Archive for July, 2012

Great Formulas: the Binomial Series, part 2

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

In the last post, I described Newton’s Binomial Series formula, one of the most important results in mathematics. In this post, I will go through three practical examples of how the binomial series can be used.

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Great Formulas: the Binomial Series

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Algebra classes always teach the Binomial Theorem – writing out the expanded form of a binomial raised to a power. What they don’t do is teach Newton’s brilliant generalization of the Binomial Theorem, usually called the Binomial Series, in which the exponent can be anything, not just an integer. The Binomial Series is much more important and interesting, and in this post I will describe it, including how Newton figured it out.

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