Bernstein's constant

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.

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

References

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