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Suppose we have a continuous differential equation ′ = (,), =, and we wish to compute an approximation of the true solution () at discrete time steps ,, …,.For simplicity, assume the time steps are equally spaced:
A quadrature rule is an approximation of the definite integral of a function, usually stated as a weighted sum of function values at specified points within the domain of integration. Numerical integration methods can generally be described as combining evaluations of the integrand to get an approximation to the integral.
Numerical methods for ordinary differential equations are methods used to find numerical approximations to the solutions of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Their use is also known as "numerical integration", although this term can also refer to the computation of integrals. Many differential equations cannot be solved exactly.
Stability is a measure of the sensitivity to rounding errors of a given numerical procedure; by contrast, the condition number of a function for a given problem indicates the inherent sensitivity of the function to small perturbations in its input and is independent of the implementation used to solve the problem. [5] [6]
The next, "corrector" step refines the initial approximation by using the predicted value of the function and another method to interpolate that unknown function's value at the same subsequent point. Predictor–corrector methods for solving ODEs
When one does not know the exact solution, one may look for the approximation with small residual. Residuals appear in many areas in mathematics, including iterative solvers such as the generalized minimal residual method , which seeks solutions to equations by systematically minimizing the residual.
One problem of particular interest is that of approximating a function in a computer mathematical library, using operations that can be performed on the computer or calculator (e.g. addition and multiplication), such that the result is as close to the actual function as possible.