)

Question Can we get a better approximation?

Not with a line, but we can do better if we approximate using a quadratic.

Consider
P2(x) = f (a) + f �(a)(x − a) + C(x − a)2
� �� � � �� � � �� �
2nd-order �(x)=P1 (x) quadratic
linear approx. improvement

where C is to be determined.

We have
• P2(a) = f (a)
• P2� (a) = f �(a) since P2� (x) = f �(a) + 2C(x − a)
• We want P2��(a) = f ��(a), and since P2��(x) = C, we need to set
f ��(a)
C= .
2
Thus,
� f ��(a)
P2(x) = f (a) + f (a)(x − a) + (x − a)2
2
is the best quadratic approximation to f at a.

Math 30G - Prof. Kindred - Lecture 7 Page 2

 Question What about the best cubic approximation to f at a?

Then let f ���(a)

P3(x) = P2(x) + (x − a)3.
� 3! �� �
cubic improvement

Exercise: check that P3 and f have the same value at a, as well as the
same 1st, 2nd, and 3rd derivatives at a.

Let’s generalize this to a kth order polynomial.

Definition The kth order Taylor polynomial of f (x) at the point a is

f ��(a)
� 2 f (k)(a)
Pk (x) = f (a) + f (a) + (x − a) + · · · + (x − a)k .
2! k!
This kth degree polynomial has the same value and first k derivatives as
f does at x = a.

Example Approximate sin x near x = 0 by a 3rd-order Taylor poly.

We have f (x) = sin x =⇒ f (0) = 0,

f �(x) = cos x =⇒ f �(0) = 1,
f ��(x) = − sin x =⇒ f ��(0) = 0,
f ���(x) = − cos x =⇒ f ���(0) = −1,

so f ��(0)
� 2 f ���(0)
P3(x) = f (0) + f (0) + (x − 0) + (x − 0)3
2! 3!
1
= 0 + 1 · x + 0 · x2 − · x3
6
x3
= x−
6

Math 30G - Prof. Kindred - Lecture 7 Page 3

Note that because of the pattern of the derivatives of sin x, we can see
that x3 x5 x7
P7(x) = x − + −
3! 5! 7!

How good are these approximations?

Question How close is Pn(x) to f (x)?

Define En(x) = f (x) − Pn(x). (We can think of this as the “error” or
“remainder”.)

Theorem (Taylor’s theorem). If f (x) is of class C n+1, then for each

x, there exists a c ∈ (a, x) such that
f (n+1)(c)
En(x) = (x − a)n+1.
(n + 1)!

While this is an exact formula for the error, the value of c is unknown.
However, we do know that a < c < x so this helps us bound En(x).
3
Example For sin x near the point 0, we found P3(x) = x − x6 . Using
Taylor’s theorem, we have
� (4) � � �
� f (c) � � sin c �
�
|E3(x)| = � 4� �
(x − 0) � = � x 4�
4! 4! �
| sin c| 4
= |x|
24
|x|4
≤ since | sin c| ≤ 1.
4!

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Now, let’s check this error bound for the approximation of sin 1. We have
13 and our error bound
1
sin 1 ≈ 1 − = 0.83 in this case is |E3(1)| ≤ = 0.0416.
6 24
We see that our actual error, sin 1 − 0.83 ≈ 0.0081, is less than 0.0416.

Math 30G - Prof. Kindred - Lecture 7 Page 5

3rd-order Taylor polynomial for sin(x) at 0