Introduction to Numerical Analysis

Tutorial Sheets
MA 214, Spring Semester 2018-19

Instructors: S. Sivaji Ganesh and S. Baskar

Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Powai, Mumbai 400 076.
0
 General Information
Syllabus
Up to Midsem

• Mathematical Preliminaries: Sequences of real numbers; Continuity of a Function

and Intermediate Value Theorem; Mean Value Theorems for Differentiation and Inte-
gration; Taylor’s Theorem; Order of Convergence. (10 Marks)

• Error Analysis: Floating-Point Representation; Types of Errors; Loss of Significance;

Propagation of Error. (15 Marks)

• Numerical Linear Algebra: Gaussian Elimination; Pivoting Strategy; LU factoriza-

tion; Matrix Norms, Condition Number of a Matrix; Solution by Iteration: Methods
of Jacobi, Gauss-Seidel, and Residual Corrector Method; Eigenvalue problems: Power
Method, Gershgorin’s Theorem. (30 Marks)
After Midsem
• Nonlinear Equations: Bisection Method; Secant Method; Newton-Raphson Method;
Fixed-point Iteration Method; Rates of Convergence. (15 Marks)

• Interpolation: Lagrange and Newton Forms of Interpolating Polynomials; Divided

Differences; Error in Polynomial Interpolation; Runge Phenomena; Piecewise Polyno-
mial and Cubic Spline Interpolations. (15 Marks)

• Numerical Integration and Differentiation: Rectangule rule, Trapezoidal rule,

Simpson’s rule; Composite Rules; Gaussian Rules; Difference Formulae. (15 Marks)

• Numerical Ordinary Differential Equations: Euler’s Method; Modified Euler’s

Methods; Runge-Kutta Methods. (10 Marks)

Texts:
Text to be followed: S. Baskar and S. Sivaji Ganesh, Introduction to Numerical Anal-
ysis, Lecture notes. (a soft copy will be provided).

Other References:
(1) K. Atkinson and W. Han, Elementary Numerical Analysis (3rd edition), Wiley-India,
2004.
(2) S. D. Conte and C. de Boor, Elementary Numerical Analysis - An Algorithmic Ap-
proach (3rd edition), McGraw-Hill, 1981.
(3) R. L. Burden and J. D. Faires, Numerical Analysis: Theory and Applications, Ceneage
Learning India Pvt. Ltd., 2010.

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Lectures and Tutorials

We will have two lectures of one and a half hours each, and one tutorial session of at
least one hour duration, every week. Since the class size is quite large, it may be difficult
for us to give you the kind of personal attention that is ideal. Therefore, the onus is on you
to be attentive in the class and make the best use of the lectures. It may not be possible
for you to take down the class notes; in fact it is not necessary as the lecture notes will
be uploaded on the moodle site for the course. These notes are intended to serve as a
supplement to the lectures of MA 214, spring semester 2018-19. From the examination
point of view, it is enough for a student to study only these lecture notes. However, these
lecture notes are by no means a substitute for a text book. You are strongly encouraged
to read the text books for a better understanding of the subject.
The tutorials are meant for you to practise problem solving. You are expected to try the
problems from the relevant tutorial sheet before coming to the class. You should also make
use of the tutorial hour to clear your doubts with the course associate. More problems are
given as exercises at the end of each chapter in the lecture notes. These exercise problems
may not be discussed in the tutorial classes, but may have weightage in the quizzes and
the examinations.
We strongly recommend students to attend the classes regularly and study systemati-
cally from day one. You are, of course, welcome to approach the course instructor or your
course associate for any guidance or assistance regarding the course.

Policy on Attendance

Attendance in the lectures and tutorials is compulsory. Students who do

not meet 80% attendance requirement will be given an DX grade. In case you
miss lectures for valid (medical) reasons, get a medical certificate (issued only by the IIT
hospital) and keep it with you. You have to submit it if you fall short of attendance.
Note: If you are falling short of attendance (i.e. your attendance is less than 80%), then
you have to submit medical certificates for all the classes (tutorials) that you missed.

