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Every polynomial function is continuous, smooth, and entire. The evaluation of a polynomial is the computation of the corresponding polynomial function; that is, the evaluation consists of substituting a numerical value to each indeterminate and carrying out the indicated multiplications and additions.
The polynomials, exponential function e x, and the trigonometric functions sine and cosine, are examples of entire functions. Examples of functions that are not entire include the square root, the logarithm, the trigonometric function tangent, and its inverse, arctan. For these functions the Taylor series do not converge if x is far from b.
On p. 77 (op. cit.) Bourbaki states (literal translation): "Often we shall use, in the remainder of this Treatise, the word function instead of functional graph." Suppes (1960) in Axiomatic Set Theory, formally defines a relation (p. 57) as a set of pairs, and a function (p. 86) as a relation where no two pairs have the same first member.
Legendre polynomials are also useful in expanding functions of the form (this is the same as before, written a little differently): + = = (), which arise naturally in multipole expansions. The left-hand side of the equation is the generating function for the Legendre polynomials.
The original use of interpolation polynomials was to approximate values of important transcendental functions such as natural logarithm and trigonometric functions.Starting with a few accurately computed data points, the corresponding interpolation polynomial will approximate the function at an arbitrary nearby point.
The polynomial functions are defined by polynomials, and their domain is the whole set of real numbers. They include constant functions, linear functions and quadratic functions. Rational functions are quotients of two polynomial functions, and their domain is the real numbers with a finite number of them removed to avoid division by zero.
This function was plotted above to illustrate the fact that some elementary functions cannot be approximated by Taylor polynomials in neighborhoods of the center of expansion which are too large. This kind of behavior is easily understood in the framework of complex analysis. Namely, the function f extends into a meromorphic function
In mathematics and computer science, Horner's method (or Horner's scheme) is an algorithm for polynomial evaluation.Although named after William George Horner, this method is much older, as it has been attributed to Joseph-Louis Lagrange by Horner himself, and can be traced back many hundreds of years to Chinese and Persian mathematicians. [1]