Figure 1From: Continuum descriptions of cytoskeletal dynamicsThe Taylor expansion. a) Various polynomial approximations to a function f in the vicinity of x = x0 (blue line). The simplest approximation is to use the value f(x0) (dotted line). The "first-order approximation" is given by the tangent to f in x = x0 (green line). The "second-order approximation" is given by the quadratic polynomial f ( x 0 ) + f ′ ( x 0 ) ( x - x 0 ) + 1 2 f ″ ( x 0 ) ( x - x 0 ) 2 (red line). b) Polynomial approximations to the derivative f' of f in the vicinity of x = x0 (green line). The tangent to f' in x = x0 is given by the derivative of the second-order approximation to f (red line).Back to article page