# Global Truncation Error w/ Taylor Series Method

This is a little vague so apologies in advance - hopefully there is enough here to get the point across.

I have an initial value problem in the interval $$0\le x\le2$$, for which I have been given the exact solution. I'm trying to estimate the order of the fourth order taylor series method using two global truncation errors at $$x=2$$, and then compare this to the actual order of the method.

After finding the approximations of the solution at x=2 with MATLAB, I obtained:

with step size $$h=0.2$$ - the global truncation error at $$x=2$$ is $$G_1=3.45831285$$.

with step size $$h=0.1$$ - the global truncation error at $$x=2$$ is $$G_2=1.827655303$$.

So $$G_1/G_2=1.827655303/3.45831285 = 1.82765$$

However, I think (not 100% sure on this) that the global truncation error for the fourth order taylor series method is $$O(h^4)$$? Shouldn't this mean that that $$G_1/G_2 \approx16$$?

• The errors are kind of large. What is the ODE you are trying to solve? There is a working range of $h$ where double the step size leads to 16fold error. With $h$ above that working range the non-linearities of the ODE dominate, below that working range there are too many steps where floating point noise accumulates to the size of the method error and larger. To say anything definite without knowing the problem you would have to show the result of some further step halvings, or the results for the pairs h=0.02 and 0.01 and h=0.002 and 0.001. To adapt the loop in Matlab should be trivial. – Lutz Lehmann Oct 12 '18 at 12:35
• The ODE is $y'=xe^{2x}-4y$. – Sonjov Oct 12 '18 at 22:31

Your ODE is $$y'=xe^{2x}-4y$$ with the form of the exact solution $$y(x)=(Ax+B)e^{2x}+Ce^{-4x}.$$ This inserted gives the coefficient conditions $$y'+4y=(A+6(Ax+B))e^{2x}\implies A=\frac16, B=-\frac1{36}.$$

For the Taylor method we use the derivatives of the ODE to compute the further derivatives of $$y$$. From the extended Leibniz product rule $$(xf(x))^{(k)}=f^{(k)}(x)+kf^{(k-1)}(x)$$ we get in general $$y^{(k)}=2^{k-1}(2x+k)e^{2x}-4y^{(k-1)}$$ which for up to 4th order are \begin{align} y''&=(2x+1)e^{2x}-4y'\\ y'''&=(4x+4)e^{2x}-4y''\\ y^{(4)}&=(8x+12)e^{2x}-4y''' \end{align}

This we then use to compute the Taylor step (in python, needs to import exp)

def Taylor(y0,N):
h = 2.0/N
x, y = 0, y0
for k in range(N):
y1 = x*exp(2*x)-4*y
y2 = (2*x+1)*exp(2*x)-4*y1
y3 = (4*x+4)*exp(2*x)-4*y2
y4 = (8*x+12)*exp(2*x)-4*y3
x, y = x+h, y+h*y1+h**2/2*y2+h**3/6*y3+h**4/24*y4
return y


Add some code to test this method

def y_exact(x,y0): return ((6*x-1)*exp(2*x) + (36*y0+1)*exp(-4*x))/36
y0 = 1
y2 = y_exact(2,y0)
for N in [5, 10,  100, 500, 750, 1000]:
yT1 = Taylor(y0,N);
yT2 = Taylor(y0,2*N);
print N, yT1, yT1-y2
print 2*N, yT2, yT2-y2, (yT1-y2)/(yT2-y2)


This yields the following values, errors and ratios

   N   y_Taylor(2)         error           ratio

5  16.626489487   -0.056623359684
10  16.6798692947  -0.00324355204858   17.4572070483

10  16.6798692947  -0.00324355204858
20  16.6829256052  -0.000187241566536  17.3228205071

100  16.6831125714  -2.75283085216e-07
200  16.6831128297  -1.70001754896e-08  16.1929555013

500  16.6831128463  -4.31953139923e-10
1000  16.6831128467  -2.68691735528e-11  16.0761602539

750  16.6831128466  -8.58904058987e-11
1500  16.6831128467  -3.74456021746e-12  22.9373814042

1000  16.6831128467  -2.68691735528e-11
2000  16.6831128467  -5.60618218515e-12   4.7927756654


This table confirms the general situation. There is a working range of $$h$$ where double the step size leads to a 16fold error. With $$h$$ above that working range the non-linearities of the ODE make the second and further terms of the error expansion noticeable, perturbing the error ratio 16. Below that working range the accumulation of the floating point noise over the larger number of steps becomes equal to or larger than the size of the method error, which makes the error ratio over a step size doubling a random number.

In summary, I do not see the problem you report. This is either due to a radically different initial condition or some error in implementing the Taylor method.

• Thanks. Not sure what I did to get the incorrect error values because my taylor method was correct but this helped a lot :) – Sonjov Oct 14 '18 at 3:29