TITLE: Taylor Series for $\log(x)$
QUESTION [16 upvotes]: Does anyone know a closed form expression for the Taylor series of the function $f(x) = \log(x)$ where $\log(x)$ denotes the natural logarithm function?

REPLY [6 votes]: The Taylor series for $\ln$ centered at $1$ can be easily derived with the geometric series
$$\sum_{n=0}^\infty x^n=\frac{1}{1-x}$$
We start with the derivative of $\ln$, which is given by $1/x$ for every $x>0$. This derivative is equivalent to
$$\frac{1}{1-[-(x-1)]}$$
so if $x$ satisfies $|-(x-1)|=|x-1|<1$, this can be expanded as a geometric series.
\begin{align}
\frac{1}{1-[-(x-1)]} &= \sum_{n=0}^\infty [-(x-1)]^n\\
&=\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n(x-1)^n
\end{align}
Thus, $(\ln)'(x)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n(x-1)^n$ holds for every $x$ with $|x-1|<1$. We can get a series expression for $\ln\left(x_0\right)$ by integrating this identity from $1$ to $x_0$.
\begin{align}
\ln\left(x_0\right)-\ln(1) &= \sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n\frac{\left(x_0-1\right)^{n+1}}{n+1}-\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^n\frac{(1-1)^{n+1}}{n+1}\\
&= \sum_{n=1}^\infty (-1)^{n-1}\frac{\left(x_0-1\right)^n}{n}-\sum_{n=1}^\infty (-1)^{n-1}\frac{0^{n}}{n}\\
&= \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{n}\left(x_0-1\right)^n\\
&= \left(x_0-1\right)-\frac{\left(x_0-1\right)^2}{2}+\frac{\left(x_0-1\right)^3}{3}-\frac{\left(x_0-1\right)^4}{4}+\cdots
\end{align}
What if we want to find a series expansion centered at a point other than $1$, say at $a>0$? You can always do this directly by computing the derivatives of $\ln$ at $a$, but an easier method is to leverage the series we just derived and the identity
$$\ln\left(\frac{x}{y}\right)=\ln(x)-\ln(y)$$
To see this, evaluate $\ln$ at $x/a$, where $x$ is any positive real number. If $|x-a|<a$, we will have that $|x/a-1|<1$, so the Taylor series of $\ln$ centered at $1$ will converge to $\ln(x/a)$. We can then write
\begin{align}
\ln\left(\frac{x}{a}\right) &= \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{n}\left(\frac{x}{a}-1\right)^n\\
&= \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{n}\left(\frac{x-a}{a}\right)^n\\
&= \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{n}\frac{(x-a)^n}{a^n}\\&= \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{na^n}(x-a)^n\\
\end{align}
From $\ln(x/a)=\ln(x)-\ln(a)$, it immediately follows that
\begin{align}
\ln(x) &= \ln(a)+\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{(-1)^{n-1}}{na^n}(x-a)^n\\
&= \ln(a)+\frac{1}{a}(x-a)-\frac{1}{2a^2}(x-a)^2+\frac{1}{3a^3}(x-a)^3-\frac{1}{4a^4}(x-a)^4+\cdots
\end{align}