Rodrigues ' formula Possible meanings : A formula for producing a series of expressions by repeated differentiation of some other functions . A typical application is in producing a series of orthogonal polynomials : P n ( x ) is proportional to \frac { 1 } { W ( x ) } \ \frac { d^n } { dx^n } \left ( W ( x ) [ Q ( x ) ] ^n\right ) for some functions W and Q . In geometry , short for Rodrigues ' rotation formula . Both of these were discovered by Olinde Rodrigues . This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title . If an internal link led you here , you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article . Categories : Disambiguation 