November 9, 2020 – Physicspupil

If $f(x)=(x-1)(x+5)$ , find the values of $f(2)$ , $f(1)$ , $f(0)$ , $f(a+1)$ , $f\bigg(\displaystyle{\frac{1}{a}}\bigg)$ , $f(-5)$ .

Solution.

$\begin{aligned} f(2) & = (2-1)(2+5)=7 \\ f(1) & = (1-1)(1+5)=0 \\ f(0) & = (0-1)(0+5)=-5 \\ f(a+1) & = ((a+1)-1)((a+1)+5) = a(a+6) \\ f\bigg( \frac{1}{a}\bigg) & = \Bigg( \bigg( \frac{1}{a}\bigg) -1\Bigg) \Bigg( \bigg( \frac{1}{a}\bigg) +5 \Bigg) \\ f(-5) & = (-5-1)(-5+5) = 0 \end{aligned}$

On reflection.

Suppose you are given an unknown quadratic function $f(x;a_0,a_1,a_2)=a_0+a_1x+a_2x^2$ such that

$\begin{aligned} 0 & \mapsto -5 \\ 1 & \mapsto 0 \\ 2 & \mapsto 7 \\ \end{aligned}$

and you are asked to make polynomial interpolation.

$\begin{cases} a_0 + a_1 (0) + a_2(0)^2 = f(0) = -5 \\ a_0 + a_1 (1) + a_2(1)^2 = f(1) = 0 \\ a_0 + a_1 (2) + a_2(2)^2 = f(2) = 7 \\ \end{cases}$
$\begin{cases} a_0=-5 \\ a_0 + a_1 + a_2 = 0\\ a_0 +2a_1 + 4a_2 = 7\\ \end{cases}$
$\begin{cases} a_0 = -5 \\ a_1 + a_2 = 5 \\ a_1 + 2a_2 = 6 \\ \end{cases}$
$\begin{cases} a_0 = -5 \\ a_1 = 4 \\ a_2 = 1 \\ \end{cases}$

And then is the interpolated polynomial $f(x)=x^2+4x-5\qquad \textrm{\scriptsize OR}\qquad (x+5)(x-1)$ .

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Day: November 9, 2020

202011091423 Exercise 1 (Q2)