Past exam of the approximation theory and finite element methods course of the University of Oxford / 2008 / A / 1 / c / Solution

Expand the fifth-degree Taylor polynomial $p_5$ in Chebyshev polynomials, using the identities for powers obtained from part (a):Delete the last two Chebyshev terms and convert back to powers. The economized cubic isSince $|T_j|\le 1$,Equality holds at $x=-1$, where both deleted terms have negative sign. Thus the economization changes the polynomial by at most $7/160$, exactly in supremum norm on $[-1,1]$.

For the target itself, $|\log (1+x)-p_3(x)|\le |\log (1+x)-p_5(x)|+7/160$ wherever $x>-1$. The logarithm is singular at $-1$, so its total uniform error on all of $(-1,1]$ is infinite; the finite estimate concerns the additional polynomial change, or the increase on any smaller interval where the original error is bounded.