...

/

Linearization and the Taylor Series

Linearization and the Taylor Series

Learn how to approximate functions using the Taylor series.

Linearization

Recall that the derivative df/dxdf/dx of a function f(x)f(x) at a point x0x_0 is given as follows:

Assuming x=x0+hx = x_0+h, the equation above can be rearranged and written as follows:

where xx0<ϵ \vert x -x_0 \vert < \epsilon and where ϵ0\epsilon \rightarrow 0. As can be seen, the derivatives df/dxdf/dx can now be used to approximate any function by a straight line around the point xx. For multivariate, the linearization above can be generalized as follows:

where ...