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Numerical Methods(Short Questions) DCST S6

1. Round-off 2.46289 correct upto 3 decimal places.

Ans : 2.463.

2. What do you mean by Absolute, Relative and Percentage error?

Ans : Absolute error(EA ) = x T - x A

xT - xA x - xA
Relative error(Er ) = and Percentage error(Ep ) = T 100 , where xT, xA are the true and
xT xT
approximate values of a number.

3. Distinguish between Round off error and Truncation error.

Ans : Round off error occurs when a fixed number of digits are used to represent exact numbers whereas
Truncation error arises due to the replacement of an infinite process by a finite one.

4. Round-off .005658 correct upto 3 decimal places.

Ans : .00566.

5. If   3.14 is used in place of 3.14156, find the relative error.

xT - xA 3.14156 - 3.14
Ans : Relative error = = = 0.0005(approx.)
xT 3.14156

6. Round off the number 4.5126 to three significant figures and find the relative percentage error.

4.5126 - 4.51
Ans : Relative percentage error 100 = .0576(approx.), where, round off 4.5126 to three
4.5126
significant figures = 4.51.

7. If x  0.005 and y  0.001 be the absolute error in x = 2.11 and y = 1.15, find the relative percentage error

in computation of x + y.

u u
Ans : Let u  x  y.  u  x  y  x  y  0.005  0.001  0.006 .
x y

u 0.006
Relative percentage error =   .002(approx.)
u 3.26

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Numerical Methods(Short Questions) DCST S6

8. The following numbers are approximate and correct to its last digit. Find their sum.

351.9, 537.91, 36.252, 3.9134

Ans : Here, since the 1st number is known only to the first decimal place, we round off other numbers upto two
decimal places to get the required sum as 351.9 + 537.91 + 36.25 + 3.91 = 929.97.

9. Prove that    

Ans : Since f  x   f  x  h   f  x  and f  x   f  x   f  x  h  ,

We have,   f  x     f  x   f  x  h    f  x   f  x  h 

= f  x    f  x   f  x  h   = f  x   f  x  =      f  x  .

     .

10. Prove that   E  1 , where E is the shift operator. [The shift operator E is defined by Ef  x   f  x  h  ]

Ans : f  x   f  x  h   f  x  =  E 1 f  x  .   E  1

11. Show that E    E where E and  have their usual meaning.

Ans : E f x   Ef x  h  f x   Ef x  h  Ef x   f x  2h  f x  h

Ef x   f x  h  f x  2h  f x  h .  E    E .

12. Define the symbolic operator  and  , and find a relation between them.

Ans : f x   f x  h  f x  and f x   f x   f x  h. Let Ef x   f x  h, then   E  1 and

  1  E1.  1   1    EE1  1 .

13. Write Newton’s forward interpolation formula for three points.

s  s  1
Ans : y  P  x   y0  sy0   2 y0 .
2!

14. Which interpolation formula is suitable if argument x of f  x  is near the end of the table?

Ans : Newton’s backward interpolation formula is suitable if argument x of f  x  is near the end of the table.

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Numerical Methods(Short Questions) DCST S6

15. Define the term ‘Interpolation’ and ‘Extrapolation’.

Ans : Interpolation is the technique of estimating the value of a function for any intermediate value of the
independent variable while the process of computing the value of the function outside the given range is
called extrapolation.

16. Given two points x1 , y1  and x2 , y2  . State the linear interpolation formula in terms of these points.

x  x2 x  x1
Ans : Interpolation formula gives  x   y1  y2 .
x1  x2 x2  x1

17. The function for f 2  7, f 5  34 , f 7  62 by Lagrange’s formula is

x 3  10 x  1
a) x 2  2 x  1 b) x 3  x 2  10 x  10 c) d ) none of these
5

Ans : Do yourself.

18. What is thew major pitfall(drawback) of Lagrange Polynomial?

Ans : Lagrange formula has the drawback that if another interpolation value were inserted then the interpolation
coefficients are required to be recalculated.

