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Can anyone provide an example of a real-valued function f with a convergent Taylor series that converges to a function that is not equal to f (not even locally)?

edited Oct 2 2009 at 19:16

Anton Geraschenko♦♦
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asked Oct 2 2009 at 16:51

FarmBoy
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Andrew Stacey · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-29 19:28:56Z UTC

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If you take the classic non-analytic smooth function: $e^{-1/t}$ for $t \gt 0$ and $0$ for $t \le 0$ then this has a Taylor series at $0$ which is, err, $0$. However, the function is non-zero for any positive number so it does not agree with its Taylor series in any neighbourhood of $0$.

edited Nov 29 2009 at 19:28

answered Oct 2 2009 at 17:14

Andrew Stacey
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Typo: you mean $e^{-1/t}$ for $t>0$. – Kevin O'Bryant Nov 26 2009 at 21:59

Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. I've corrected it (and converted to jsMath). – Andrew Stacey Nov 29 2009 at 19:30

$e^{-1/t^2}$ is a bit nicer, as one can use a single formula for all real numbers. – Zoran Škoda Mar 24 2010 at 20:17

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All real numbers except zero! – Andrew Stacey Mar 25 2010 at 1:21

Andy Putman · Answer 2 · 2009-10-15 18:33:58Z UTC

Another thing to note is that there are smooth functions whose Taylor series do not converge to the function in a neighborhood of ANY point! An easy example of this can be found here:

http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/known-math/99/nowhere_analy

Michael Lugo · Answer 3 · 2009-10-15 17:38:36Z UTC

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I always thought the classic non-analytic smooth function was exp(-1/t^2) over the reals. This example is probably more satisfying to students (which is why you see it in texts) because when you look at that expression it's not obvious that anything funny should be happening at 0, whereas that's not so obvious for Andrew's piecewise-defined functions

answered Oct 15 2009 at 17:38

Michael Lugo
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To make students happy, though, you'll have to define $\exp(-1/0^2)$ to be 0, and you're back in piecewise-town. – Kevin O'Bryant Nov 26 2009 at 21:58

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@Kevin O'Bryant: But that follows from demanding that the function be continuous, right? And I think most students are okay with extending a function in the unique way that makes it continuous; many of them probably do it without even realizing it. – Vectornaut Nov 29 2009 at 21:37

What’s an example of a function whose Taylor series converges to the wrong thing?

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