Linear Program Polynomial Interpolation Equation

Linear Program Polynomial Interpolation Equation How to solve an nth degree polynomial equation. The best general, understandable description of how to handle polynomials in general is the relevant chapter of Wilf's.

LAB #6: Polynomial Interpolation LAB #6: Polynomial Interpolation • • • • • • • • Polynomials are often used to approximate data. There are several methods for defining, constructing, and evaluating the polynomial of a given degree that passes through data values. We can: • solve for the coefficients of the polynomial by setting up a linear system called Vandermonde's equation. • represent the polynomial as the sum of simple Lagrange polynomials. • represent the polynomial in the form of Newton's divided difference table.

Each of these approaches has its advantages, although we will find the divided difference form to be the best for computations. It can be very helpful to use a consistent notation. We will try to use the names xdata and ydata to refer to known data values, while xval will be a arbitrary point at which we want to evaluate the interpolating polynomial, and pval will be the value of the polynomial at that point. At the end of this lab is an assignment due by the beginning of the next lab session. At some point in this lab, you will need to determine if a quantity x is not equal to a quantity y.

The way to do this is if ( x ~= y ) If you have a (square) linear system of equations, of the form A * x = b where A is an N by N matrix, and b and x are column vectors, then MATLAB will solve the linear system via the 'backslash' command: x = A b Exercise: Test the backslash command by setting up and solving the linear system [ 1 2 ] [ 17 ] [ 3 4 ] * x = [ 39 ] Be careful to make your right hand side vector a column vector, or else use the apostrophe symbol to transpose the row vector! We will want to be able to store certain tables of data in a file. We can have MATLAB read and write these tables using the save and load commands.

For now, we are going to want to save two vectors of the same length, so MATLAB can treat them as two rows of one array. Supposing we have two vectors called xdata and ydata, here's how we could store them in a file: save parabola xdata ydata Now suppose we've cleared the data, or exited MATLAB, and want to retrieve the values of the data. All we need is the command load parabola and MATLAB retrieves the names and values of the data it had stored in the file parabola.mat. Exercise: create two vectors, called xdata and ydata, with the values: XDATA: 0 1 2 YDATA: 3 6 11 Save them to the parabola file. To be sure that you really can save data this way, EXIT MATLAB AND START AGAIN.

Now try to read the data back in, and make sure that it's correct. We will want to make plots in which the data values show up with a marker of some sort.

One way to do this is to specify 'o', which indicates that the points are to be marked with circles. Plot ( xdata, ydata, 'o' ) Exercise: load the data from the parabola file. On one graph, plot the pairs of points from the data file, and the curve: y = x 2 + 1 Does the curve pass through, or at least come near, the data points? MATLAB has a command c = polyfit ( xdata, ydata, n ) which accepts a set of data, and returns the coefficients of the polynomial of degree n which passes through (or near) that data. In the MATLAB command, any value of n may be used. We will be writing our own version of this routine today, but for us the value of n will be determined by the number of data points. Exercise: read the data from the parabola file.

Use the polyfit command to determine a set of polynomial coefficients that match the data. Now figure out how to plot the data points as circles, and the polynomial determined by polyfit. Does the formula match the data?

Maybe you didn't notice it, but in the secant method and the regula falsi method, we were solving the problem Determine the polynomial p(x) of degree 1 that passes through the points (a,fa) and (b,fb). Followed by the problem: Determine the point x0 at which a polynomial p(x) of degree 1 is equal to zero. For Newton's method, we determined a (linear) polynomial that, at the point x=a had the value fa and the derivative fp. For Muller's method, we looked for a quadratic polynomial that passed through three data points. The idea that is common here is that we are trying to construct a 'model function', in this case a polynomial, which would 'explain' all the data that we have.

We may then want to examine the graph of the polynomial, evaluate it at other points, determine its integral or derivative, or do other things with it. Here's one way to see how to organize the computation of the polynomial that passes through a set of data. It's not the best way, but it will give us a good place to start. Suppose we wanted to determine the linear polynomial p(x) = c(1) * x + c(2) that passes through the values (xdata 1,ydata 1) and (xdata 2,ydata 2). We simply have to solve the set of linear equations for c(1) and c(2): c(1) * xdata 1 + c(2) = ydata 1 c(1) * xdata 2 + c(2) = ydata 2 which (usually) has the solution c(1) = ( ydata 2 - ydata 1 ) / ( xdata 2 - xdata 1 ) c(2) = ( xdata 2 * ydata 1 - xdata 1 * ydata 2 ) / ( xdata 2 - xdata 1 ) Compare that situation with the case where we want to determine the quadratic polynomial p(x) = c(1) * x^2 + c(2) * x + c(3) that passes through three sets of data values. Then we 'simply' have to solve the following set of linear equations for the polynomial coefficients c: c(1) * xdata 1^2 + c(2) * xdata 1 + c(3) = ydata 1 c(1) * xdata 2^2 + c(2) * xdata 2 + c(3) = ydata 2 c(1) * xdata 3^2 + c(2) * xdata 3 + c(3) = ydata 3 This is an example of a third order Vandermonde Equation.