19. What do you mean by divided difference? Why this is used instead of forward or backward difference?

Ans : Let y  f  x  be a real valued function of x in a finite interval  a, b and let yi  f  xi  i  0,1, 2,....., n 

be the functional values corresponding to the distinct nodes xi i  0,1, 2,....., n  not necessarily

equispaced. We define divided differences for nodes xi  i  0,1, 2,....., n  of f  x  as follows :

The first order divided difference of f  x  for x0 , x1 denoted by f  x0 , x1  and defined by

f  x0   f  x1  y0  y1 y1  y0
f  x0 , x1  =    f  x1 , x0  . Similarly, the first order divided difference of
x0  x1 x0  x1 x1  x0
y1  y2 y2  y1
f  x  for x1 , x2 is f  x1 , x2     f  x2 , x1  etc.
x1  x2 x2  x1

f  x0 , x1   f  x1 , x2 
Second order differences are f  x0 , x1 , x2    f  x2 , x1 , x0  etc.
x0  x2

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Numerical Methods(Short Questions) DCST S6

Important Note : Forward or Backward Difference Formula are valid only if the values of the function f  x  are

known for equispaced nodes xi  i  0,1, 2,...., n  . However, for Divided Difference Formula there is no such

restriction i. e. distinct nodes xi  i  0,1, 2,....., n  not necessarily equispaced.

20. State the condition for the existence of root of an equation within given range  a, b .

Ans : If f  a  and f  b  are of opposite signs, then there is at least one real root of the equation f  x   0

between a and b .

21. State the conditions under which Newton-Raphson method fails to solve a polynomial equation.

Ans : The initial approximation must be chosen very close to the root; otherwise the method will fail. Also the

method fails if f   x  = 0 or small in the neighbourhood of the root.

22. Describe numerical differentiation and integration.

Ans : Numerical differentiation is the process of calculating the derivative of a function at some particular value
of the independent variable by means of a set of given values of a function.

The process of evaluating a definite integral from a set of tabulated values of the integrand f x  is called

Numerical Integration.

23. Distinguish between Simpson’s 1/3 and Trapezoidal integration formula.

Ans : The Trapezoidal rule is the first and simplest of Newton-Cotes formulae. It is a two-point formula whereas
Simpson’s 1/3 rule is a three-point formula. The given interval must be divided into even number of equal
sub-intervals for Simpson’s 1/3 rule, since we find the area of two strips at a time. Simpson’s 1/3 rule gives
a much better accuracy compared to the Trapezoidal rule.

24. Write the error term of Simpson’s 1/3 rule.

h5 iv 
Ans :  f  , a    b  .
90

25. Write the error term of Trapezoidal rule.

h3
Ans :  f  , a    b  .
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Numerical Methods(Short Questions) DCST S6

26. Write the formula of 1st derivative at x  x0 for three equally spaced points.

 dy  1 1 
Ans :    y0  2y0  .
 x  x 0
dx h  2 

27. Define singular and non-singular matrix.

Ans : A square matrix A is called singular if A  0 otherwise A is nonn-singular.

28. State the use of pivotization in Gauss elimination method.

Ans : Gauss elimination method fails if any of the pivotal elements is equal to zero. When any one of the pivots
vanishes, we rearrange the rows and columns in such a way that none of the pivots is zero.

29. State Euler’s formula for differential equation.

Ans : yn  yn1  hf x 0  n  1h, yn1 

30. What is the advantage of Gauss Seidal method over Gauss Jacobi method?

Ans : Since the most recent approximation of the unknowns are used while proceeding to the next step, the
convergence in the Gauss Seidal method is faster than in Jacobi’s method.

Exercises :

31. The location of the negative real root of the equation x3  8x  5  0 is in between
a)  3,2 b)  4,3 c)  2,1 d) none of these.

32. If x  2.12 and y  4.11 having absolute error x  0.003 and y  0.005 , the relative error in the

computation of x  y is a) 0.0021 b) 0.0013 c) 0.0015 d) none of these.

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Numerical Methods(Short Questions) DCST S6

33. Table-I
x 0 1 2 3 4

f x  1 2 4 7 11

Table-II
x 1 2 5 9

f x  1 3 6 10

34. Using 3 point differentiation formula, f 1 is from Table-I is a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4

35. Using 3 point differentiation formula, f 1 is from Table-I is a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 d) 3

36. From Table-II , f 6  by Lagrangian interpolation is a) 6.0 b) 6.62 c) 7.01 d) none of these.

37. Find f x  as a polynomial in x by using the following table :

x 0 1 2 3

f x  1 2 11 34

5
dx
38. Evaluate  1  x by Trapezoidal rule taking h = 1, correct upto three decimal places.
0

2
dx
39. The value of the integral  x
using Simpson’s 1/3 rule is a) 0.693147 b) 0.69444 c) 0.69325 d) none
1
of these.

dy
40. Given  x3  y , y0   1 . The value of y 0.02  by Euler’s method correct upto three decimal places, taking
dx
h=0.01 is a) 1.0101 b) 1.0201 c) 1.0301 d) none of these.

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