Bernstein's constant
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| Binary | 0.01000111101110010011000000110011… |
| Decimal | 0.280169499… |
| Hexadecimal | 0.47B930338AAD… |
| Continued fraction |  |
Bernstein's constant, usually denoted by the greek letter β (beta), is a mathematical constant named after Sergei Natanovich Bernstein and is approximately equal to 0.2801694990.
[edit] Definition
Let En(ƒ) be the error of the best uniform approximation to a real function ƒ(x) on the interval [−1, 1] by real polynomials of no more than degree n. In the case of ƒ(x) = |x|, Bernstein (1914) showed that the limit
called Bernstein's constant, exists and is between 0.278 and 0.286. His conjecture that the limit is:
was disproven by Varga & Carpenter (1987), who calculated
[edit] References
- Bernstein, S. N. (1914), “Sur la meilleure approximation de |x| par les polynomes de degrés donnés”, Acta Math. 37: 1-57, DOI 10.1007/BF02401828
- Varga, Richard S. & Carpenter, Amos J. (1987), “A conjecture of S. Bernstein in approximation theory”, Math. USSR Sbornik 57: 547-560, MR0842399, DOI 10.1070/SM1987v057n02ABEH003086
- Weisstein, Eric W., “Bernstein's Constant”, From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource, <http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BernsteinsConstant.html>
