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Re: piecewise linear approximation

Subject: Re: piecewise linear approximation
From: Stephen Montgomery-Smith
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 02:46:14 GMT
Newsgroups: sci.math
msimon wrote:
If a function f(x) in C^2(0,1) is approximated by a piecewise linear
polynomial, how do I find a bound on the error?

For a specific interval [x(j), x(j+1)], I know:

p(x) = [f(x(j+1)) - f(x(j))] x / h_j + f(x(j))

f(x) - p(x) = f(x) - [f(x(j+1)) - f(x(j))] x / h_j - f(x(j))

where to go from here?


There is an error term for the interpolating polynomial through n+1 points, namely, if p is the polynomial of degree n for which p(x0)=f(x0),...,p(xn)=f(xn), then the difference between p(x) and f(x) is

f^(n+1)(z)/(n+1)! (x-x0)...(x-xn)

for some z between the min and max of x,x0,...,xn.

Using this, I think your formula will come out rather easily.


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