Evaluation Plan
(1) There will be three quizzes common to both the sections. These quizzes will be
of one hour duration and they will carry 15 marks each. Dates and timings for the
quizzes will be announced in the class.

(2) The Mid-semester examination, scheduled to be held between 22nd and 28th
February 2019, will be for 25 marks. The End-Semester examination, scheduled
to be held between 22nd April and 5th May 2019, will be for 40 marks. Dates and
timings for these examinations will be announced in the class.

(3) Make-up examination will be conducted after the last day of instructions for those
who produce the medical certificate issued by the institute hospital or with valid rea-

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 sons as per the institute rules. Syllabus for make-up examination will be the full
syllabus of the course. This examination will be for 40 marks, which will be suitably
scaled.

Grading Scheme
(1) AP will be awarded if the total marks is greater than or equal to 100.
(2) Let M = 40% of the highest mark that is less than 100. DD will be awarded if the
total marks lie in the interval [M, M + 5]. FR will be awarded if the total marks is
strictly less than M .
(3) Other grades are decided relatively.

Schedule of Lectures and Tutorials

See the institute timetable.

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4
 Tutorial Sheet 1
Mathematical Preliminaries

(1) Let L be a real number and let {an } be a sequence of real numbers. If there exists a
positive integer N such that

|an − L| ≤ µ|an−1 − L|,

for all n ≥ N and for some fixed µ ∈ (0, 1), then show that an → L as n → ∞.

(2) Show that the equation sin x + x2 = 1 has at least one root in the interval [0, 1].

(3) Let f be continuous on [a, b], let x1 , · · · , xn be points in [a, b], and let g1 , · · · , gn be
real numbers having same sign. Show that
n
! n
!
f (xi )gi = f (ξ) gi , for some ξ ∈ [a, b].
i=1 i=1

(4) Let f : [0, 1] → [0, 1] be a continuous function. Prove that the equation f (x) = x has
at least one root lying in the interval [0, 1] (Note: A root of this equation is called a
fixed point of the function f ).

(5) Let g be a continuously differentiable function (C 1 function) such that the equation
g(x) = 0 has at least n distinct real roots. Show that the equation g ′ (x) = 0 has at
least n − 1 distinct real roots.

(6) Prove the second mean value theorem for integrals. Does the theorem hold if the hy-
pothesis g(x) ≥ 0 for all x ∈ R is replaced by g(x) ≤ 0 for all x ∈ R.

(7) In the second mean-value theorem for integrals, let f (x) = ex , g(x) = x, x ∈ [0, 1].
Find a point c specified by the theorem and verify that this point lies in the interval
(0, 1).

(8) Obtain the Taylor polynomials T1 and T5 for the function f (x) = sin(x) about the
point a = 0. Give the remainder term in both the cases and obtain their remainder
estimates when x ∈ [0, 1].

(9) Prove or disprove:

" # " #
n+1 1 1 1
(i) 2
=O as n → ∞ (ii) =o as n → ∞
n n ln n n
(10) Assume that f (h) = p(h) + O(hn ) and g(h) = q(h) + O(hm ), for some positive integers
n and m, and as h → 0. Find a positive integer r such that

f (h) + g(h) = p(h) + q(h) + O(hr ), h → 0.

5
 Tutorial Sheet 2
Error Analysis

(1) Let X be a sufficiently large number which results in an overflow of memory on a

computing device. Let x be a sufficiently small number which results in underflow
of memory on the same computing device. Then give the output of the following
operations: (i) X × x (ii) X/X (iii) x/x (iv) 3 × X (v) 3 × x (vi) x/X

(2) Consider a computing device having exponents e in the range m ≤ e ≤ M , m, M ∈ Z.

If the device uses n-digit rounding binary floating-point arithmetic, then show that
δ = 2−n is the machine epsilon when n ≤ |m| + 1.

(3) Let x, y, and z be real numbers whose floating point approximations in a computing
device coincide with x, y, and z, respectively. Show that the relative error in computing
x(y + z) equals ϵ1 + ϵ2 − ϵ1 ϵ2 , where ϵ1 = Er (fl(y + z)) and ϵ2 = Er (fl(x × fl(y + z))).

