Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal

Department of Mathematics, Bioinformatics and Computer Applications

Mathematics - III (MTH 231)
Assignment #3 (Interpolation)

Instructions: Attempt all questions. Write your solution on the response sheet in your handwriting.
Write your name and roll no on each page. Your writing should be readable.

“Numerical analysis problems may have exact solutions, but the thrill of victory does not wait for their
discovery. It is enough to come close. Error is expected. Without it, we would be out of business.”
-Francis Scheid

1. Identify the interpolating polynomial of all degrees using the interpolation method of your choice
and identify the advantage of higher-order interpolation for the following information:

x 1 2 3 4 5
y 2 5 10 20 30

2. Find the missing value in the following table using the property ∆4 yx = 0

x 0 5 10 15 20 25
y 6 10 ? 17 ? 31

3. Calculate f (1966), using the appropriate formulae of interpolating polynomials of order 2 through
5. Choose your base point to attain good accuracy. What do your results indicate regarding the
order of the polynomial used to generate the data in the table? Moreover, also justify Choosing
your base point.

year (x) 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981

Sale in thousand (f (x)) 12 15 20 27 39 52

4. From the following table, identify interpolating polynomials of all degrees. Estimate the number of
students who obtained marks between 40 and 45. Choose your base points to attain good accuracy.

Marks No. of student

30-40 31
40-50 42
50-60 51
60-70 35
70-80 31

5. Find a unique polynomial of degree 2 or less, i.e., P2 (x) such that f (0) = 1, f (1) = 3, f (3) = 55
using Newton’s divided difference interpolation formula as well as Lagrange Interpolation formula.
Also, find P2 (2). Can we use the Newton Forward/ backward interpolation formula to calculate
P2 (2)? (Justify)
6. Apply Lagrange’s interpolating polynomials of order 1 through 5 to find f(5) with the help of the
given table. What do your results indicate regarding the order of the polynomial used to generate
the data in the table? Explain why the result differs from 25 .

x 1 2 3 4 5 7 8
f (x) 21 22 23 24 ? 27 28

7. Find f (0) by using Newton’s divide difference formula and Lagrange’s interpolation formula and
compare the obtained values with the exact value. (i.e. 20 = 1). Which formula gives a more
accurate value? Does Stirling’s formulae applicable in this case?

x 0 1 2 3 4 5 7 8
f (x) ? 21 22 23 24 25 27 28

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 8. The following table gives the values of ex for certain equidistant values of x. Find the interpolating
polynomials, and then the value of e0.644 using Bessels, Everett’s, and Stirling’s interpolation meth-
ods, respectively. Compare your solution with the true solution (Calculate True Error). Which
method gives better accuracy? Is the obtained value differ from the exact value e0.644 = 1.904081?
Justify.

x 0.61 0.62 0.63 0.64 0.65 0.66 0.67

ex 1.840431 1.858928 1.877610 1.896481 1.915541 1.934792 1.954237

To obtain the value of e0.614 and e0.664 , which formulae will be more appropriate? Can a single
interpolation formula provide more accurate results in both cases?
9. By means of Newton’s divided difference formula, find the value of f(15) from the following ta-
ble. Also, find Lagrange’s Polynomial and obtained f (15) from it, and compare values with those
obtained through Newton’s divided difference formula.

x 4 5 7 10 11 13
f (x) 48 100 294 900 1210 2028

10. From the following table, find the value of e1.17 using Gauss forward and Gauss backward inter-
polating formulae of order 3 through 6. Identify the method which provides better results in this
case. Compute true error to provide a better understanding of accuracy.

x 1 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20 1.25 1.30

ex 2.7183 2.8577 3.0042 3.1582 3.3201 3.4903 3.6693
√
11. Using Everett’s formula of orders 1 through 3 to find the value of 12516 and compare the obtained
values with the true value for each order

Marks
√ No. of student
√12500 111.803399
√12510 111.848111
√12520 111.892806
12530 111.937483

3x2 +x+1
12. Using interpolation, express the function (x−1)(x−2)(x−3) as a sum of partial fractions.

13. Find the distance moved by a particle and its acceleration at the end of 4 seconds, if the time versus
velocity data is as follows:

t 0 1 3 4
v 21 15 12 10

14. The following data gives the melting point of an alloy of lead and zinc where ‘t0 is the temperature
in degree Celsius (◦ C) and P is the percentage of lead in the alloy. Find the melting point of the
alloy containing 84 percent lead.

P 40 50 60 70 80 90
t 180 204 226 250 276 304

15. A second-degree polynomial passes through the points (1, –1), (2, –1), (3, 1), (4, 5). Find the
interpolating polynomial of degrees 2 and 3. May there be polynomials of higher degree (degree
more than 3) that will also fit in the data? Justify.
16. Find the pressure of the steam for a temperature of 142◦ C if the following information is available:

Temperature in ◦ C 140 150 160 170 180

Pressure in kg/cm2 3.685 4.84 6.302 8.076 10.225
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17. The area (A) of the circle of diameter (d) is given for the following values. Find approximate values
using interpolation for the areas of circles of diameter 82 and 91, respectively. Compare obtained
areas with exact values (True error).

d 80 85 90 95 100
A 5026 5674 6362 7088 7854

18. The estimated mean atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is given
in the table that follows, in parts per million by volume. Find the degree 3 interpolating polynomial
of the data and use it to estimate the CO2 concentration in (a) 1950 and (b) 2050.

Y ear 1800 1850 1900 2000

CO2 280 283 291 370

19. A robot arm with a rapid laser scanner is doing a quick quality check on holes drilled in a 15 × 10
rectangular plate. The centres of the holes in the plate describe the path the arm needs to take,
and the hole centres are located on a Cartesian coordinate system (with the origin at the bottom
left corner of the plate) given by the specifications in the following Table.

x (in inches) 2.00 4.25 5.25 7.81 9.20 10.60

y (in inches) 7.2 7.1 6.0 5.0 3.5 5.0

If the laser is traversing from x = 2 to x = 4.25 in a linear path, what is the value of y at x = 4.00
using the Lagrangian method and a first-order polynomial?

P oints 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
x 2.20 1.28 0.66 0.00 –0.60 –1.04 –1.20
y 0.00 0.88 1.14 1.20 1.04 0.60 0.00

Find the cam profile using all seven points and a sixth-order Lagrange polynomial.
20. Employ inverse interpolation to find the value of x when y = 0.3

x 0.4 0.6 0.8

y 0.3683 0.3332 0.2897
Rn 2
21. The following table gives the values of the probability integral y = √2 ex dx corresponding to
π 0
certain values of x. For what value of x is this integral equal to 12 ?

x 0.46 0.47 0.48 0.49

y 0.484655 0.4937452 0.5027498 0.5116683

22. The following values of the function f (x) for values of x are given: f (1) = 4, f (2) = 5, f (7) =
5, f (8) = 4. Find the values of f (6) and also the value of x for which f (x) is the maximum or
minimum.

23. Thermistors are used to measure the temperature of bodies. Thermistors are based on materials’
change in resistance with temperature. To measure temperature, manufacturers provide you with
a temperature vs. resistance calibration curve. If you measure resistance, you can find the tem-
perature. A manufacturer of thermistors makes several observations with a thermistor, which are
given in the following Table.

R (ohm) 1101.0 911.3 636.0 451.1

T (in degree centigrade) 25.113 30.131 40.120 50.128

Determine the temperature corresponding to 754.8 ohms using a first-order Lagrange polynomial.
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