It is characterized by the fact that for each row (sometimes column) of the coefficient matrix, the succesive entries are generated by a decreasing (sometimes increasing) set of powers of a set of variables. You should be able to see that, for any collection of abscissas and data points, it is possible to define a linear system that should be satisfied by the (unknown) polynomial coefficients. If we can solve the system, and solve it accurately, then that is one way to determine the interpolating polynomial. Interesting fact: Vandermonde's coefficient matrix is nonsingular if and only if all the abscissas xdata are distinct. Why would we never want to have two abscissas the same? What are we saying if two abscissas are very close, and the corresponding ydata values are far apart?

If we look at this problem as an abstract linear system, we need to define the individual entries of the matrix A: for i = 1 to 3 for j = 1 to 3 A(i,j) = xdata(i)^(3-j) end end Then we have to set the right hand side to the ordinates ydata. If we can get all of that set up, then actually solving the linear system is easy. We just write: c = A ydata' which you can think of as saying 'set c to the value of the inverse of A times the transpose of ydata.' Note that we use a 'backward' slash and an apostrophe in this equation! Exercise: write a MATLAB M function file, fitpoly.m, of the form function c = fitpoly ( xdata, ydata ) n =? Which accepts vectors xdata and ydata of any length, and returns the coefficients of the polynomial that passes through that data. Test your function on the following data: XDATA: 0 1 2 YDATA: 3 6 11 The coefficients of this polynomial should be 'nice' values, but in particular, the value p(3) should be 18.

You might like to plot your data and polynomial over the interval [-2, 3]. Suppose we fix the set of n distinct abscissas xdata, and think about the problem of constructing a polynomial which has (not-yet-specified) values ydata at these points. Now suppose I had a polynomial l 7(x) which was zero at each abscissa value, except that at xdata 7, where it was 1.

Then ydata 7 * l 7(x) would have the value ydata 7 at xdata 7, and if we could just find a similar polynomial for the other abscissas, I'd be done. In fact, the Lagrange polynomials are easily constructed for any set of abscissas. Each Lagrange polynomial will be of order n (which is degree n-1). There will be n Lagrange polynomials, one per abscissa, and the i-th polynomial will be named l i(x), and will have the 'special relationship' with the abscissa xdata i, namely, it will be 1 there, and 0 at the other abscissas. In terms of Lagrange polynomials, then, the interpolating polynomial has the form: p(x) = ydata 1 * l 1(x) + ydata 2 + l 2(x). + ydata n + l n(x) Assuming we can determine these magical polynomials, this is a second way to define the interpolating polynomial to a set of data.

Exercise: Let's consider the abscissas of our data set: I: 1 2 3 XDATA: 0 1 2 YDATA: 3 6 11 How would you construct the Lagrange polynomial l 2(x)? I assume you can figure out a polynomial which is zero at the xdata values of 0 and 2. Now suppose you divide that polynomial by its value at 1. What properties does this polynomial have? Here's the formula for l i(x): l i(x) = f 1(x) *. * f i-1(x) * f i+1(x) *. * f n(x) (skipping the i-th factor), where each factor has the form f j(x) = ( x - xdata j ) / ( xdata i - xdata j) Exercise: write a MATLAB M function file lag_poly.m of the form function pval = lag_poly ( xdata, i, xval ) which takes the data values xdata and evaluates the i-th Lagrange polynomial at xval.

Hint: Try something like: pval = 1; for j = 1: n pval = pval * SOMETHING end except you have to skip the multiplication for one special value of j. If you did this correctly, then you should be able to compute that the values of l 3(x) for our data set: I: 1 2 3 XDATA: 0 1 2 YDATA: 3 6 11 L3(X): 0 0 1 (We're not matching the ydata values yet, just getting ready to do so). If you did the exercise correctly, and you used the proper elementwise operations in your function, then you should be able to issue the following nifty commands: lag_poly ( xdata, 1, xdata ) lag_poly ( xdata, 2, xdata ) lag_poly ( xdata, 3, xdata ) What would you expect these commands to print out?

Exercise: now write a MATLAB M function file lagval.m of the form function pval = lagval ( xdata, ydata, xval ) which takes the data values xdata and ydata, and evaluates the interpolating polynomial at xval. If you did the previous exercise correctly, then this step should be easy!

