[Math] Good upper bound for $(1-x)^r$

algebra-precalculusinequality

The Bernoulli's inequality gives a lower bound on numbers of the form $(1-x)^r$:

$$(1-x)^r\geq 1-rx$$ for integer $r\geq 0$ and real number $0<x<1$.

Is there a corresponding upper bound for $(1-x)^r$? In particular, when $r$ gets large, $(1-x)^r$ becomes very small. I suspect there should be a good bound for it, but I don't know of any.

Best Answer

let $a:=\log\left(\frac{1}{1-x}\right)$. Then

$$(1-x)^r=\frac{1}{e^{ra}}=\frac{1}{1+ra+\frac{a^2r^2}{2!}+\frac{a^3r^3}{3!}+\ldots}$$

Now truncate the infinite series in the denominator to your heart's content. For example

$$(1-x)^r\leq \frac{1}{1+ra}$$.