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In mathematics, divided differences is an algorithm, historically used for computing tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions. [citation needed] Charles Babbage's difference engine, an early mechanical calculator, was designed to use this algorithm in its operation. [1] Divided differences is a recursive division process.
A difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. It was designed in the 1820s, and was first created by Charles Babbage . The name difference engine is derived from the method of divided differences , a way to interpolate or tabulate functions by using a small set of polynomial co-efficients.
Of course, only a divided-difference method can be used for such a determination. For that purpose, the divided-difference formula and/or its x 0 point should be chosen so that the formula will use, for its linear term, the two data points between which the linear interpolation of interest would be done.
This expression is Newton's difference quotient (also known as a first-order divided difference). The slope of this secant line differs from the slope of the tangent line by an amount that is approximately proportional to h. As h approaches zero, the slope of the secant line approaches the slope of the tangent line.
Left to right steps indicate addition whereas right to left steps indicate subtraction; If the slope of a step is positive, the term to be used is the product of the difference and the factor immediately below it. If the slope of a step is negative, the term to be used is the product of the difference and the factor immediately above it.
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In mathematics, Neville's algorithm is an algorithm used for polynomial interpolation that was derived by the mathematician Eric Harold Neville in 1934. Given n + 1 points, there is a unique polynomial of degree ≤ n which goes through the given points.
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