MATH 131-505 Spring 2015 c Wen Liu 3.9 3.9 Linear Approximations and Differentials Given a curve y = f (x), we use the tangent line at (a, f (a)) as an approximation to the curve f when x is near a. An equation of this tangent line is y = f (a) + f 0 (a)(x − a) and the approximation f (x) ≈ f (a) + f 0 (a)(x − a) is called the linear approximation or tangent line approximation of f at a. The linear function whose graph is this tangent line, that is, L(x) = f (a) + f 0 (a)(x − a) is called the linearization of f at a. √ Example 1: (p. 241) Find the linearization of the function f (x) = x + 3 at a = 1 and use it to √ √ approximate the numbers 3.98 and 4.05. Are these approximations overestimates or underestimates? Applications to Physics: 1. For pendulum, the linearization of f (x) = sin x at a = 0 is L(x) = x. 2. For paraxial rays, the linear approximations sin x ≈ x and cos x ≈ 1 are used because x is close to 0. Page 1 of 3 MATH 131-505 Spring 2015 3.9 c Wen Liu Differentials The ideas behind linear approximations are sometimes formulated in the terminology and notation of differentials. If y = f (x), where f is a differentiable function, then the differential dx is an independent variable; that is, dx can be given the value of any real number. The differential dy is then defined in terms of dx by the equation dy = f 0 (x)dx The geometric meaning of differentials is shown on the left. If we let dx = x − a, then x = a + dx and we can rewrite the linear approximation f (x) ≈ f (a) + f 0 (a)(x − a) in the notation of differentials: f (a + dx) ≈ f (a) + dy Examples: 2. (p. 246) Find the differential of y = √ 1 + ln z. 3. (p. 244) Use differentials to estimate √ 4.05. Page 2 of 3 MATH 131-505 Spring 2015 3.9 c Wen Liu 4. (p. 245) Use a linear approximation (or differentials) to estimate (a) 8.062/3 (b) 1/1002 5. (p. 246) Suppose that the only information we have about a function f is that f (1) = 5 and the graph of its derivative is as shown. Use a linear approximation to estimate f (0.9). Page 3 of 3