How do you find the maclaurin series expansion of #(cos(2x^(2))+1) / x^(2)#?

1 Answer
Jan 2, 2018

#(cos(2x^2)+1)/x^2=1/x^2+sum_(n=0)^oo(2^(2n)x^(4n-2))/((2n)!)*(-1)^n#

Explanation:

We know the Maclaurin series for #cos(x)#:
#sum_(n=0)^oox^(2n)/((2n)!)*(-1)^n=1-x^2/(2!)+x^4/(4!)-x^6/(6!)...#

To find the series for #cos(2x^2)#, we can just substitute in #2x^2# instead of #x#:
#sum_(n=0)^oo(2x^2)^(2n)/((2n)!)*(-1)^n=sum_(n=0)^oo(2^(2n)x^(4n))/((2n)!)*(-1)^n=#

#=1-(2^2x^4)/(2!)+(2^4x^8)/(4!)-(2^6x^12)/(6!)...#

Since we know:
#cos(2x^2)=sum_(n=0)^oo(2^(2n)x^(4n))/((2n)!)*(-1)^n#,
we can substitute this back into our original expression:
#1/x^2(1+sum_(n=0)^oo(2^(2n)x^(4n))/((2n)!)*(-1)^n)#

We can distribute into the parenthesis:
#1/x^2+sum_(n=0)^oo1/x^2*(2^(2n)x^(4n))/((2n)!)*(-1)^n#

We can then subtract the powers of #x# on the numerator and the denominator:
#1/x^2+sum_(n=0)^oo(2^(2n)x^(4n-2))/((2n)!)*(-1)^n#

And this is the Maclaurin expansion we were looking for:
#(cos(2x^2)+1)/x^2=1/x^2+sum_(n=0)^oo(2^(2n)x^(4n-2))/((2n)!)*(-1)^n#

I've also made a graph with an adjustable number of terms to see that the series really does approximate the function:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/ohwwuwwixh