Test your code on the same old data: I: 1 2 3 XDATA: 0 1 2 YDATA: 3 6 11 Again, if you are using MATLAB wisely, you should be able to issue the following nifty command: lagval ( xdata, ydata, xdata ) and check everything in one stroke! If you've ever tried to compute the next number in a sequence by looking at the pattern of differences between successive entries, you've started down the path of divided differences. Newton used this method back when there weren't good tables of function values, so that he had to do a lot of interpolation himself.

The divided difference table is a third way to define the interpolating polynomial for a set of data. Here is the algorithm for computing a divided difference table, as taken from our textbook. Since you need to begin to learn to think these things through on your own, I will present the algorithm as the book does, making little attempt to suggest how to write it in MATLAB, except for the function statement: function d = divdif ( xdata, ydata ) The algorithm is described as: • Remark: xdata and ydata are vectors with entries xdata i and f(xdata i) respectively, for i from 0 to n. On output, d will contain the divided difference table f[xdata 0.,xdata n]. • Copy the entries of ydata into d. • Do through step 5 for i from 1 to n. • Do through step 5 for j from n down to i.

• d j:= ( d j - d j-1) /( xdata j - xdata j-i) (Note the final subscript is j - i, not j - 1!) • Exit from the algorithm. One of the biggest problems with this description is that it assumes that data goes from 0 to n whereas in MATLAB our indexing starts at 1. Think carefully about what the book means by n and how you must implement this algorithm! If necessary, go through the motions with our set of three data points, and see if you can understand what i and j are counting, and how you must adjust the loop limits. Exercise: write a MATLAB M function called divdif.m as described above.

If you test your function on our simple data, the resulting d vector should be as follows: XDATA: 0 1 2 YDATA: 3 6 11 D: 3 3 1 Once we've gone to all the work of setting up our divided differences, we're only halfway home! Now we have to figure out how to evaluate the polynomial represented by the divided difference table at an arbitrary point xval.

The book's algorithm is as follows: function pval = divval ( xval, xdata, d ) The algorithm is described as: • Remark: xval is a point at which the polynomial is to be evaluated, xdata is the set of abscissas, and d is the divided difference information computed by divdif. On output, pval is the value of the divided difference polynomial at xval. • pval:= d n • Do through step 4 for i from n-1 down to 0. • pval:= d i + ( xval - xdata i) * pval • Exit from the algorithm. Exercise: write a MATLAB M function called divval.m as described above.

Use the divided difference table d from the previous exercise, and evaluate the divided difference polynomial at xval = 3, at which point you should get pval = 18. We never really thought about it, but we assume that an interpolating polynomial p(x) gives us a good approximation to the function f(x) everywhere, no matter what function we choose. If the approximation is not good, we assume it gets better if we increase the number of data points.

And if there was an example where the approximation did not get better, we would assume that happens only because the function is 'bad'. Well, here is a very simple example of how bad things happen to good functions! Consider interpolating the function: f(x) = 1 / ( 1 + x * x ) • Write a MATLAB M file called runge.m to evaluate this function. • Define a set of n = 5 data values xdata which are evenly spaced from -5 to 5, and set ydata to the value of the Runge function at these points. • Construct the interpolating polynomial to this data. • Define a set of 101 sampling values x also evenly spaced between -5 and 5. • Evaluate the runge function and the polynomial at each of these points, and call the vectors of results y and pval.

• Find the maximum absolute value of the difference between the entries of y and pval. This should take you no more than about 10 lines, assuming you are using vector operations. Repeat the process for n = 10 and 20. Make a table containing three lines: N = 5 Max Diff =??? N = 10 Max Diff =??? N = 20 Max Diff =??? And mail it to me.

Isn't there a theorem that says that on a given closed interval, any continuous function can be uniformly well approximated by a polynomial? What is the relationship between your evidence, and this fact? Last revised on 21 October 1999.

Tennessee Serial Killer 19020. (3) The formula was first published by Waring (1779), rediscovered by Euler in 1783, and published by Lagrange in 1795 (Jeffreys and Jeffreys 1988). Lagrange interpolating polynomials are implemented in the as [ data, var]. They are used, for example, in the construction of. When constructing interpolating polynomials, there is a tradeoff between having a better fit and having a smooth well-behaved fitting function. The more data points that are used in the interpolation, the higher the degree of the resulting polynomial, and therefore the greater oscillation it will exhibit between the data points.

Therefore, a high-degree interpolation may be a poor predictor of the function between points, although the accuracy at the data points will be 'perfect.' Wolfram Web Resources The #1 tool for creating Demonstrations and anything technical. Explore anything with the first computational knowledge engine.

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