Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Asymptotic expansions of certain generalized Bernoulli polynomials are obtained, some in terms of elementary functions and others in terms of gamma functions and their derivatives. The latter results can also be written in terms of elementary functions, by using the known asymptotic expansions of the gamma functions, and the leading terms are obtained in this way. The results obtained give the asymptotic form of the coefficients occurring in all the usual central-difference formulae of the calculus of finite differences.