Newton's Divided Difference

jzellt · #1 $Old$ November 2nd, 2009, 11:05 PM

Not sure which forum to put this question, but hopefully someone can answer it...

Here is the data i'm working with:

I don't understand how to get the following divided difference table with the given data...can someone please explain

novice · #2 $Old$ November 3rd, 2009, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzellt $View Post$

Not sure which forum to put this question, but hopefully someone can answer it...

Here is the data i'm working with:

I don't understand how to get the following divided difference table with the given data...can someone please explain

Let's call the column containing -7, 5, 55, 188 column one.

$\frac{f(1)-f(0)}{1}=-7$ , notice: the divisor is 1.
$\frac{f(2)-f(1)}{2}=5$ , the divisor is 2.
$\frac{f(3)-f(2)}{3}$ , the divisor 3.

Let's jump to comlum tow.

$\frac{5-(-7)}{1+2}$ , the divisor is the sum the two divisors in the first column.

So on an so forth. The divisors follow the Pascal Triangle.