(4) Let ϵ = Er (fl(x)). Show that |ϵ| ≤ 10−n+1 if the computing device uses n-digit (deci-
mal) chopping. Can the equality hold in the above inequality?

(5) Let xA = 3.14 and yA = 2.651 be obtained from the numbers xT and yT , respectively,
using 4-digit rounding. For any such values of xT and yT , find the smallest interval
that contains
(i) xT + yT (ii) xT /yT .

(6) Let x < 0 < y be such that the approximate numbers xA and yA has seven and nine
significant digits with x and y respectively. Show that zA := xA − yA has at least six
significant digits when compared to z := x − y.

(7) Let xT be a real number. Let xA = 2.5 be an approximate value of xT with an absolute
error at most 0.01. The function f (x) = x3 is evaluated at x = xA instead of x = xT .
Estimate the resulting absolute error.

(8) Check for stability of computing the function

sin2 x
h(x) =
1 − cos2 x
for values of x very close to 0.
Run the following statement in Matlab and see the output:

x=10^(-7.97); h=sin(x)^2/(1-cos(x)^2)

Also, try with some non-negative number less than x, for instance, x = 10−8 . Note
that for any x ∈ R, h(x) = 1.

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 Tutorial Sheet 3
Numerical Linear Algebra
(Direct Methods)

(1) Solve the following system of linear equations using modified Gaussian elimination
method with partial pivoting using infinite precision arithmetic:
x1 − x2 + 3x3 = 2,
3x1 − 3x2 + x3 = −1,
x1 + x2 = 3.

(2) Count the number of operations involved in finding a solution using naive Gaussian
elimination method to the following special class of linear systems having the form
a11 x1 + · · · +a1n xn = b1 ,
···
···
an1 x1 + · · · +ann xn = bn ,
where aij = 0 whenever i − j ≥ 2. In this exercise, we assume that the naive Gaussian
elimination method has been implemented successfully. You must take into account
the special nature of the given system.
(3) Use Thomas method to solve the tri-diagonal system of equations
2x1 + 3x2 = 1, x1 + 2x2 + 3x3 = 4,
x2 + 2x3 + 3x4 = 5, x3 + 2x4 = 2.

(4) Prove or disprove the following statements:

(i) An invertible matrix has at most one Doolittle factorization.
(ii) If a singular matrix has a Doolittle factorization, then the matrix has at least two
Doolittle factorizations.

(5) Prove that if an invertible matrix A has a LU -factorization, then all principal minors
of A are non-zero. Show that the matrix
⎛ ⎞
2 2 1
⎝1 1 1⎠
3 2 1
is invertible but has no LU factorization. Do a suitable interchange of rows to get an
invertible matrix, which has an LU factorization.

(6) Use Cholesky factorization to solve the system of equations

x1 − 2x2 + 2x3 = 4,
−2x1 + 5x2 − 3x3 = −7,
2x1 − 3x2 + 6x3 = 10.

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 Tutorial Sheet 4
Numerical Linear Algebra
(Matrix Theory and Iterative Methods)

(1) Show that the norm defined on the set of all n × n matrices by

∥A∥ := max |aij |

1≤i≤n
1≤j≤n

is not subordinate to any vector norm on Rn .

(2) Let A be an invertible matrix. Show that its condition number κ(A) satisfies κ(A) ≥ 1.

(3) Let A be an n × n matrix with real entries. Let κ2 (A) and κ∞ (A) denote the condition
numbers of the matrix A that are computed using the matrix norms ∥A∥2 and ∥A∥∞ ,
respectively. Answer the following questions.
(i) Determine all the diagonal matrices such that κ∞ (A) = 1.
(ii) Let Q be a matrix such that QT Q = I (such matrices are called orthogonal matri-
ces). Show that κ2 (Q) = 1.

(4) In solving the system of equations Ax = b with matrix

" #
1 2
A= ,
1 2.01

estimate the relative error in the solution vector x in terms of the relative error in b.
Test your estimate in the case when b = (4, 4)T and b̃ = (3, 5)T . Use the maximum
norm for vectors in R2 .

