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Worksheet 9.2 Exercises for Taylor Series and its convergence

If you would like to review this topic before attempting the exercises, click Taylor Series and its convergence.

1. True or False.

    If we manage to find the maximum value of \(|f^{(n+1)}(c)|\) for \(c\) in the interval between \(a\) and \(x\text{,}\) then we can find the exact error in the Taylor polynomial approximation.
  • True.

  • The statement is incorrect. While finding the maximum value of \(|f^{(n+1)}(c)|\) allows us to find an upper bound for the error, it does not give the exact error.
  • False.

  • The statement is incorrect. While finding the maximum value of \(|f^{(n+1)}(c)|\) allows us to find an upper bound for the error, it does not give the exact error.

2. Approximating The Electric Field due to an Electric Dipole.

Consider an electric dipole consisting of two charges, \(+q\) and \(-q\text{,}\) separated by a distance \(d\text{.}\) The electric field at a point \(P\) located at a distance \(r\) from the positive charge along the axis of the dipole is given by:
\begin{equation*} E = \frac{1}{4\pi\epsilon_0} \left( \frac{q}{r^2} - \frac{q}{(r+d)^2} \right) \end{equation*}
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Figure 9.2. An electric dipole: charges \(+q\) and \(-q\) separated by a distance \(d\text{,}\) with the field point \(P\) a distance \(r\) from the positive charge along the axis.
Use the Taylor series to approximate the electric field \(E\) at point \(P\) for \(d \ll r\text{.}\) Show that the leading term in the approximation is proportional to \(d/r^3\text{.}\)

3. How small must the separation be?

A dipole is often treated as a point dipole by replacing the exact axial field
\begin{equation*} E = \frac{1}{4\pi\epsilon_0}\left( \frac{q}{r^2} - \frac{q}{(r+d)^2} \right) \end{equation*}
with its leading-order Taylor term for \(d \ll r\text{,}\)
\begin{equation*} E \approx \frac{1}{4\pi\epsilon_0}\cdot\frac{2qd}{r^3}. \end{equation*}
Suppose this approximation must agree with the exact field to within a relative error of \(1\%\text{.}\) If the field point \(P\) is \(r = 3.0\ \text{cm}\) from the positive charge, how small must the charge separation \(d\) be for the point-dipole approximation to be valid?
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