Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 76 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the unscaled Finite Fresnel integrals of this paper. Termwise integration of the absolutely convergent Taylor series for sine and cosine gives the full small-argument expansionsIn particular,These Taylor series converge at every finite argument, although cancellation makes them unattractive for large arguments.
For the large-argument asymptotic expansions, combine the two Finite Fresnel integrals into . The standard Fresnel integral givesFor the tail , integration by parts using givesFor example , , and . Repeated integration by parts bounds the remainder after any fixed number of terms by the order of the next term. Equivalently the Fresnel tail expansion isHere . The first three terms of the requested cosine Fresnel integral, counting its constant term, areFor comparison, retaining one further correction in both Finite Fresnel integrals givesUnlike the small-argument Taylor series, these large-argument asymptotic expansions must be truncated; adding indefinitely many terms at a fixed argument does not improve the approximation.
A calculator needs elementary arithmetic and its built-in sine and cosine, together with stored approximation coefficients. A convenient global construction uses compactified approximation from endpoint asymptotics. Define the exact real tail functions byThen , while and at infinity. Consequentlyextend continuously to the compact interval , with and . Choose stored polynomial approximations on that interval, constrained by the small-argument Taylor series and large-argument asymptotic expansions, and calibrated across the intervening interval. The resulting elementary formula isUniform errors in the stored polynomial approximations give for every positive argument. Existence of arbitrarily accurate such approximations follows from the Weierstrass approximation theorem. A Padé approximant with a denominator having no positive zero is an alternative implementation. Matching the two end expansions alone is not an error guarantee: the middle interval must also be controlled. For very small arguments, switching to the short Taylor series avoids cancellation. Ordinary finite-precision limitations in evaluating and reducing its trigonometric phase remain those of the calculator itself.