Exercise · ZW-NEWTON-DIVIDED-DIFFERENCES-002 · ★☆☆ Basic

What is \(f[x_0,x_1]\) if \(f(x)=x^2\), \(x_0=1\) and \(x_1=4\)?

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  • A. \(5\)

Explanation

Compute \(\frac{f(4)-f(1)}{4-1}=\frac{16-1}{3}=5\). Skipping the division or inverting the quotient gives a different result.

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Review the concept: Newton divided differences

Newton divided differences are recursive quotients of function values at nodes that serve as the coefficients of the interpolating polynomial in Newton form.

\[f[x_i..x_{i+k}]=\frac{f[x_{i+1}..x_{i+k}]-f[x_i..x_{i+k-1}]}{x_{i+k}-x_i}\]

More practice problems: newton divided differences

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