(5) Let A and à be non-singular square matrices, and b ̸= 0. If x and x̃ are the solutions
of the systems Ax = b and Ãx̃ = b, respectively, then show that

∥x̃ − x∥ ∥A − Ã∥
≤ κ(A) .
∥x̃∥ ∥A∥

(6) Find the n × n matrix B and the n-dimensional vector c such that the Gauss-Seidal
method can be written in the form

x(k+1) = Bx(k) + c, k = 0, 1, 2, · · · .

(7) Spectral radius of a square matrix A is defined as ρ(A) := max |λj |, where λj ’s are
j=1,··· ,n
the eigenvalues of A.
(i) For any subordinate matrix norm ∥ · ∥, show that ρ(A) ≤ ∥A∥.
(ii) If A is invertible and if an iterative method of the form x(k+1) = Bx(k) +c converges
to the solution of Ax = b for any initial guess x(0) and any vector b, then show
that ρ(B) < 1.

8
(8) Write the formula for the Jacobi iterative sequence of the system

7x1 − 15x2 − 21x3 = 2,

7x1 − x2 − 5x3 = −3,
7x1 + 5x2 + x3 = 1.

Without performing the iterations, show that the sequence does not converge to the
exact solution of this system. Can you make a suitable interchange of rows so that the
resulting system is diagonally dominants?

(9) Let x(7) be the 7th term of the Gauss-Seidel iterative sequence for the system

3x1 + 2x2 = 1
4x1 + 12x2 + 3x3 = −2
x1 + 3x2 − 5x3 = 3

with x(0) = (0, 0, 0)T . If x denotes the exact solution of the given system, then show
that
∥e(7) ∥∞ ≤ 0.058527664∥x∥∞ .

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 Tutorial Sheet 5
Numerical Linear Algebra
(Power Method)

(1) The matrix

⎛ ⎞
2 0 0
A = ⎝2 1 0 ⎠
3 0 1

has eigenvalues λ1 = 2, λ2 = 1, and λ3 = 1 and the corresponding eigenvectors may

be taken as v1 = (1, 2, 3)T , v2 = (0, 2, 3)T , and v3 = (0, 3, 2)T . Perform 2 iterations
to find the eigenvalue and the corresponding eigen vector to which the power method
converges when we start the iteration with the initial guess x(0) = (0, 0.5, 0.75)T . With-
out performing the iteration, find the eigenvalue and the corresponding eigenvector to
which the power method converges when we start the iteration with the initial guess
x(0) = (0.001, 0.5, 0.75)T . Justify your answer.

(2) The matrix ⎛ ⎞

4/3 1/3 1/3
A = ⎝−4/3 −1/3 11/3⎠
2 2 −2
has eigenvalues λ1 = −4, λ2 = 2, and λ3 = 1 with corresponding eigenvectors
v1 = (0, −1, 1)T , v2 = (1, 1, 1)T , and v3 = (−1, 1, 0)T . To which eigenvalue and the
corresponding eigenvector does the power method converge if we start with the initial
guess x(0) = (3, −1, 1)? Justify your answer without performing the iterations.

(3) Use Gerschgorin circle theorem to determine the intervals in which the eigenvalues of
the matrix ⎛ ⎞
0.5 0 0.2
A=⎝ 0 3.15 −1 ⎠ .
0.57 0 −7.43
lie, given that all eigenvalues of A are real. Show that the power method can be
applied for this matrix to find the dominant eigenvalue without computing eigenvalues
explicitly.

(4) Use the Gerschgorin circle theorem to find the lower and the upper bounds for the
absolute values of the eigenvalues of the following matrices:
⎛ ⎞ ⎛ ⎞
6 2 1 7 −1 4
(i) ⎝ 1 −5 0 ⎠ (ii) ⎝ 3 −6 −1 ⎠
2 1 4 −1 1 5
Also, find the optimum bounds in each case.

10
 Tutorial Sheet 6
Nonlinear Equations
(Bisection, Regula-Falsi, and Secant Methods)

(1) Let the bisection method be used to solve the nonlinear equation

2x6 − 5x4 + 2 = 0

starting with the initial interval [0, 1]. In order to approximate a solution of the non-
linear equation with an absolute error less than or equal to 10−3 , what is the number
of iterations required as per the error estimate of the bisection method? Perform three
iterations.

