Example: Let f ( x) = x 3 4 x .

Construct the divided difference table based on the nodes

x0 = 1, x1 = 2, x 2 = 3, x3 = 4, x 4 = 5, x5 = 6 .Find the Newton Polynomials

a) P1 ( x)
b) P2 ( x)
c) P3 ( x)
Solution:
First of all, we must do a table

X0 =1

X1 = 2

f (1) = 3

0
f (2) = 0

f (2) f (1)

x1 x0

=3

1
X2 = 3

X3 = 4

X4 = 5

X5 = 6

f (3) = 15

f (4) = 48

f (5) = 105

f (6) = 192

f (3) f (2)

f (4) f (3)

f (5) f (4)

f (6) f (5)

x2 x1

= 15

15 3

3 1

=6

x3 x 2

= 33 33 15 4 2 = 9

x 4 x3

= 57 57 33 5 3 = 12

x5 x 4

= 87 87 57 6 4 = 15 15 12 6 3 = 1

96

4 1

=1

3
12 9

52

=1

1 1

5 1

=0

4
1 1

62

=0

Prepared by Bugce, 2008

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a) P1 ( X ) = a0 + a1 ( x x0 ) = 3 + 3( x 1) = 3 x
b) P2 ( X ) = a0 + a1 ( x x0 ) + a 2 ( x x0 )( x x1 ) = P1 ( X ) + a 2 ( x x0 )( x x1 ) = 3 x + 6( x 1)( x 2) =

c)

P3 ( X ) = a0 + a1 ( x x0 ) + a 2 ( x x0 )( x x1 ) + a3 ( x x0 )( x x1 )( x x2 ) =
P2 ( X ) + a3 ( x x0 )( x x1 )( x x2 ) = x 3 4 x

Prepared by Bugce, 2008

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