An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A series expansion of an infinitely differentiable function about a point a: Σ (1/n!) (x - a) ⁿ f ⁿ (a), where fⁿ(a) is the n-th derivative of f at a, and the sum over n = 0 to ∞. If a = 0 the series is called a → Maclaurin series.

See also: Named for the English mathematician Brook Taylor (1685-1731); → series.