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I know it can be done when $xn \ll 1 $, but what about the cases when $xn \gt 1$ ?

My best try is to use sth like: \begin{align*} (1-x)^n &= \sum\limits_{j=0}^{\infty}\left( \begin{array}{c} n \\ j \end{array} \right)(-x)^j \end{align*}

However, when $n$ is very large, calculation of the binomial coefficients may exceed computational capability of available tools such as mathwork, so I am stuck.

AYang
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    If $xn$ is not too large, you can approximate $(1-x)^n\approx e^{-xn}$ – A.S. Nov 17 '15 at 05:15
  • Thank you for the comment. Could you sketch the derivation? – AYang Nov 17 '15 at 15:47
  • Why do you want to approximate $(1-x)^{n}$? – A.S. Nov 17 '15 at 16:35
  • $x$ is actually the possibility that an event would happen at one time instance, $(1-x)^n$ is the possibility that the event would not happen at $n$ time instance, and that is what I want ... – AYang Nov 17 '15 at 16:41

2 Answers2

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For $0<x<1$ we have $\log (1-x)^n=-n\sum_{j=1}^{\infty}x^j/j$. Taking $k$ large enough that $n\sum_{j>k}x^j/j<r$, and let $\sum_{j=1}^{k}x^j/j=F(x,k). $ We have $e^ {-n F(x,k)}e^{-r}<(1-x)^n<e^{-n F(x,k)}.$ Of course $k$ depends on both $n$ and $x$ for any given $r>0$, but given $y\in (0,x)$ we can use the same $k$.

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I was also interested in the same question. Here is an answer that uses ideas from the answer and comment above. Since $\log(1-x)^n = -n\sum_{j=1}^\infty x^j/j$, then we have $$\begin{align}(1-x)^n &= \exp\left(-n\sum_{j=1}^{\infty} \frac{x^j}{j}\right) \\&=\exp(-nx).\exp\left(-n\sum_{j=2}^{\infty}\frac{x^j}{j}\right) \end{align}$$ Now let's find the absolute error of approximating $(1-x)^n$ with $e^{-nx}$. Subtracting $e^{-nx}$ from both sides and taking absolute values we get $$\begin{align}|(1-x)^n-e^{-nx}| &= |e^{-nx}(e^{-n\sum_{j=2}^\infty x^j/j}-1)| \\&= e^{-nx}(1-e^{-n\sum_{j=2}^\infty x^j/j}) \\&<e^{-nx} \end{align} $$ which tells us that the error in this approximation is bounded by $e^{-nx}$ (which goes to 0 as $nx\to \infty$).

videlity
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