Taylor Series for $\dfrac{x}{x ^ 2 + x + 1}$.

calculustaylor expansion

I'm trying to calculate the taylor series of $\dfrac{x}{x ^ 2 + x + 1}$.

Algebraic manipulation didn't get me anywhere, since the roots of $ x ^ 2 + x + 1 $ are complex.

Integrate or derive made the problem worse

Any tips on how to proceed?

Best Answer

There seem to be many ways to go about this, so here is one: put $\dfrac{x}{x ^ 2 + x + 1}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a_nx^n$, then $$x=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a_nx^n(x^2+x+1)=a_0+(a_1+a_0)x+\sum_{n=2}^{\infty}(a_n+a_{n-1}+a_{n-2})x^n,$$ and by comparing the coefficients we get $a_0=0$, $a_1=1$, and $a_n+a_{n-1}+a_{n-2}=0$ for $n \geq 2$. You can see the coefficients repeat ($a_2=-1,a_3=0,a_4=1,\dots$), so we have $a_{3k}=0, a_{3k+1}=1, a_{3k+2}=-1$, or in other words $$ \dfrac{x}{x ^ 2 + x + 1}=x-x^2+x^4-x^5+\dots $$