A note on uniform approximation of functions having a double pole

Abstract

We consider the classical problem of finding the best uniform approximation by polynomials of $1/(x-a)^2,$ where $a>1$ is given, on the interval $[-\! 1,1]$ . First, using symbolic computation tools we derive the explicit expressions of the polynomials of best approximation of low degrees and then give a parametric solution of the problem in terms of elliptic functions. Symbolic computation is invoked then once more to derive a recurrence relation for the coefficients of the polynomials of best uniform approximation based on a Pell-type equation satisfied by the solutions.