(2) Let bisection method be used to solve a nonlinear equation f (x) = 0 starting with the
initial interval [a0 , b0 ] where a0 > 0. Let xn be as in the bisection method, and r be
the solution of the nonlinear equation f (x) = 0 to which bisection method converges.
Let ϵ > 0. Show that the relative error of xn w.r.t. r is at most ϵ whenever n satisfies
log(b0 − a0 ) − log ϵ − log a0
n≥ .
log 2
What happens if a0 < 0 < b0 ?

(3) Let {xn } be the iterative sequence defined by the regula-falsi method for the equation
f (x) = 0. If f (xn ) < 0 for all n = 1, 2, · · · and xn → α, then show that f (α) = 0.

(4) Discuss some instances where the secant method fails. Note that failure of secant
method results from one of the following two situations: (i) the iterative sequence is
not well-defined, and (ii) the iterative sequence does not converge at all.

(5) Let {xn } be the iterative sequence generated by the secant method that converges to
a root r of the equation f (x) = 0. If f ′ (r) ̸= 0, then show that

r − xn = αn (xn+1 − xn ),

where αn → 1 as n → ∞.

(6) Consider the equation x2 − 6x + 5 = 0.

(i) Taking x0 = 0 and x1 = 4.5, generate first 7 terms of the iterative sequence of the
secant method.
(ii) Take the initial interval as [a0 , b0 ] = [0, 4.5], generate the first 7 terms of the iterative
equations of the regula-falsi method.
Observe to which roots of the given equation does the above two sequences converge?

11
 Tutorial Sheet 7
Nonlinear Equations
(Newton-Raphson and Fixed-point Methods)

(1) Newton-Raphson method is to be applied for approximating a root of the equation

sin x = 0. Let α ∈ (−π/2, π/2) and α ̸= 0 be such that if x0 = α, then the iteration
becomes a cycle i.e.,
α = x0 = x2 = · · · = x2k = x2k+2 = · · · , x1 = x2 = · · · = x2k+1 = x2k+3 = · · ·
Find a non-linear equation g(y) = 0 whose solution is α.
(2) Let {xn } be the iterative sequence defined by the Newton-Raphson method for the
equation f (x) = 0 and r be a root of this equation such that f ′ (r) ̸= 0. If x0 is chosen
such that xn → r as n → ∞, then show that for each n = 1, 2, · · · there exists a ξn
between xn and r such that
f ′′ (ξn )
r − xn+1 = − (r − xn )2 .
2f ′ (xn )
[Note: This shows that the Newton-Raphson method converges quadratically]
(3) Give an example of a function f : R → R such that the equation f (x) = 0 has an
isolated real root with the condition that the Newton-Raphson method converges but
does not have quadratic convergence.
(4) To solve the nonlinear equation e−x − cos x = 0 by fixed-point iteration method, the
following fixed-point formulations may be considered.
(i) x = − ln(cos x) (ii) x = cos−1 (e−x )
Discuss about convergence of the fixed-point iterative sequences generated by the two
formulations.
(5) Let α ∈ R and β ∈ R be the roots of x2 + ax + b = 0, and such that |α| > |β|.
Let g and h be two iterating functions satisfying the hypothesis of the theorem on
fixed-point method. Consider the iterative sequences {xn } and {yn } corresponding to
two the iterating functions g and h given by
axn + b b
xn+1 = − , and yn+1 = −
xn yn + a
respectively. Show that the iterative sequences {xn } and {yn } converge to α and β
respectively.
(6) Let {xn } ⊂ [a, b] be a sequence generated by a fixed point iteration method with a
continuously differentiable iteration function g(x). If this sequence converges to x∗ ,
then show that
λ
|xn+1 − x∗ | ≤ |xn+1 − xn |,
1−λ
where λ := max |g ′ (x)|. (This estimate helps us to decide when to stop iterating if we
x∈[a,b]
are using a stopping criterion based on the distance between successive iterates.)

