Binomial Series In this final section of this chapter we are going to look at another series representation for a function, Before we do this let’s first recall the following theorem. Binomial Theorem If 7 is any positive integer then, =n +b)" = ab (a+b) x") ab? +--+ nab"! +b" sa" tna" b+ n(n=1) 2! where, pee oan This is useful for expanding (a +)’ for large n when straight forward multiplication wouldn’t be easy to do. Let’s take a quick look at an example. Example 1 Use the Binomial Theorem to expand (2x-3)' Solution There really isn’t much to do other than plugging into the theorem. era -E [Fant cay -(sJen' (er car-(3}c \O = (2x) +4(22)' C2) *Qeany Cay sana) + = 16x! -96x" +216" —216x +81 Now, the Binomial Theorem required that n be a positive integer, There is an extension to this however that allows for any number at all. Binomial Series If k is any number and |x|< I then,aesy=E(H}e = k(k-1) e EE =1)(k- 2 3! (F}-e (k=2)--(k n+ ne123. n. nt A (0 =l+he+ where, So, similar to the binomial theorem except that it’s an infinite series and we must have |x|< 1 in order to get convergence. Let’s check out an example of this. Example 2 Write down the first four terms in the binomial series for 9 -x Solution So, in this case 4 =4 and we'll need to rewrite the term a little to put it into the form required. 1 1 f \o i \\2 Vo=x =3/1-% ‘all = y Falls) 3-5) The first four terms in the binomial series is then,