yt.units.unit_object.Unit.nseries

Unit.nseries(x=None, x0=0, n=6, dir='+', logx=None)

Wrapper to _eval_nseries if assumptions allow, else to series.

If x is given, x0 is 0, dir=’+’, and self has x, then _eval_nseries is called. This calculates “n” terms in the innermost expressions and then builds up the final series just by “cross-multiplying” everything out.

The optional logx parameter can be used to replace any log(x) in the returned series with a symbolic value to avoid evaluating log(x) at 0. A symbol to use in place of log(x) should be provided.

Advantage – it’s fast, because we don’t have to determine how many terms we need to calculate in advance.

Disadvantage – you may end up with less terms than you may have expected, but the O(x**n) term appended will always be correct and so the result, though perhaps shorter, will also be correct.

If any of those assumptions is not met, this is treated like a wrapper to series which will try harder to return the correct number of terms.

See also lseries().

Examples

>>> from sympy import sin, log, Symbol
>>> from sympy.abc import x, y
>>> sin(x).nseries(x, 0, 6)
x - x**3/6 + x**5/120 + O(x**6)
>>> log(x+1).nseries(x, 0, 5)
x - x**2/2 + x**3/3 - x**4/4 + O(x**5)

Handling of the logx parameter — in the following example the expansion fails since sin does not have an asymptotic expansion at -oo (the limit of log(x) as x approaches 0):

>>> e = sin(log(x))
>>> e.nseries(x, 0, 6)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
PoleError: ...
...
>>> logx = Symbol('logx')
>>> e.nseries(x, 0, 6, logx=logx)
sin(logx)

In the following example, the expansion works but gives only an Order term unless the logx parameter is used:

>>> e = x**y
>>> e.nseries(x, 0, 2)
O(log(x)**2)
>>> e.nseries(x, 0, 2, logx=logx)
exp(logx*y)