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 Tutorial Sheet 8
Interpolation
(Lagrange and Newton Formulae and Errors)

(1) Using Lagrange form of interpolating polynomial for the function g(x) = 3x2 + x + 1,
express the following rational function as a sum of partial fractions:

3x2 + x + 1
f (x) = .
(x − 1)(x − 2)(x − 3)

(2) Find the Newton form of interpolating polynomial for the data

x -3 -1 0 3 5
.
y -30 -22 -12 330 3458
1
(3) Calculate the nth divided difference f [x0 , x1 , · · · , xn ] of f (x) = .
x
(4) Prove that if we take any set of 23 nodes in the interval [−1, 1] and interpolate the
function f (x) = cosh x with a polynomial p22 of degree less than or equal to 22, then
at each x ∈ [−1, 1] the relative error satisfies the bound

|f (x) − p22 (x)|

≤ 5 × 10−16 .
|f (x)|

(5) If f ∈ C n+1 [a, b] and if x0 , x1 , · · · , xn are distinct nodes in [a, b], then show that there
exists a point ξx ∈ (a, b) such that

f (n+1) (ξx )
f [x0 , x1 , · · · , xn , x] =
(n + 1) !

(6) Let N be a natural number. Let p1 (x) denote the linear interpolating polynomial on
the interval [N, N + 1] interpolating the function f (x) = x2 at the nodes N and N + 1.
Find an upper bound for the mathematical error ME1 using the infinity norm on the
interval [N, N + 1] (i.e., ∥ME1 ∥∞, [N,N +1] ).

(7) Let p3 (x) denote a polynomial of degree less than or equal to 3 that interpolates the
function f (x) = ln x at the nodes x0 = 1, x1 = 43 , x2 = 53 , x3 = 2. Find a lower bound
on the absolute value of mathematical error |ME3 (x)| at the point x = 32 , using the
formula for mathematical error in interpolation.

13
 Tutorial Sheet 9
Interpolation
(Piecewise Linear and Spline)

(1) Let f be n times continuously differentiable function on the interval [a, b]. For any
x ∈ [a, b], show that the nth order divided difference f [ x, x, · · · , x ] is given by
( )* +
(n+1)−times

f (n) (x)
f [ x, x, · · · , x ] = .
( )* + n!
(n+1)−times

(2) For the function f (x) = sin(πx), find the value of f [1/2, 0, 1, 1/2].

(3) Let f ∈ C 2 [a, b] and let Fn denotes the piecewise linear interpolating function for
f with nodes x0 , x1 , · · · , xn ∈ [a, b]. If the nodes are chosen to be xj = a + kh, for
k = 0, 1, · · · , n, where h = (b − a)/n, then show that Fn (x) → f (x) for all x ∈ [a, b] as
n → ∞.

(4) Let f (x) = sin(x), x ∈ [0, 1] be approximated by the piecewise linear interpolating
function F2 (notation as above). Find the estimate (upper bound) for the mathemati-
cal error involved in the approximation (use infinite norm).

(5) Show that the natural cubic spline interpolation function for a given data is unique.

(6) Determine whether the coefficients a, b, c, d exist so that the function

⎧
⎪
⎨1 − 2x x ∈ [−4, −3]
S(x) = a + bx + cx2 + dx3 x ∈ [−3, 4]
⎪
⎩
157 − 32x x ∈ [4, 5]

is a natural cubic spline interpolating function on the interval [−4, 5] for the data

