BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

KK BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

SECOND SEMESTER 2013-2014

Numerical Analysis
Tutorial6
Use 5-digit floating point arithmetic with rounding for all the problems.
1. Consider the function f (x) = ln x.
(a) Construct the Lagrange form of the interpolating polynomial for f passing thorough the
points (1, ln 1), (2, ln 2) and (3, ln 3).
(b) Use the polynomial obtained in part (a) to establish both ln(1.5) and ln(2.4). What is the
error in each approximation?
(c) Establish the theoretical bound for using the polynomial found in part (a) to approximate
ln(1.5). Compare the theoretical error bound to the error bound found in part (b).
2. The values listed in the table provide the surface tension of mercury as a function of temperature
Temperature ( C)

10

20

30

40

50

Surface Tension

488.55

485.48

480.36

475.23

470.11

(a) Use Lagrange polynomial to find the surface tension of mercury at 15 C.

(b) Use Newtons forward interpolating polynomial to find the surface tension of mercury at
15 C.
(c) Use Newtons backward interpolating polynomial to find the surface tension of mercury at
45 C.
3. Find (85)1/3 by Lagranges interpolating formula for the function y = x1/3 and given x0 =
8, x1 = 64, x2 = 125.
4. Suppose that f is continuous and has continuous first and second derivatives on the interval
[x0 , x1 ]. Derive the following bound on the error due to linear interpolation of f
1
|f (x) P1 (x)| h2 max |f (x)|, where h = x1 x0 .
8 x[x0 ,x1 ]
5. Consider the data set
x

-3

-23

-11

-23

(a) Show that the polynomials f (x) = x3 3x2 10x + 1 and g(x) = 5 + 3(x 3) 3(x +
3)(x 1) + (x + 3)(x 1)(x 2) both interpolate all of the data.
(b) Why does this not contradict the uniqueness part of the theorem on existence and uniqueness
of polynomial interpolation?

6. Construct the divided dierence table for the following data set, and then write out the Newton
form of the interpolating polynomial.
x

-7

-5

-4

-1

10

10

7. Find the unknown in the set of data points (1, 2), (5, 8), (7, 10), (8, ) and (10, 15).
8. Let g(x) = f [x0 , x1 , . . . , xn , x], then show that g (x) = 2!f [x0 , x1 , . . . , xn , x, x, x].
9. For a function f , the divided dierences are given below. Determine the missing values in the
divided dierence table.
x

f (x)

First order

x0 = 0

f [x0 ] = 1

second order

f [x0 , x1 ] = 5
x1 = 1

f [x0 , x1 , x2 ] = 32

f [x1 ] =?
f [x1 , x2 ] =?

x2 = 2

f [x2 ] =?

10. Suppose a table is to be prepared for the function f (x) = ex , x [0, 1]. Assume that
the dierence between adjacent x-values, the step size, is h. What should be h for quadratic
interpolation to give an absolute error of at most 106 .
11. If f (x) =

1
1
, then show that f [a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 ] =
.
2x
2(a1 a2 a3 a4 )

12. Construct the forward dierence table for the following data and then estimate f (0.5).
x

-1

-1

-3

13. Construct the backward dierence table for the given data in Q. 12 and then estimate f (1.8)
and f (2.2).
14. Let P3 (x) = x3 + x2 + x + 1 interpolates f (x) at 3, 1, 0, 2. Prepare the table of divided
dierences. Now f (3) = 32 is added to the data, find P4 (x) a polynomial of degree 4, which
interpolates f (x) at 3, 1, 0, 2, 3 by adding a term to P3 (x). Hence interpolate f (1).
15. Find the polynomial of the lowest possible degree which assumes the values 1245, 33, 5, 9 and
1335 at x = 4, 1, 0, 2 and 5 respectively. Also find the value of the polynomial at the abscissa
1.
16. From the data given below, find the number of students whose weight is between 60 and 70.
Weight

20-40

40-60

60-80

80-100

100-120

Number of students

250

120

100

70

50

17. Use Newtons forward interpolating polynomial to find the sum sn = 13 + 23 + + n3 .

THE END
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