x -4 -3 4 5
.
y 9 7 29 -3

(7) Obtain the natural cubic spline interpolating function for the data

x 0 1 2 3
.
y 1 2 33 244

14
 Tutorial Sheet 10
Numerical Integration and Differentiation
(1) Let a = x0 < x1 < · · · < xn = b be equally spaced nodes (i.e., xk = x0 + kh for
k = 1, 2, · · · , n) in the interval [a, b]. Note that h = (b − a)/n. Let f be a twice
continuously differentiable function on [a, b].
(i) Show that the expression for the mathematical error in approximating the integral
0b
a
f (x) dx using the composite trapezoidal rule, denoted by ETn (f ), is given by
(b − a)h2 ′′
ETn (f ) = − f (ξ),
12
for some ξ ∈ (a, b).
(ii) Show that the mathematical error ETn (f ) tends to zero as n → ∞ (one uses the
terminology Composite trapezoidal rule is convergent in such a case).
(2) Determine the minimum number of subintervals and the corresponding step size h so
that the error0 for the composite trapezoidal rule is less than 5×10−9 for approximating
7
the integral 2 dx/x.
(3) Determine the coefficients in the quadrature formula
12h
x−1/2 f (x) dx ≈ (2h)1/2 (w0 f (0) + w1 f (h) + w2 f (2h))
0

such that the formula is exact for all polynomials of degree as high as possible. What
is the degree of precision?
(4) Given the values of the function f (x) = ln x at x0 = 2.0, x1 = 2.2 and x2 = 2.6, find
the approximate value of f ′ (2.0) using the method based on quadratic interpolation.
Obtain an error bound.
(5) For the method
4f (x + h) − f (x + 2h) − 3f (x)
f ′ (x) ≈ ,
2h
obtain an expression for mathematical error, arithmetic error, and hence total error.
Find a bound on the absolute value of the total error as function of h. Determine the
optimal value of h for which the bound obtained is minimum.
(6) Let f (x) = ln(x) (here ln denotes the natural logarithm). Give the formula for approx-
imating f ′ (x) using central difference formula. When we use this formula to get an
approximate value of f ′ (1.5) with the assumption that the function values f (1.5 − h)
and f (1.5 + h) are rounded to 2 digits after decimal point, find the value of h such
that the total error is minimized.
(7) Show that the formula
f (x) − 2f (x − h) + f (x − 2h)
D(2) f (x) :=
h2
gives approximate value for f ′′ (x). Find the order of accuracy of this formula.

15
 Tutorial Sheet 11
Numerical Ordinary Differential Equations

(1) Consider the initial value problem y ′ = −2y, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, y(0) = 1.

(i) Find an upper bound on the error in approximating the value of y(1) computed
using the Euler’s method (at x = 1) in terms of the step size h.
(ii) For each h, solve the difference equation which results from the Euler’s method,
and obtain an approximate value of y(1).
(iii) Find the error involved in the approximate value of y(1) obtained in (ii) above by
comparing with the exact solution.
(iv) Compare the error bound obtained in (i) with the actual error obtained in (iii) for
h = 0.1, and for h = 0.01.
(v) If we want the absolute value of the error obtained in (iii) to be at most 0.5 × 10−6 ,
then how small the step size h should be?

(2) Consider the initial value problem y ′ = xy, y(0) = 1. Estimate the error involved
in the approximate value of y(1) computed using the Euler’s method (with infinite
precision) with step size h = 0.01.

(3) Find an upper bound for the propagated error in Euler method (with infinite precision)
with h = 0.1 for solving the initial value problem y ′ = y, y(0) = 1, in the interval
(i) [0, 1] and
(ii) [0, 5].

(4) For each n ∈ N, write down the Euler’s method for the solution of the initial value
problem y ′ = y, y(0) = 1 on the interval [0, 1] with step size h = 1/n. Let the resulting
approximation to y(1) be denoted by αn . Show using limiting argument (without using
the error bound) that αn → y(1) as n → ∞.

(5) Show that the Euler’s and Runge-Kutta methods fail to determine an approximation
to the non-trivial solution of the initial value problem y ′ = y α , 0 < α < 1, y(0) = 0.
Note that the ODE is in separable form and hence a non-trivial solution to initial value
problem can be found analytically.

(6) Using the Gaussian rule determine a formula for solving the initial value problem
2
y ′ = e−x , y(x0 ) = y0 .

in the form 2 3
−(x − √h )2 −(x + √h )2
yj+1 = yj−1 + h e j 3 + e j 3

when the nodes are equally spaced with spacing h = xj+1 − xj , j ∈ Z. (h > 0). Let
x0 = 0, and y0 = 1. Using the method derived above, obtain approximate values of
y(−0.1) and y(0.1).

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